Lifeless - Wednesday 5 November 2008 (US)

And I thought Life was doing badly in Australia! Man Alive, they just switched slots in the US from Fridays to Wednesdays but the news was all bad. The only thinkg Life has going for it right now is that NBC has nothing in the cupboard.

Just as in Australia it is pummelled by Criminal Minds which is the night's top 18-49 network show. The other notable performers of the night were Bones and CSI New York while CBS' comedy hour remains in the toilet, NBC's Knight Rider has already dissappeared up the S-Bend.

So much for viewers seeking out lighter fare in tougher times - looks like it's crime procedurals all round folks!

Serious Trouble - Wednesday 5 November 2008

Memo to Nine, movies shown in midweek timeslots have not worked for years, and so it is with their latest Wednesday movie – Talledega Nights. It must be especially frustrating for Nine given that the lead in was the unstoppable Wednesday edition of Two and a Half Men, they must have thought some people would stick around for the comedy movie but clearly only 46% of their 8pm audience were interested in the prospect.

Even more damning is my memo to Ten, documentaries about Animals do not work – at least not on channel ten and here’s why

a) Animal or Nature docos appeal primarily to an older viewing audience
b) At any given time, channel Ten’s share of over 55 years old viewers rarely gets above 11% therefore it’s likely the intended audience would never have seen any promotion for the show.
c) The under 40 audience avoid these shows like the plague (hence the high numbers for two and a half men ever since Jamie Oliver showed up)

Ten is in serious trouble right now – there is no good way to spin it, their most popular program of the night was outside of Prime Time (the 5pm news), Neighbours posted a good result then the whole night fell in a heap, never lifting beyond it's 6.30 "high".

These are some of the worst numbers to come off the people meters for them since the introduction of people meters, ten need to use the summer for a complete reboot otherwise they will quickly see their share decline even further in the new year, just waiting for So You Think you can Dance and The Biggest Loser to pull them out of the hole is not going to be good enough – they need action ASAP.

Everyone's a Winner! (Except Nine, Ten and ABC) - Tuesday 4 November 2008

Yesterday's biggest program on Television was not even in Primetime - the 3pm broadcast of the Melbourne Cup drawing 2,156,000 people in the main capitals, pretty impressive given it doesn't include workplaces, in Melbourne alone where the day is a public holiday the race drew 1,042,000 people in their homes.

That race set Seven up for an all people blitz for the rest of the night - the biggest loser out of this was Nine taking a hot to all their time periods - especially the 8.30 hour.

Ten only got one show over 1 million, the always respectable NCIS, the show which is famously Idol proof in the US is proving to be Rafters proof here.

NBC's Presidential Heroes - Monday 3 November 2008

Last night's US ratings and NBC's Primetime Saturday Night Live special did huge business for the network cleaning up after the 9pm time period. CBS kept a steady ship with Two and a Half Men their best performer in both total viewers and demographics.

Best total viewer performance went to ABC's Dancing with the Stars which although helping Samantha Who? against Worst Week did nothing for the performance of Boston Legal vs CSI Miami, perhaps an indication as to why this is it's last season.

Lowering the Bar - Monday 3 November 2008

Wow, what a difference Australian Customs makes! These guys pack up and a whopping 600,000 viewers leave with them. Seven's replacement The Rich List (a last ditch attempt to save a one season wonder from the scrapheap) saw more than 700,000 viewers lost week on week.

The loss at 7.30 didn't help their 8.30 tentpole City Homicide (albeit a rerun) which recorded a timeslot loss against a first run fast tracked CSI.

By removing their factuals - Seven has essentially lowered the bar, allowing Nine to walk right over them.

Two and a Half Men pulled in it's usual good audience but the suprise was a timeslot win for Til Death finally over 1 million viewers, Nine can chalk up a win for sticking with this sitcom, unfortunately Til Death just got taken out of Fox's schedule for November sweeps - a move like that is NEVER a good sign - cancellation almost certainly follows so the Brad Garret sitcom is suddenly on the boil on it's home turf.

One of the weirder things to happen was the 9.30 timeslot. While Cold Case only retained 63% of it's CSI lead in, Bones retained a whopping 85% coming first in the slot with Andrew Denton's Enough Rope a close second.

While Nine jumped over the bar this week, Ten continued to limbo right on under it with nothing acheiving. Australian Idol had their best result on the night, but still copped a third place in the slot. Good News Week is struggling to get noticed at 8.30 - it doesn't help that runs against 4 Corners in what is a resurgent year for the ABC Public Affairs program, last night profiling the American state of Ohio in the lead up to tomorrow's presidential election.

A bright spot for Ten though was Will & Grace improving week on week by 12%, is it just a fluke or will Ten's health in the slot start to improve. Keep watching this space...