2 Channel Universe – Sunday 9 November 2008

Last night’s top rating show was Dancing with the Stars which has grown stronger in it’s last weeks, but nowhere near the dominating highs of it’s Tuesday night run. Nonetheless Seven can be happy with a night where all their shows (including one heavily rerun sitcom) performed well.

Nine too can be happy, 20 to 01 now dominates the 6.30pm timeslot and 60 Minutes continues strongly, moreover it’s North/South strategy paid dividends last night with CSI Miami picking up the slack from their underwhelming Rugby League telecast.

Ten meanwhile have locked themselves out of the competition, they got a decent figure for Australian Idol and probably won in the important young demographics (wait for the press release I guess) but their showing last night reveals a schedule with more holes than they can patch.

First of all they threw in NCIS reruns to stop the leaking at 9.30, this has shown some improvement in the slot. Californication was only retaining a woeful 54% of Rove’s Audience, the first week in for NCIS they retained 68% of same audience, this week the Naval drama did even better with 84% retention.

After patching the hole that was 9.30 they then had to try to fix the drop from Californication to The Office by scheduling the International Edition of The Daily Show but their 11pm figures have barely budged – it’s a pity because it’s currently the best post 10.30 lineup on a Sunday night but did you know that – I’m going to guess that you didn’t because Ten don’t promote it! They never promote any show properly unless it falls between 7.30 -10.30 (with the exception of Neighbours) Ten need to advertise The Daily Show and The Office then maybe some people will tune in.

The other part of their night where they’ve sprung a leak is at 6.30 – Thank God You’re Here Reruns, which at times have won their timeslot against subpar competition are now struggling where they once flourished but why?

First of all Seven and Nine have better 6pm lead ins – The News. People will usually watch the news to start their night, now Ten nets a timeslot win by slotting their news at 5pm, but those people don’t stick around for Sports Tonight or The Simpsons – what can they do about this – either Put the Simpsons at 5pm, then Sports Tonight leading up to The News at 6pm or Move Sports Tonight to 4.30 then News then find an hourlong show (it’s a weekend so it can be rated PG) to show leading up to 6.30 – just a thought.

The bigger problem though is Thank God You’re Here – the show has been in reruns forever, it is produced by Working Dog – a group which doesn’t seem to have it in them to produce anything that runs for a long time. Apparently there is another season of 10 (that’s right folks 10) episodes on the way – better savour them I guess.

It’s not like the folks at Ten haven’t tried either to coax these burnt out geniuses back for more – I’ve read numerous reports over the last two years about the back forth dance between Ten and Working Dog over this show.

In the meantime Ten has used the show to plug a hole in their schedule – but by now everyone who wanted to see it has probably already seen it – all it seems to have accomplished is whetting people’s appetite for something light and breezy in the timeslot and Nine has delivered it with the newly hot 20 to 01, a show that has been on the air for roughly the same length of time as TGYH, has approximately similar production values and the same ‘forget instantly after watching’ quality.

Strangely enough the people behind 20 to 01 haven’t attempted to ration episodes or take a year off or ruminate in public on the difficulties of producing such a show, yet that’s all we’ve heard from the producers of TGYH and yet now their precious show, preserved in amber is in the ratings toilet, no doubt it will be fished out for 10 more glorious weeks in the sun next year after which Ten’s long term problems will still persist and 20 to 01 will still be going (twice a week no less)

Kicking and Screaming but no-one's paying attention - Saturday 8 November 2008

Well, another Saturday another viewing low. This time all and sundry found themselves just about trounced by the ABC.

Ten would have been kicking and screaming that nothing they try in these movie slots seems to work, although their Saturday viewership is marginally better than their Friday figures - that's two consecutive night's where vieweing levels sit below 700,000. While Seven and Nine attracted the kids in the 6.30 - 8.30 period, the ABC kept the old school enthralled with The Bill a British cop show which has been around since colonial times.

I have included some Sydney & Melbourne Charts for comparison seeing that Nine again split their schedule for the Rugby League World Cup - a competition that is proving less than attractive for viewers in the heartland of League.

Under the Ice - Friday 7 November 2008

Overall a better turnout last night than last week and most of the benefits were split between Nine and Seven with the newer Harry Potter movie posting a better number than it's well worn predecessors. Seven even did well with what is an ultra-violent action movie - something Ten hasn't been able to make work on Fridays.

No doubt they were helped by the fact that it was teaming down in Melbourne last night (the nation biggest TV watchers anyhow) keeping a good chunk of people indoors.

Ten, however, was unable to exploit with it's early evening numbers holding the network under the ice for the whole of Prime Time.

I watched Ice Road Truckers last night and it was good, interesting television. A documentary with a real sense of drama to it's story. I can say that for me it was better than anything else on at 7.30 Friday (and that includes Cable) but for some reason ten can't break through.

On any other network this show would be pulling 1 million plus but not Ten. Viewers also showed they prefer Harry Potter to X Men - but did people even know X Men was on?

Ten has got a real image problem right now - people just aren't giving it the time of day even when they've got something good to show.

Tenth Hour a shadow of it's former self - Thursday 6 November 2008 (US)

Thursday night is no longer the must see TV stonghold of days past. Survivor is the undisputed 8pm champion with 12 million tuning in, 5 million of those being under 40s. Incredibly watch how the total viewers rise for CSI whilst the 18-49 segment decreases! The reverse happens for ABC and NBC in the 9pm hour with Grey's Anatomy posting the biggest share of young adults for the night, followed by The Office.

The 10pm hour is just pitiful with nothing breaking through - in days gone by all the hottest shows with the most viewers were at 10pm, ER, NYPD Blue, Northern Exposure, LA Law, Law & Order, in fact 10pm was the drama hour - with shows registering audiences of 15 million up and sometimes up to 30 million, now the hour has more scripted dramas than ever before but nothing is standing out, to the point where even the faded ER is reaching more 18-49s than any of it's competition.

Seven Bones Nine - Thursday 6 November 2008

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this Thursday struggle was not how Seven has gotten it’s game back, or the fact that Criminal Intent (Ten’s quiet achiever) performs much better when Det. Goren is featured, but that Nine has completely fallen apart.

Obviously on a night with such low viewer turnout, large variations can be caused by small groups of survey homes but some of the falls are shocking, RPA fell by over 200,000 viewers week on week, Getaway by 81,000, The Strip by 146,000.

The 9.30 hour proves Seven’s dominance more than anything this year, moving in the middle of the road Bones, Seven has seen their 9.30 audience spike by 318,000, where did those people come from? Well at least 140,000 of them switched from SVU on Ten and another 178,000 let say from RPA on Nine. Diabolical.

Even more worrying for Nine is the performance of A Current Affair less than 100,000 viewers away from third place.

Seven moving Heroes to 10.30 has resulted in a week on week rise of 50,000 viewers from Prison Break (427,000) and a timeslot win, but at what price? Last night’s episode was the best the series has pulled out since season one and represents a bit of a turning point (for me personally) story wise with the ‘big picture’ starting to make more sense.

Just as with Lost, Prison Break, Scrubs et al we might be forever left to wonder whether the show ratings demise was a function of the show, or Seven’s erratic scheduling.

Finally lets briefly look at Ten, Criminal Intent has been a solid achiever for then in the second half, well promoted, regularly scheduled it’s fan base has reconnected with the show after at least 2 seasons in the wilderness which is good news for Ten, expect this night to remain in the hands of the Law & Order franchise next year.

However, the 7.30 timeslot is totally up for grabs, the low ratings for all shows suggest that at 7.30 Thursday: what networks are offering, the viewers ain’t buying.

You have a cookie-cutter reality comp vs an ageing travelougue vs Rove McManus hosting a game show. Where is the fucking entertainment here people??? No wonder Kerry O’Brien draws even with this mob, first one to put something scripted in this slot should win it hands down.

Finally Will & Grace, now this is a story with two sides, first of all, Week on Week the show is up by 134,000 viewers, that’s good, it demonstrates that people are discovering the show, and none of the other 7pm shows are down on last weeks figures by any great margin so it suggests new viewers coming to the TV, now we have to wait before we can declare a trend but it’s a positive step.

Now, lets look at the other side of the coin, The Simpsons last night attracted 638,000 viewers at 6pm – that’s it’s highest audience in forever, Then the Neighbours crowd came along swelling this number by a further 148,000 people, then 7pm comes and whoosh they lose 210,000 viewers just like that – Ten’s 7pm show does worse than their 6pm show (at least last night)

So what should ten do? Well for now – sit tight, it’s almost summer, clearly someone has already made the decision not to schedule Out of the Blue at 7pm so they’ll stick with Will & Grace, nine will switch to Temptation and Ten’s sitcom may get a good run, maybe, but they’re fast running out of options for this slot.