Share the wealth

Been busy the last few days so only time for a quick round up of the action.

We find on Saturday, Sunday and Monday each of the networks getting a turn at winning.


Nine shrewdly took out Saturday and by extension the preceding week by scheduling a last minute tribute to Michael Jackson, both Seven and Ten were locked into sporting commitments giving Nine the upper hand with a more flexible schedule to respond to current events.


On Sunday it was Ten’s turn to shine, mostly thanks to Masterchef, not only the show itself but booking one of its stars (Matt Preston) to guest and leaving him till late in the show ensured a massive turnout, one of Rove’s biggest ever and certainly the biggest this year. I’m interested to see whether the Masterchef crowd liked what they saw and whether they’ll stick around in the following weeks.

Monday night Seven showed some flexibility with a Michael Jackson special of their own – this one produced before the singer’s death in support of his upcoming UK tour, while held down in the 7.30 half hour by Masterchef, after 8 it rated it’s socks off delivering big blows to Recruits and Australian Story (though Nine’s Big Bang theory was actually a vast improvement on their previous week’s ratings at 8pm) and ensuring a staggering 1.8 million people witnessed an extended promo for The World’s Strictest Parents, making the 2 minute short the top show of the night, that’s a hard debut to top whenever that show bows!

A Credible Alternative

Friday turned out to be big for Seven with the AFL back in force after the split round giving them the edge to dominate the night.

Masterchef is still causing them headaches between 7 and 8 and So You Think You Can Dance is going in the right direction increasing by 6 percent, still not enough to get infront of Nine's Live NRL or Seven's AFL but it's now beating the alternative movies in the various markets

In the southern markets
Catch & Release 370,000
So You Think You Can Dance 473,000

In the northern markets
The Stepford Wives 324,000
So You Think You Can Dance 382,000

So although it's no match for football it is a credible alternative, moreso than Law & Order which it replaced.

Speaking of the venerable crime drama, ten quickly swapped the 10pm rerun for a CBS News special on Michael Jackson at 10pm last night and in 10pm terms, it did very, very well up 48.86% on the previous week's Criminal Intent rerun!

Thrilling, Dangerous maybe, but not Invincible

Woah what a day, today (Friday AEST) turned out to be!

Before I get onto that a quick rundown of the ratings, with some slight improvement for Rules of Engagement and Seven logging a win over Getaway with the combo of Thank God/Ghost Whisperer at 7.30.

Meanwhile Nine's Trouble in Paradise got off to a good start with very close timeslot win over Grey's Anatomy and a special mention to The Footy Show which actually won all its markets.

Anywa, nevermind any of that. Michael Jackson, a musician I grew up idolising, suddenly passing away from a heart attack is quite possibly the celebrity story of the year and something I gotta admit - I didn't see coming.

A lot can be said about Jackson, a lot good, and an awful lot bad, so let me just say this...

I highly doubt, given our fast moving increasingly fragmented culture, that we'll ever again see a singer with the singular star power of Michael Jackson.

Ten has a special tonight, Nine has one tomorrow (on Saturday), Music Max and VH1 have been running compilations of his video clips (I just saw the video to Man in the Mirror for the first time) and the news channels are 24/7 with this news and its associated developments.

Nine, which even after State of Origin was on a hiding to third place for the week will probably come out first on the strength of their outstanding coverage tonight as well as their special on Saturday night.

Historically Jackson has always been a ratings draw, I remember when I first started paying attention to ratings and ten had shown an Oprah special in Prime Time where she interviewed the singer - it rated through the roof, which for Ten in 1993 was a rare occurrence. Nine used to preempt popular shows whenever a new clip would debut so Richard Wilkins could host the exclusive premiere in primetime, and even after the thrill had gone there was still an unending appetite for programs as diverse as documentaries on his plastic surgeries to that landmark interview with Martin Bashir which marked the tipping point where Jackson's insane lifestyle started to come crashing down.

This is one of the less coherent blogs I've done in a while, not in a snarky mood I guess, there's all sort of memories and issues to sift through - and if you're anywhere near a media source you'll certainly have your chance over the next few days, but take a moment to appreciate the music

If you've never seen the video to Smooth Criminal do yourself a favour and check this out...

Fight or Flight

Real quick blog on last night's action

When ever you have a major event on one of the networks, especially one on a weekday, the opposing nets have to consider their best option, fight or flight.

State of Origin has always been huge but it has been only recently that Nine has started airing the game live in southern states, even so both Seven and Ten gave a little bit of fight and a little bit of flight - and here's what happened...

7.30 hour up against Nine's Pre-Match and the Game proper
Ten aired Masterchef (a 90 minute special from 7pm) in all markets, this may go down as one of the boldest moves ever made against State of Origin and it paid off big time, beating Nine's pre-match coverage and becoming the number 2 show of the night helping ten to a number two overall and emphatic nightly wins in all the southern markets.

Seven aired Thank God You're Here in southern markets with Ghost Whisperer subbing in Sydney and Brisbane, Thank God will bow in Ghost Whisperer's slot this week for those markets. This was less successful, although Thank God came second in the southern markets, the female friendly alternative of Ghost Whisperer didn't raise a murmur in League heartland. Given the steamroller effect of Masterchef perhaps seven should consider moving their big 'investment' to another night in all markets.

8.30 hour
The only real competition here was from the ABC whose 8.30 hour barely missed a beat from two weeks ago, The Chaser (which last time it aired was also against Origin) was down a negligible 8,000 viewers, hardly a sign of community outrage, we'll see whether it lifts next week unencumbered by League or whether this is it's new level, presumably any advocates for sick children will be enthused to hear Nine has slotted RPA as competition in this slot for future weeks.

Ten switched from fight to flight with a new SVU in the south and a rerun Criminal Intent in the north, it got them into 3rd place in the slot, just.

Even SBS are knocking on the door

You can imagine that Seven will be pleased that NCIS just had it’s season finale and their own Rafters is coming back soon, the beating they are taking on Tuesdays is pretty harsh though a lot of their troubles can be explained by a weak 9.30 hour – don’t expect a second season of 10 Years Younger in 10 Days, the show only barely managed to beat HomeMADE something which must be sending shivers down the spines of the powers that be.

Although Ten will keep NCIS on in reruns (why wouldn’t you with ratings like that) the return of Seven’s megahit should get them over the line on the Tuesdays to come.

Seven’s woes on Tuesday, however, are chickenfeed compared to Nine’s structural problems.

HomeMADE, meanwhile continues to sink, it’s not enough that Seven’s factuals and Ten’s quiz show are kicking the reality skein – now Kezza has joined in on the fray with Utegate adding the 7.30 report to the list of shows HomeMADE can’t challenge!

It was worse for Two and a Half Men, all three editions of the sitcom were beaten by Auntie and they want to add more episodes on a Wednesday!?

Tuesday 23 June 2009

Going Up
Grand Designs up 45.35% on Around the World in 80 Gardens
Lateline up 23.15% week on week
The Simpsons 6pm rebroadcast up 14.16%
HomeMADE elimination up 12.78%
7.30 Report up 11.07%
Masterchef ip 8.59%
Neighbours up 5.39%

Going Down
Two and a Half Men ® 8.30 down 11.5%, 9pm down 8.52% 7pm down 6.48%
Today Tonight down 10.89% week on week
The Zoo down 9.95%
Home Made 7.30 down 7.56%