The Sun-Herald

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The ratings race: week 13

This blog is now history. Click here to read and comment on the latest update of TV audiences.

Updated 10 am Friday March 31
'Lost' is losing it. Seven can no longer dismiss last week's audience drop to 1.35 million as an effect of the Commonwealth Games. Last night 'Lost' attracted just 1.47 million viewers in the mainland capitals -- its second lowest figure for the year, despite a trailer which deceptively implied that viewers would see Kate in bra and knickers.

Would any reader care to venture an opinion on why half a million viewers have dropped off since 'Lost' was launched in February? Is there something missing from the continuing story this year? Could it be that the trailers Ten is showing for 'Medium' are more interesting than Seven's trailers for 'Lost' (or more truthful, at least)? Or is it simply that in the southern States, Nine put an AFL match against it and those Mexicans prefer brawn to brains and beauty?

Seven had the biggest audience share in Sydney, but the footy helped Nine to win the night nationally, with a prime time audience share of 31.3 per cent, while Seven got 29.5 per cent, Ten got 21.8, the ABC got 12.8 and SBS got 4.6. Seven news beat Nine news in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

Most watched shows Thursday night
1 Lost (7) 1.5m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.4m
3 Seven news (7) 1.3m
4 Home and Away (7) 1.2m
5 Las Vegas (7) 1.2m
6 Nine news (9) 1.2m
7 Medium (10) 1.2m
8 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.2m
9 Getaway (9) 1.1m
10 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
OzTAM mainland capitals, preliminary figures

Updated 10 am Thursday March 30

Last night offered a fascinating insight into the tastes and tolerances of Australians. It seems they'd rather watch patients being cured of bizarre diseases than prisoners being subjected to homosexual rape and torture with broken glass. If Michael doesn't kill T-bag soon, there'll be no viewers left for 'Prison Break'.

Until last night, 'House' on Channel Ten and 'Prison Break' on Channel Seven were neck and neck. But the most brutal PB episode yet drove thousands of viewers over to the curmudgeonly diagnostician. 'House' attracted 1.52 million in the mainland capitals, against 1.27 million for 'Prison Break' -- 400,000 less than its season average.

Some of the former PB fans escaped to the ABC -- the game show 'Spicks and Specks' had one of its best nights, with a million viewers, and the ABC had its best audience share for the week.

It does seem, however, that young Australians are less squeamish than their parents. With viewers aged between 16 and 39, the gap was much smaller, with Prison Break attracting 577,000 to House's 582,000.

Ten had its best night of the year and ended up as number two in prime time audience share -- a position usually held by Channel Nine. And Channel Seven was number three -- a position it hasn't known this year. The shares were Nine 27.6 per cent, Ten 27.0, Seven 26.3, ABC 15.1 and SBS 4.1.

Nine's total was apparently helped by an AFL match which showed only in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, while Sydney and Brisbane saw 'Without A Trace' (that'll teach Anthony LaPaglia to support soccer).

Most watched shows Wednesday night
1 Today Tonight (7) 1.6m
2 House (10) 1.5m
3 Seven news (7) 1.4m
4 McLeod's Daughters (9) 1.3m
5 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.3m
6 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
7 Prison Break (7) 1.3m
8 Jamie's Italian Escape (10) 1.3m
9 Nine news (9) 1.2m
10 NCIS (10) 1.2m
OzTAM preliminary figures

Updated 11 am Wednesday March 29
This column has already used the joke "Why is Ten scared? Because Seven ate Nine". Today we need to adapt it a little, because Ten has started to sink its teeth into both Seven and Nine in a way that neither of the big guys anticipated.

Nine's launch of 'Survivor: Panama' on Tuesday night was supposed to grab Ten's usual audience of 16-39 year olds. But instead of setting Nine on the road to recovery, it set Australia on the road to Springfield. As it turned out, the heroes of the timeslot were a slob, a larrikin, a genius, and a mother with blue hair.

Seven attracted 1.99 million to see Simone Warne voted off 'Dancing With The Stars'. That was 200,000 less than the usual DWTS audience in the mainland capitals. Where did those viewers go? A few of the older ones may have gone to 'Survivor: Panama', which attracted 1.05 million, but the younger ones headed for a new episode of 'The Simpsons', which attracted 1.08 million at 7.30pm.

This may be because Nine is showing Survivor seven weeks later than America, and the fans have already found out what is going to happen.

Seven won the night, with 35.2 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 26.8, Ten got 20.1, ABC got 12.7 and SBS got 5.2. (When The Simpsons were over, the under-40s returned to DWTS, which had the biggest share of 16-39s over the whole two hours).

It appears Nine has gained nothing from the Games. Nationally, its news audience has dropped behind Seven's again (although they are neck and neck in Sydney), and 'A Current Affair' is well behind 'Today Tonight''.

Seven regained its dominance on Monday with an audience of 1.95 million for 'Desperate Housewives', although Nine's 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire', still hosted by Eddie McGuire, managed a respectable 1. 33 million and Nine's nostalgia documentary series '20 to 1' attracted 1.36 million.

Ten is enjoying audiences above 1.3 million at 7pm each weeknight for the final episodes of 'The Biggest Loser', which guarantees that it will commission a second season. It's hard to imagine that 'Big Brother' will get numbers like that when it takes over the 7pm slot after Easter.

And now Ten has proved the wisdom of using 'The Simpsons' to plug all its programming holes. After 17 years, Springfield's most functional family is Still The One with viewers under-40.

For a change, we're going to list the most watched shows with Australians aged 16-39, to demonstrate how Seven and Nine are being nipped.

Most watched on Tuesday, viewers 16-39
1) The Biggest Loser (10)
2) The All New Simpsons (10)
3) Dancing with the Stars (7)
4) Futurama (10)
5) The OC (10)
6) Survivor: Panama (9)
7) Home and Away (7)
8) Rove Live (10)
9) Neighbours (10)
10) CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (9)
OzTAM preliminary figures

(With all viewers, The Bill got 840,000 in Sydney and 255,000 in Melbourne. Very few of them are aged 16-39).

Updated 10 am Tuesday March 28
If Channel Nine was hoping for an afterglow from the Games, it was sadly disappointed by last night's audience figures. Melbourne dumped Nine even more savagely than Sydney, so that Channel Seven won news, current affairs and the night (with 31.8 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine was on 27.4, Ten on 20.1, ABC on 14.4 and SBS on 6.3).

Nine's only consolation was a strong performance by Bert Newton's nostalgia show '20 to 1' and Eddie McGuire's 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire', both of which went swimmingly with viewers over 50.

That does not necessarily mean the viewers had been pining for Bert during his absence. At 5.30pm his 'Family Feud' was only able to draw 470,000 viewers against Deal Or No Deal's 860,000. But at least Bert did better than 'Six Feet Under', which drew only 440,000 at 10.35pm against Seven's 'Boston Legal' with 550,000. Will this make Nine feel justified in mucking around with its timeslot again?

Most watched shows Monday night
1. Desperate Housewives (7) 1.9m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
3 Seven news (7) 1.5m
4 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.4m
5 Home and Away (7) 1.4m
6 20 To 1 (9) 1.4m
7 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (9) 1.3m
8 Nine news (9) 1.3m
9 A Current Affair (9) 1.2
10 Commander in Chief (7) 1.2m
OzTAM preliminary figures

Updated 10 am Monday March 27
The Commonwealth Games closing ceremony was watched by half as many Sydneysiders (637,000) as Melbournites (1.3 million) last night.

Still, a quarter of a million more Australians have been watching TV over the past fortnight, and if Channel Nine can keep them glued to the box, it might just turn its fortunes around this year.

On an average night last week, 3,909,500 million people in the mainland capitals were watching free to air TV - a rise of 7 per cent on an average night in February.The biggest growth (11 per cent) was with males aged under 40, who are the group most likely to be distracted from television by the Internet, video games and DVDs.

Between the opening ceremony, with 3.5 million viewers, and the closing ceremony, with 2.8 million, Nine averaged 1.8 million viewers a night to its Games coverage between 7pm and 11pm.

Apart from attracting people who don't normally watch TV, Nine stole viewers from Seven and from the ABC, whose audience share dropped from the usual 15 per cent to below 10 per cent on the most exciting Games nights.

Although Nine lost more than $20 million over the 12 days, it was able to promote its forthcoming series to a new audience and bring thousands back to its nightly news.

Before the Games, Nine's Monday to Friday news was averaging 1.2 million in the mainland capitals, beaten every night by Seven's news, with 1.4 million. Last week Nine's news averaged 1.5 million to Seven's 1.4 million. The victory was particularly sweet because it included Sydney, where Seven is usually well ahead.

But the Games failed to lift 'A Current Affair' from the doldrums. Last week it averaged 1.1 million across the capitals, while 'Today Tonight' attracted 1.5 million. Even allowing for the fact that it was not shown in Adelaide, the overal result suggests many viewers got into the habit of watching Nine's news, then switching to Seven for 'Today Tonight', then switching back to Nine for the Games. This has implications for the future of Tracy Grimshaw, who took over hosting 'A Current Affair' from Ray Martin this year.

This week Nine launches only one of the shows it promoted during the Games -- Tuesday's 'Survivor: Panama' -- but next week it will launch the Lost-style miniseries 'Triangle' and the sexy British soap 'Hotel Babylon'. (Tonight the final series of 'Six Feet Under' goes to air at 10.35pm, but that's not the sort of show Nine bothers to promote).

Seven expects to rapidly regain the 200,000 viewers who moved from its hit dramas 'Desperate Housewives', 'Lost' and 'Prison Break'.

Ten kept its nightly one million for 'The Biggest Loser', and managed more than a million for repeats of 'House' and 'Law and Order: SVU'. With its target audience of viewers aged 16 to 39, Ten has barely felt any effects from the Games.

Nine won the week with a prime time share of 43.2 per cent, with Seven on 23.2, Ten on 17.7, ABC on 11.9 and SBS on 3.9.

Most watched shows last week
To Sunday March 26, in '000s
Sydney
1. Games Closing Ceremony (9) 637
2. Nine news Sunday (9) 552
3. Games nights average (9) 494
4. Friday night football (9) 434
5. Desperate Housewives (7) 422
6. Lost (7) 404
7. Nine weekday news (9) 398
8. Today Tonight (7) 390
9. A Current Affair (9) 378
10. Seven weekday news (7) 362
11. Movie - Ice Age (7) 357
12. Better Homes and Gardens (7) 356

Melbourne
1. Games Closing Ceremony (9) 1,292
2. Nine news Sunday (9) 759
3. United By The Moments - Games roundup (9) 700
4. Games nights average (9) 654
5. Games Sunday afternoon (9) 518
6. Nine weekday news (9) 465
7. A Current Affair (9) 441
8. Today Tonight (7) 403
9. Desperate Housewives (7) 393
10. Seven weekday news (7) 375
11. Lost (7) 357
12. Prison Break (7) 357

OzTAM

The Tribal Mind ratings report, by David Dale, is updated every weekday. Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind . Click here for details of Australia's favourite TV shows of all time. David Dale is the author of 'Who We Are - A miscellany of the new Australia' (Allen and Unwin).

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 02:24 PM
• Comments (286)

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

We are what we buy

by David Dale.
This column's job is to track changes in Australian society and offer fanciful theories on what they mean. We've just discovered some social shifts on which we need your input.

At first sight, they suggest that Australians are becoming more reckless about their health, less scrupulous about their personal hygeine, more pampering of their pets and their bottoms, more adventurous in their eating habits, and less respectful of national icons. But when we've laid out the data, you'll come up with a better explanation.

Every couple of years, the ACNielsen research organisation does a massive study of what Australians buy in supermarkets, and lists the Top 100 most purchased products. When this column discussed the chart last year, we said it painted this portrait of a day in the life of the average Australian family (mum, dad, two kids):

In the morning they deodorise with Rexona, shave with Gillette, absorb with Libra and wipe with Sorbent. They wrap the baby in Huggies nappies. At breakfast they sip Golden Circle fruit juice and Nescafe, pour Pura milk on Kelloggs Nutri-Grain and feed Pedigree pal and Whiskas to the pets.

For lunch they put Kraft slices on Tip Top bread and snack on Arnott's Shapes, Yoplait yoghurt and Cadbury chocolates, washing them down with Coca Cola. One family member puffs Longbeach cigarettes. For dinner they eat San Remo pasta with Leggo tomato paste and Bird's Eye frozen peas, followed by Peter's icecream with Goulburn Valley canned fruit. Then they brush with Colgate and switch on Home and Away.

That's still a useful checklist to help politicians and pundits distinguish between "the ordinary Australian" and those "unAustralians" they keep banging on about. But now we must confuse the issue by examining how shopping habits have changed in two years. See what you make of this:

Australians are buying less of ...
Vegemite
Lipton tea
Heinz baked beans and tinned spaghetti
Bega cheese
Pantene shampoo
Omo laundry detergent
Ingham's frozen chickens
Flora margarine
Continental packet soups
Marlboro cigarettes
(These brands dropped ten or more places in the top 100 chart between Nielsen's 2003 supermarket survey and its 2005 survey.)

Australians are buying more of ...
Primo smallgoods
Hans smallgoods
VIP chilled/frozen petfood
Smith's Crisps
Uncle Toby's snacks
Pepsi
Quilton toilet tissue
Energizer batteries
Winfield Roll Your Own tobacco
Champion Ruby Roll Your Own tobacco
(These brands rose ten or more places between 2003 and 2005).

What have we here? Waning commitment to heritage brands. A continental smallgoods boom. A decline in cleanliness. A rise in fatty snacking, soft-drink swigging and unfiltered smoking. Posher petfood. Thicker loo paper. And what are we powering with all those batteries?

Your guess is better than ours. Send us your explanation, below. The three readers who come up with the most interesting scenarios to encompass those changes will win a copy of the guidebook, Who We Are -- A miscellany of the new Australia by David Dale.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). His latest book is Soffritto -- A delicious Ligurian memoir. To join a daily discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 10:33 AM
• Comments (78)

Thursday, March 23, 2006

The ratings race: week 12

This blog is now history. Click here to read and comment on the latest update of TV audiences.

Updated 10 am Friday March 24

Ana-Lucia may be tough. She may be able to smash Sawyer. But she's no match for Jana Pittman. And Cathy Freeman leaves them both for dead.

Pittman's gold medal performance in the 400 metre hurdles last night kept 1.99 million viewers in the mainland capitals watching Channel Nine's coverage of the Commonwealth Games. Under the circumstances, Seven did well to hold 1.35 million for the story of how Ana-Lucia became leader of the second group of survivors in 'Lost'. (Back in 2000, Cathy Freeman's gold medal-winning run attracted 6.0 million).

Those who saw 'Lost' last night can now theorise that the mysterious group known as "The Others" deliberately pulled the plane off course (with that electro-magnetic generator?) and made it crash on the island, so they could recruit certain "good" passengers into their experiment.

By contrast, the plotline of The Games is becoming tediously linear. We predict that after next Sunday, Nine will take this show off air, or run it irregularly after 10.30 pm, forcing fans to illegally download The Games from the internet.

Nine won last night with 44.4 per cent of the prime time audience, with Seven on 26.1, Ten on 17.3 and the ABC on a pathetic 8.4 per cent (which gives a clue as to where most of the Games viewers are coming from). While Pittman was hurdling, 'The West Wing' sank to a new low of 295,000, while a repeat of 'Inspector Rex' on SBS drew 324,000 (but Rin Tin Tin rated better in the 1960s).

Most watched shows, Thursday
1 Comm. Games evening (9) 2.0m
2 Nine news (9) 1.5m
3 Today Tonight (7) 1.4m
4 Lost (7) 1.4m
5 Home and Away (7) 1.2m
6 Seven news (7) 1.2m
7 Las Vegas (7) 1.1m
8 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
9 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.1m
10 The Amazing Race (7) 1.0m.
(OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction)

Updated 10 am Thursday March 23

Wentworth Miller may be hot, but John Steffensen is hotter. Miller's return in 'Prison Break' on Channel Seven last night managed a respectable 1.19 million viewers in the mainland capitals, but Steffenson's performance in the 400 metres, as part of Nine's Commonwealth Games coverage, drew 1.89 million.

Seven and Ten must conspire to break Michael Scofield out of jail so he can join the diagnostic team of Dr Greg House. THAT would be an unbeatable combination.

Nine won the night, but its prime time audience share is shrinking every day. Last night it got 39.5 per cent to Seven's 25.0 per cent and Ten's 20.1 per cent.

Most watched shows, Wednesday
1 Comm. Games evening (9) 1.9m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
3 Nine news (9) 1.5m
4 Seven news (7) 1.4m
5 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
6 Prison Break (7) 1.2m
7 House (10) 1.2m
8 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.1m
9 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
10 Beyond Tomorrow (7) 969,000.
(OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction)

Updated 10 am Wednesday March 22

We've got it! The formula that will produce the highest rating TV series of all time. It's called 'Swimming With The Stars'. It's filmed in a pool. You get a bunch of medal-winning athletes to coach a bunch of faded celebrities in relay-racing, and the viewers vote off the ones who don't drown.

On Tuesday night a collection of old clips from 'Dancing With The Stars' attracted 1.3 million viewers in the mainland capitals against Commonwealth Games swimming that attracted 1.9 million. Potentially, that's a weekly audience of 3.2 million for our show. When Channel Nine steals the idea (it certainly beats any of the planned programs listed below), remember where you read it first. And we'd like to hear your suggestions for other formula-combinations that might grab ratings: Commander-in-Prison? McLeod's Saints? CSI: Wisteria Lane?

Nine won the night with an audience share of 42.1 per cent in Sydney and 49.9 per cent in Melbourne. And Nine's news beats Seven's news in Sydney -- the first sign that the Games are having spinoff benefits outside Melbourne.

Most watched shows, Tuesday
1 Comm. Games evening (9) 1.9m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
3 Nine news (9) 1.5m
4 Seven news (7) 1.4m
5 Dancing With The Stars (7) 1.3m
6 Home and Away (7) 1.2m
7 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.1m
8 A Current Affair (9) 1.0m
9 All Saints (7) 951,000
10 The Simpsons (10) 864,000.
The Bill got 836,000 across the capitals and 217,000 in Melbourne.
(OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction)

Last week Nine announced these imminent additions to its schedule:

Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice, in which the former Olympic skaters coach celebrities in routines, and the viewers vote them off, "with the contest building to an all glamour grand finale".

American Inventor, in which American Idol host Simon Cowell seeks examples of Yankee ingenuity.

Hotel Babylon, a comedy soap set in a London grand hotel.

Hello Goodbye, a "heartwarming" documentary series about people arriving and departing at Sydney Airport.

Survivor: Panama, the latest series of the pioneering "reality juggernaut", which starts next Tuesday.

Triangle, a miniseries in which Sam Neill plays an eccentric billionaire who tries to solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.

Two Twisted, Bryan Brown's series of spooky stories in Twilight Zone style.

The New Adventures of Old Christine, the latest sitcom from Seinfeld's Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Other programs foreshadowed earlier in the year by Nine are Rome, a miniseries about the rise and fall of Julius Caesar; two quirky sitcoms called Weeds and The War At Home; Close To Home, a 'Law and Order' style drama about sexy young prosecutors; Invasion, about aliens in a small US town; and E-Ring, a 'West Wing' style drama about military planning in the Pentagon.

Updated 10 am Tuesday March 21

Channel Seven may be questioning its wisdom in putting its Desperate Housewives up against Nine's Golden Girls. The women's swimming finals at the Commonwealth Games attracted 2.2 million viewers in the mainland capitals last night, while Lynette, Bree, Gabrielle and Susan attracted 1.4 million -- half a million fewer than last week.

The Melbourne-Sydney viewing difference was stronger than ever. The southerners watched Nine news ahead of their dose of Games, while the The Big Greedy watched Seven news and The Biggest Loser before splitting between the Housewives and the Games.

Nine won the night everywhere, but its prime time audience share in Sydney was 43.5 per cent (with Seven on 25.0 and Ten on 15.1) while in Melbourne Nine's share was 51.7 per cent (with Seven on 22.9 and Ten on 12.0).

Most watched shows, Monday
1 Comm. Games evening (9) 2.2m
2 Seven news (7) 1.7m
3 Today Tonight (7) 1.6m
4 Nine news (9) 1.6m
5 Desperate Housewives (7) 1.4m
6 Home and Away (7) 1.2m
7 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.2m
8 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
9 Commander in Chief (7) 1.0m
10 ABC news (ABC) 955,000.
(OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction)

Updated 12.30 pm Monday March 20

That old Melbourne-Sydney rivalry issue has reared its head again -- and Channel Nine is its latest victim. Nine was reconciled to losing more than $20 million on its 12 days of Commonwealth Games coverage, because it hoped there'd be "spinoff benefits" -- a chance to promote its new shows to a big national audience and bring viewers back to older favourites such as 'Today', 'A Current Affair' and the news.

The spinoff benefits are happening bigtime in Melbourne, where on Thursday and Friday, Nine's news and 'A Current Affair' easily beat Seven's news and 'Today Tonight', and on Friday, 'Today' almost caught up with Seven's 'Sunrise'.

But Sydney is rapidly losing interest in the Games, with TV audiences less than two thirds of the Melbourne figures. Nationally, Seven, Ten and the ABC are surprised at how well they are doing in what should have been Nine's Fortnight of Triumph.

On Sunday, Nine held 53 per cent of the prime time audience in Melbourne (with Seven on 17, Ten on 16 and the ABC on 12), but only 41 per cent of the prime time audience in Sydney (with Seven on 21, Ten on 18 and ABC on 16).

The ABC did particularly well on Sunday out of Sydney's flight from the Games, attracting 294,000 viewers at 8.30pm to its drama 'Ahead of the Class'.

At the same time, Channel Ten drew 316,000 to a repeat episode of 'Law and Order: SVU'. Between them, Ten and the ABC easily outweighed Nine's audience of 535,000 watching the evening session of the Games in Sydney.

Against Nine's Games coverage last week, Ten found that 'The Biggest Loser' and 'Medium' each attracted a million viewers -- which is barely down on their usual audience.

Seven opted out of the ratings race for three days, replacing its hit shows 'Prison Break' and 'Lost' with a lame science fiction miniseries. But its news and 'Today Tonight' were still national winners. On Friday, Seven's morning show 'Sunrise' drew 134,000 viewers in Sydney and 93,000 viewers in Melbourne. Nine's Today drew 84,000 in Sydney and 88,000 in Melbourne.

Seven gets back in the game this week with new episodes of 'Desperate Housewives', 'Lost' and 'Prison Break', although 'Dancing With The Stars' tomorrow will be a collection of old clips.

(Although the two weeks of the Commonwealth Games are classified by the ratings measurement agency OzTAM as an "official" ratings period, the advertising industry does not allow Nine to include its current success in calculations for advertising rates over the whole year.)

Will that be enough to save Nine from the onslaught of Seven and Ten?

The battle of the capitals: Most watched shows, week to Sunday March 19

Sydney
1. Games Opening (9) 908,000
2. Dancing With The Stars (7) 689,000
3. Opening countdown (9) 636,000
4. Games Thursday night (9) 563,000
5. Games Sunday night 535,000
6. Games Friday night 532,000
7. Desperate Housewives (7) 515,000
8. Games Saturday night (9) 507,000
9. Nine news Sunday 499,000
10. All Saints (7) 454,000
11. 20 To 1 (9) 442,000
12. The Biggest Loser Monday (10) 418,000

Melbourne
1. Games Opening (9) 1,549,000
2. Opening Countdown (9) 1,029,000
3. Games Saturday night (9) 737,000
4. Games Sunday night (9) 728,000
5. Games Thursday night (9) 727,000
6. Nine news Sunday (9) 715,000
7. Nine news Saturday (9) 694,000
8. Games Friday night (9) 654,000
9. Dancing With The Stars (7) 647,000
10. Desperate Housewives (7) 603,000
11. Nine news Thursday (9) 562,000
12. A Current Affair Thursday (9) 499,000
(Oztam)

The Tribal Mind column by David Dale appears every Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. You can read previous columns and a daily ratings update at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind . David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin)

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 10:26 AM
• Comments (180)

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

The Tribal Mind: Viewing, more or less

by David Dale.
There's a theory going round that Australians are watching less television than they did a couple of years ago -- that instead of celebrating the golden anniversary of our favourite form of entertainment, we are committing regular acts of infidelity with younger distractions such as the internet, the DVD and the video game.

The theory leapt into this column's mind when we noticed that on a recent Sunday night, no program was able to attract more than 1.4 million viewers in the mainland capitals. This looked like a transformation of the Australian way of life. Not so long ago, it was normal for several shows on any Sunday to attract audiences close to two million.

When you think of the legendary TV successes of the past 20 years -- SeaChange, The Block, The Comedy Company, 60 Minutes, Nine Sunday news, Backyard Blitz, the finals of Big Brother and Australian Idol -- you realise the one thing they had in common was the night they were on. And then, of course, there was The Sunday Night Movie, such a universal family ritual in the first four decades of television that it become known as "the national corroboree".

Is the recent Sunday decline part of a general drift away from television, or just a one night aberration? We decided to test the vanishing viewer theory, by comparing the first four weeks of the 2006 ratings season (before the Games started) with the first four weeks of the 2004 ratings season.

At this point two years ago, the most watched series were CSI (9) with 1.9 million viewers; Friends (9) 1.9m; 60 Minutes (9) 1.8m; Nine Sunday news (9) 1.8m; and Without A Trace (9) 1.6m. Doesn't that fill you with nostalgia for a kinder, simpler time? In 2006, the most watched series are Dancing With The Stars (7) 2.2m; Desperate Housewives (7) 1.8m; Lost (7) 1.6m; Prison Break (7) 1.5m; and CSI (9) 1.5m.

To measure total viewing trends, the boffins in the TM Research Laboratory averaged the number of people watching TV each night during the last three weeks of February and the first week of March. The results appear in the table below. Here's the essence of it: on a typical night early in 2004, 3,547,000 Australians in the mainland capitals were watching broadcast TV. Early in 2006, 3,506,000 people were watching.

Apparently 41,000 viewers have disappeared from free to air TV. BUT between early 2004 and early 2006, 160,000 more people started watching pay TV. When you put it all together, you get a rise in total viewing of 129,000, or three per cent. If you confine the research to viewers aged between 16 and 39, you find a similar pattern -- Nine down a lot; Seven up a lot; broadcast TV down a little; Pay TV up a lot; total under-40s viewing up 1.5 per cent.

So it would seem that Australians are not replacing a traditional medium with more modern amusements. We're just adding to the complexity of our entertainment diet.

AVERAGE NUMBER OF VIEWERS, 6pm to midnight
Station ..... 2004 ..... 2006 .... Difference
Seven ........ 0.87m .... 1.08m ... +216,000
Nine .......... 1.11m .... 0.96m .... -151,000
Ten ........... 0.81m .... 0.76m ...... -54,000
ABC ........... 0.61m .... 0.54m ..... -69,000
SBS ........... 0.15m .... 0.17m .... +54,000
All free TV .. 3.547m ... 3.506m ... -41,000
All pay TV ... 0.402m ... 0.562m . +160,000
Total TV ..... 3.949m ... 4.068m .. +119,000
(OzTAM, mainland capitals, first four weeks of ratings period)

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). His latest book is Soffritto -- A delicious Ligurian memoir. To join a daily discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 10:07 PM
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The ratings race: Week 11

This blog is now history. Click here to read and comment on the latest update on TV audiences.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Friday March 17

Melbourne enjoys the Commonwealth Games more than Sydney. The evening session yesterday was watched by 769,000 southerners and 601,000 Sydneysiders. Australians less enamoured of sport escaped into ghostbusting on Channel Ten and sexy gambling on Channel Seven.

Nine won the night with a prime time audience share of 45.8 per cent, with Seven on 20.7 per cent, Ten on 19.3, ABC on 9.5 and SBS on 4.8. But the Games are not helping NIne recover its former dominance in the 6pm news hour -- Seven news and 'Today Tonight' still beat Nine's equivalents. Nor are the Games much use at breakfast time -- Seven's 'Sunrise' drew 386,000 viewers yesterday to 214,000 viewers for Nine's 'Today'.

What Australia watched, Thursday
1 Commonwealth Games evening (9) 2.1m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.4m
3 Seven news (7) 1.4m
4 Nine news (9) 1.3m
5 Home and Away (7) 1.1m
6 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
7 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.1m
8 Medium (10) 1.0m
9 Las Vegas (7) 0.91m
10 Law and Order (10) 0.85m
OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction with final start and finish times.

Updated 10 am Thursday March 16

Aussies still love a spectacle -- 3.5 million of us in the mainland capitals tuned in to the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday night.

That figure (OzTAM's preliminary estimate) makes the ceremony the number three most watched show of the 21st century, just after the Australian Open tennis final of 2005 and the Rugby World Cup final of 2003 -- but well behind the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which averaged 6 million in the mainland capitals. (Click here for details of Australia's favourite TV shows of all time).

It was the biggest audience Channel Nine has achieved for any program this decade, but the triumph is more symbolic than financial.

Nine paid around $55 million for the rights to show the Games, and will spend at least $20 million on production costs. It is expected to sell about $55 million worth of advertising time. This week and next are officially a "non-ratings period", and any audience boosts over this time can't be counted towards the annual figures on which networks base their advertising rates.

Still, Nine may be feeling it was worth the $20 million it will lose on the Games just for the opportunity to promote its new programs to viewers who had been locked onto Seven in recent weeks. Nine's boss, Eddie McGuire, sent this congratulatory message to the channel's staff on Thursday: "We should all be proud of the broadcast, it looked fantastic, setting the scene for eleven great days of competition. Events like this when we all come together, is why we are 'Still the One'. This is the launch for the new generation at Nine."

Seven may feel that its decision to give up the fight for two weeks was vindicated when its alternative to the Opening Ceremony, a miniseries called Final Days of Planet Earth, drew only 444,000 viewers. But Ten managed a respectable 1.0 million for a repeat episode of House at 8.30pm, suggesting that not all viewers are suckers for sporting spectacles. (And the revelation that there are 444,000 hard core sci-fi freaks in this country will fascinate the pay TV industry, which would love to attract even half that audience. Is there a 24 hour sci-fi station in our future?).

Nine won the night, of course, with a prime time audience share of 51.6 per cent, followed by Ten on 17.4, Seven on 16.9, the ABC on 10.7 and SBS on 3.3.

The ceremony did best in Melbourne, where it averaged 1.5 million viewers, followed by Sydney with 888,000; Brisbane with 531,000; Adelaide with 316,000; and Perth with 237,000 -- a mix very similar to the way the nation watched last year's AFL Grand Final.

During the ceremony, Nine announced these imminent additions to its schedule:

Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice, in which the former Olympic skaters coach celebrities in routines, and the viewers vote them off, "with the contest building to an all glamour grand finale".

American Inventor, in which American Idol host Simon Cowell seeks examples of Yankee ingenuity.

Hotel Babylon, a comedy soap set in a London grand hotel.

Hello Goodbye, a "heartwarming" documentary series about people arriving and departing at Sydney Airport.

Survivor: Panama, the latest in the pioneering "reality juggernaut" series.

Triangle, a miniseries in which Sam Neill plays an eccentric billionaire who tries to solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.

Two Twisted, Bryan Brown's series of spooky stories in Twilight Zone style.

The New Adventures of Old Christine, the latest sitcom from Seinfeld's Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

(Tell us, below, if you think that lineup will save Nine's bacon this year).

What Australia watched, Wednesday
1 Commonwealth Games Opening (9) 3.5m
2 Pre-opening countdown (9) 2.3m
3 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
4 Seven news (7) 1.4m
5 Nine news (9) 1.3m
6 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.2m
7 Home and Away (7) 1.2m
8 House (10) 1.0m
9 The Simpsons (10) 1.0m
10 Temptation (9) 0.96m
OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction with final start and finish times.

The ratings race, updated 10 am Wednesday March 15

You can't stop the music, nobody can stop the music. The relentless march of 'Dancing With The Stars' towards world domination continued last night, with the audience in the mainland capitals rising to 2.27 million to see toetapping tennis trouper Alicia Molik voted off. Perhaps they were encouraged by this column's suggestion yesterday that the show improves the "emotional intelligence" of viewers (click here for that discussion).

Channel Seven won the night with a prime time audience share of 40.3 per cent (Nine on 21.2, Ten on 19.9, ABC on 13.5, SBS on 5.1) but is resigned to losing the next 12 nights as Nine begins its Commonwealth Games coverage.

What Australia watched, Tuesday
1 Dancing With The Stars (7) 2.3m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
3 All Saints (7) 1.4m
4 Home and Away (7) 1.4m
5 Seven news (7) 1.4m
6 Nine news (9) 1.2m
7 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.1m
8 The Simpsons (10) 1.1m
9 A Current Affair (9) 1.0m
10 ABC news (ABC) 1.0m
OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction with final start and finish times.

Updated 10 am Tuesday March 14

The combination of Andrew Denton and Bono should have attracted huge numbers to the ABC last night. Denton's last edition of 'Enough Rope', with Billy Connolly, managed 1.2 million viewers, and you'd have thought the leader of U2, one of the world's most successful rock groups, would be as interesting as the Scottish comedian. But according to preliminary ratings figures for last night, the audience was a mere 772,000 in the mainland capitals. What happened?

Apparently Bono's fans preferred the more conservative political stance of 'Commander in Chief', which drew 1.3 million at 9.30 pm. Perhaps the ABC needed to do more to let the fans know the interview was on -- it was a last minute replacement for a documentary on the middle east.

Otherwise, it was Monday night business as usual, with Seven drawing 31.1 per cent of the prime time audience, Nine on 27.7 per cent, Ten on 19.9, ABC on 15.1 and SBS on a high 6.2 (because of Mythbusters and South Park).

What Australia watched, Monday
1 Desperate Housewives (7) 1.8m
2 Seven news (7) 1.5m
3 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
4 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.4m
5 20 to 1 (9) 1.4m
6 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
7 Nine news (9) 1.3m
8 Commander in Chief (7) 1.3m
9 A Current Affair (9) 1.3m
10 Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (9) 1.2m
OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction with final start and finish times.

Updated 10 am Monday March 13

Something very peculiar is happening on Sunday nights. The end of the weekend used to be the time when Australians did most of their TV viewing. Until last year, it was normal for several programs on any Sunday to attract two million viewers in the mainland capitals. Last night, all programs were below 1.4 million.

Examine the most watched list for Sunday March 12, 2006 and you have to conclude that more than half a million people in the mainland capitals have vanished from the planet or have suddenly stopped watching TV:
1 Nine news Sunday (9) 1.4m
2 Seven news Sunday (7) 1.4m
3 Where Are They Now (7) 1.3m
4 CSI (9) 1.3m
5 60 Minutes (9) 1.2m
6 Ghost Whisperer (7) 1.2m
7 CSI Miami (9) 1.1m
8 Movie: Bringing Down The House (7) 1.1m
9 Clever (9) 1.1m
10 Life in the Undergrowth (ABC) 1.1m
OzTAM mainland capitals: preliminary figures, subject to correction with final start and finish times.

Nine won the night -- as it does most Sundays -- with 29.3 per cent of the prime time audience, followed by Seven on 28.9 per cent, Ten on 20.1 per cent, ABC on 18.5, and SBS on 3.2. But they were all slices of a much smaller pie. Where did the Sunday viewers go?

Australia's viewing pattern last week

After smashing Channel Nine into the ground for the first three weeks of the official TV ratings season, Channel Seven has decided to retreat from the field of battle. Seven believes Australians are so sports-mad there is no point in offering a strong alternative during Nine's exclusive coverage of the Commonwealth Games, so it is taking off some of its most popular programs for 12 days, starting Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, which is usually topped by 'Prison Break', Seven will counter Nine's Opening Ceremony with a science fiction mini-series, 'The Final Days of Planet Earth'. Ten's alternative will be a repeat of an old episode of House. On Thursday, Seven will replace 'Lost' with part two of 'Planet Earth'.

"Nine can do high jumps for a while -- well, a week and a bit, at least," Seven's corporate affairs director, Simon Francis, said yesterday. "We are taking a number of key programs out of the schedule this week, including 'The Amazing Race', 'Lost' and 'Prison Break'. Next week 'Dancing With The Stars' will be a retrospective of past programs, not an original episode in the current round."

Seven is confident its audience will return as the Games wind down, and will show new episodes of Desperate Housewives, Lost, Prison Break and The Amazing Race next week.

Last week, Seven attracted 30.0 per cent of the prime time audience, with Nine on 27.3 per cent, Ten on 22.3, ABC on 15.4 and SBS on 5.0.

Seven's top shows were 'Dancing with the Stars', which attracted 2.2 million in the mainland capitals, and 'Desperate Housewives' (1.8m); Nine had 'CSI' (1.4m) and 'McLeod's Daughters' (1.4m); Ten had 'House' (1.4m) and 'NCIS' (1.3m); the ABC had 'Poirot' (1.1m) and 'Australian Story' (1.0m); and SBS had 'Mythbusters' (544,000) and 'Inspector Rex' (429,000).

What Australia watched, week ending March 11
1 Dancing With The Stars (7) 2.2m
2 Desperate Housewives (7) 1.8m
3 Lost (7) 1.7m
4 Prison Break (7) 1.5m
5 CSI (9) 1.4m
6 Today Tonight (7) 1.4m
7 House (10) 1.4m
8 McLeod's Daughters (9) 1.4m
9 60 Minutes (9) 1.4m
10 Where Are They Now (7) 1.4m
11 Seven news (7) 1.3m
12 All Saints (7) 1.3m
13 Commander in Chief (7) 1.3m
14 Seven news Sunday (7) 1.3m
15 Nine news Sunday (9) 1.3m
OzTAM mainland capitals

The Tribal Mind column by David Dale appears every weekday on The Sydney Morning Herald website. You can read earlier columns at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind . David Dale is the author of 'Who We Are -- A miscellany of the new Australia' (Allen and Unwin).

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 03:59 PM
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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Warning: trash improves your mind

by David Dale.
Cast aside your guilt. Stop being ashamed of enjoying commercial TV shows, big budget movies, and fast computer games. Far from dumbing down Western civilisation, those mass entertainments are making us Better People.

That's the argument in a new book by American anthropologist Steven Johnson. The title says it all: Everything Bad Is Good For You -- How Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter (published by Penguin).

Johnson says hit movies such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and TV dramas such as CSI, Lost, and The Sopranos are far more intellectually demanding than their counterparts of 30 years ago. Reality shows such as Survivor and Big Brother are "elaborately staged group psychology experiments" that boost the "emotional intelligence" of the viewer: "Just as The Sopranos challenges the mind to follow multiple threads, the reality shows demand that we track multiple relationships, since the action of these shows revolves around the shifting feuds and alliances between more than a dozen individuals."

Video games such as Sims and Grand Theft Auto teach organisational skills and the fundamentals of scientific method - forming and testing hypotheses. Sitcoms such as Seinfeld and The Simpsons are crammed with tangential references and are as multi-layered as the richest poetry, because they are designed to be seen many times.

Johnson summarises the conventional wisdom of our day: "Pop culture caters to our base instincts; mass society dumbs down and simplifies. The rarer flowerings of 'quality programming' only serve to remind us of the overall downward slide .... to an increasingly infantilised society."

But the facts point to exactly the opposite conclusion: "The trend is towards greater cognitive demands, more depth, more participation. Think of it as a kind of positive brainwashing: the popular media steadily making our minds sharper, as we soak in entertainment usually dismissed as so much lowbrow fluff."

Take Finding Nemo, the biggest selling DVD of all time in Australia. "You can watch Finding Nemo dozens of times and still detect new information with each viewing, precisely because the narrative floats so many distinct story arcs at the same time. And where the child's mind is concerned, each viewing is training him or her to hold those multiple threads in consciousness, a kind of mental calisthenics ... Finding Nemo isn't the fastest selling DVD of all time in spite of its complexity; it's the fastest selling DVD because of that complexity."

OK, so far, so convincing. How might we apply the optimism of Everything Bad Is Good For You to the most popular piece of entertainment currently consumed by Australians: Dancing With The Stars?

1 Intellectually challenging? This is hard to sustain. The plotline is linear, the maths are simple and there are few layers of meaning to encourage a second viewing. However ...

2 Emotionally educational? We share the raw reactions of the dancers to the judges' comments and the viewers' votes. The embarrassment of Simone Warne in episode one was painfully fascinating.

3 Requiring active engagement instead of passive absorption? To participate in DWTS, you need to analyse the performances and phone in your judgement. Or at least figure out how you'd vote if you got around to phoning.

Two out of three ain't bad for a show that attracts 2.2 million viewers in the mainland capitals. Maybe Steven Johnson is right. Or does agreeing with him only prove we've been terminally dumbed down? Tell us your reaction, below.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). His latest book is Soffritto -- A delicious Ligurian memoir. To join a daily discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 09:41 AM
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Friday, March 10, 2006

The ratings race: Week 10

This blog is now history. To join the latest discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.
Ratings update 10 am Friday March 10:

Today we hear that Nine boss Eddie McGuire has accepted the resignation of Sandra Levy as head of program development for Nine. Is he creating a space for Bert? And if so, what kind of programs would Bert create?

Bert's Family Feud achieved a record low of 438,000 at 5.30pm yesterday. Thursday is now Bert Newton's worst day, possibly because that's when his most loyal followers go late night grocery shopping (unless they are expressing their irritation at the promo which makes BFF look like The Jerry Springer Show).

The problem for Nine is how to terminate BFF without causing distress to an ageing icon. The option we reported yesterday - extended sick leave - would be too implausible. Can you help? Send us your suggestions, below, on the best way for Bert to exit gracefully, and we'll pass them on to Eddie McGuire.

Meanwhile, Seven's Lost seems to be in recovery mode. Last week this column noted that half a million viewers had vanished on Thursday nights since it launched (with 2.1 million), but last night the audience was back up to 1.67 million. It only needed a bit of hot groping (between Sayid and Shannon) for the fans to start finding it again.

Seven won the night with a prime time audience share of 33.8 per cent, with Nine on 25.0, Ten on 23.3, ABC on 12.7 and SBS on 5.2.

Ten is delighted that The Biggest Loser seems to have settled on an audience of 1.1 million at 7pm, ready to hand over a bunch of under-40 viewers to 'Big Brother' after Easter. Seven is pleased that its "cult" cartoon shows are performing in their late night slots. American Dad managed 565,000 at 10.30pm and Family Guy managed 422,000 at 11pm - numbers any pay TV station would kill for (Fox 8 celebrates when The Simpsons get 80,000.) But 9.30pm seems too late for ABC viewers: The West Wing managed only 389,000 last night.

What Australia watched, Thursday
1 Lost (7) 1.7m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.3m
3 Seven news (7) 1.3m
4 Getaway (9) 1.3m
5 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
6 Las Vegas 1.2m
7 The Amazing Race (7) 1.2m
8 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
9 Nine news (9) 1.1m
10 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.1m
OzTAM mainland capitals

Updated 10 am Thursday March 8

Michael Scofield was smart to rescue the doctor from rape and murder last night, even if it did endanger his escape plan. Not only did he encourage her to fall in love with him, but he boosted the audience for 'Prison Break' well above its rival, 'House', which had beaten it last week. Or perhaps House's fans were driven away by that unfortunate diarrhoea incident.

Seven continued its run of good luck, winning the night with 28.8 per cent of the prime time audience, while NIne was on 26.7, Ten on 24.9, ABC on 15.0 and SBS on 4.6.

Ten was not depressed by the descent of 'House', because after 'Prison Break', the next six top programs with the 16-39 age group all belonged to Ten: 'House', 'The Biggest Loser', 'Bondi Rescue', 'NCIS', 'Jamie's Italian Adventure' and 'Neighbours'.

'Bert's Family Feud' continues to languish below 500,000 viewers at 5.30pm, encouraging much conspiracy theorising about how Nine will kill the show without embarrassing Bert Newton. The latest theory, as discussed in Amanda Meade's column in 'The Australian' today, is that Bert will have some kind of "health scare" during the Commonwealth Games, preventing him from returning to Family Feud when the Games are over. But the published speculation may force Nine to think of another (less kind) approach.

What Australia watched, Wednesday
1 Prison Break (7) 1.5m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.4m
3 House (10) 1. 4m
4 McLeod's Daughters (9) 1.4m
5 Seven news (7) 1.3m
6 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
7 NCIS (10) 1.3m
8 Beyond Tomorrow (7) 1.2m
9 Temptation (9) 1.1m
10 Nine news (9) 1.1m
OzTAM mainland capitals

Updated 10 am Wednesday March 8

Dance fever grips the nation. Last night 2.2 million people in the mainland capitals settled into a two-hour warm bath of schmaltz, glitz, and cheese, plus a splash of heartbreak (at least for footballer Luke Ricketson, who was voted off by viewers). Season four of 'Dancing With The Stars' is the most successful season so far.

Those who find the glitter too glary are seeking refuge in Springfield and in the year 3000 -- 'The Simpsons' and 'Futurama' do particularly well on Tuesday nights.Channel Seven won the night with a prime time audience share of 38.3 per cent, with Nine on 23.6 per cent, Ten on 20.9, The ABC on 12.6 and SBS on 4.7.

And still Nine is not revealing its programming fightback plans for after the Commonwealth Games (which are themselves looking less like ratings-grabbers now Thorpie has dropped out).

What Australia watched, Tuesday
1 Dancing With The Stars 2.2m
2 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
3 Seven news (7) 1.4m
4 All Saints (7) 1.3m
5 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.3m
6 Home and Away (7) 1.2m
7 Nine news (9) 1.2m
8 The Simpsons (10) 1.2m
9 CSI: NY (9) 1.1m
10 Futurama (10) 1.1m
OzTAM mainland capitals

Updated 10 am Tuesday March 7

In the middle of last year, about 200,000 Australians went to see 'Crash' at the cinema. Last night, five times as many Australians in the mainland capitals saw 'Crash' win an Academy Award as the Best Picture of 2005.

An average audience of 1.1 million over the three and a half hours of Oscar presentations was a tremendous result, but it didn't allow NIne to win the night. Channel Seven's hit show 'Desperate Housewives' barely blinked (suggesting that many viewers were channel-hopping during the ads). At 9.30, 'Commander in Chief' lost 400,000 of its viewers from the opening week -- not entirely to the Oscars, since 'Supernatural' on Ten rose from 657,000 last week to 812,000 last night.

Seven managed a prime time audience share of 32.2 per cent, to Nine's 28.4, Ten's 19.9, the ABC's 13.1 and SBS's healthy 6.4 per cent (largely due to 'Mythbusters', which pulled 544,000 viewers away from the Oscars).

What Australia watched, Monday
1 Desperate Housewives (7) 1.8m
2 Seven news (7) 1.5m
3 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
4 Commander in Chief (7) 1.3m
5 Nine news (9) 1.3m
6 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
7 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.2m
8 The Great Outdoors (7) 1.2m
9 A Current Affair (9) 1.2m
10 Academy Awards (9) 1.1m
OzTAM mainland capitals

Updated 10 am Monday March 6

All this year, Sunday night has been Channel Nine's oasis in the ratings desert that is the rest of the week, because Nine could always rely on '60 Minutes' and 'CSI' to keep its audiences up. But the oasis got smaller last night, as both Sunday stalwarts managed the (for them) modest figure of 1.4 million viewers in the mainland capitals.

Seven's 'Ghost Whisperer', newly moved to Sundays, took some viewers from '60 Minutes', while growing support for the ABC's Belgian detective Poirot meant diminishing returns for Nine's Las Vegas detectives.

Ten put out a release this morning expressing delight with the ratings for its new sitcom 'Everybody Hates Chris', which had been a big hit in America. An Australian audience size of 859,000 doesn't sound too impressive, but Ten points out that the childhood of Chris Rock provided the most popular program at 7pm with viewers aged 16-39, who are Ten's prime target. Perhaps the show's title should be 'Everybody Over 40 Hates Chris'.

After poor results for 'Courting Alex' on Mondays, the networks have been wondering if the very word "sitcom" has become a TV turnoff, rather like "Australian drama". A bad result for Chris would have discouraged Seven from showing its new sitcom, 'My Name Is Earl', any time soon. The test is how well the show holds up next week. We'd like to hear what you made of 'Everybody Hates Chris', below.

Nine won the night with a prime time audience share of 28.8 per cent, closely followed by Seven on 27.9, Ten on 20.7, ABC on 18.9 and SBS on 3.7.

What Australia watched, Sunday
1. CSI (9) 1.4m
2. 60 Minutes (9) 1.4m
3. Where Are They Now (7) 1.3m
4. Seven news Sunday (7) 1.3m
5. Nine news Sunday (9) 1.3m
6. CSI: Miami (9)
7. Poirot (ABC) 1.1m
8. Ghost Whisperer (7) 1.1m
9. Australia's Brainiest Radio Star (10) 1.1m
10. Movie -- Bruce Almighty (7) 1.0m
OzTAM mainland capitals

The way it went last week

A few tiny wounds are starting to appear on Channel Seven's apparently invincible army of new programs -- but they weren't inflicted by Channel Nine.

Half a million viewers have left 'Lost' since its opening night, and the new season of the Australian medical drama 'All Saints' opened with only 1.2 million, apparently because the episode had to start late when 'Dancing With The Stars' ran overtime (what you might call "friendly fire"). 'Prison Break', which launched with 1.9 million viewers, has now dropped back to 1.4 m, and was beaten last Wednesday night by Ten's 'House'.

But Seven is feeling no pain, because its latest reinforcements are making up for these weaknesses -- the nostalgiafest 'Where Are They Now' drew 1.5 million on Sunday and the American political soap 'Commander-in-Chief' drew 1.7 million on Monday.

Seven won the week with a prime time audience share of 31.5 per cent, followed by Nine on 26.6, Ten on 21.4, ABC on 15.6 and SBS on 4.9. That means Seven averaged 1.1 million viewers in prime time over the week, while Nine averaged 930,000.

Seven described this as its "most comprehensive non-Olympic victory since the introduction of peoplemeters" (1991).

The most watched show was Dancing With The Stars, with 2.2 million. Nine's top performers were CSI (1.5 million) and McLeod's Daughters (1.4 m). Ten did best with House (1.4m) and an elimination episode of The Biggest Loser (1.3m).

The ABC's hits were Life In The Undergrowth and Poirot (both 1.1m) and SBS celebrated Mythbusters (633,000).

How Australia watched, week to March 4

1 Dancing With The Stars (7) 2.2m
2 Desperate Housewives (7) 1.9m
3 Commander in Chief (7) 1.7m
4 Lost (7) 1.6m
5 CSI (9) 1.5m
6 Where Are They Now (7) 1.5m
7 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
8 House (10) 1.4m
9 Prison Break (7) 1.4m
10 Seven news (7) 1.4m
11 McLeod's Daughters (9) 1.4m
12 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
13 20 to 1 (9) 1.3m
14 Nine news Sunday (9) 1.3m
15 60 Minutes (9) 1.3m
OzTAM mainland capitals

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). His latest book is Soffritto -- A delicious Ligurian memoir. To join a daily discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 10:20 AM
• Comments (174)

Tuesday, March 7, 2006

The Tribal Mind: The enigma of the ulcer-makers

by David Dale.
The TV stations use the term "prime time" for the period between 6pm and 10.30 pm when 9 million adults in the mainland capitals are available to be seduced into watching Something On The Box. If a commercial network can tempt more than 1.4 million of them to stick with a particular program for an hour of prime time, it puts out a press release calling that show a Hit.

If the ABC can tempt more than 900,000 and if SBS can tempt more than 400,000, there'll be no press releases (because that would imply a vulgar preoccupation with ratings), but the H word might be mentioned in despatches at the national broadcasters' headquarters. (This week, for example, the ABC types would be smiling about Poirot, Little Britain, Spicks and Specks, Australian Story, Doc Martin, and Life in the Undergrowth, while SBS would be toasting Mythbusters and Inspector Rex).

This column's concern today is the other end of the success spectrum -- the shows Australians choose to avoid, thereby causing TV executives, very privately, to mutter the F word (as in "Flop", we hasten to say). For a commercial network, any program that pulls less than 800,000 during prime time is in serious need of replacement. For the ABC, the worry threshold is 400,000. For SBS, any audience is good news.

The shows giving TV bosses the biggest ulcers right now offer valuable insights into the mass mood of Australians, and that, of course, is this column's core concern. Please help us decode these anthropological enigmas:

1 Rove Live (10) used to attract more than a million viewers, but now, on Tuesday nights, it is stuck on 750,000. Ten noticed slippage last year, and promised more spontaneity in 2006. It didn't help.

2 The West Wing opened two weeks ago with 501,000 viewers for the ABC, but sank to 393,000 last Thursday. Did 108,000 fans suddenly realise they already owned this series on DVD? Or was WW hurt by the arrival of Commander-in-Chief, because there's only so much presidential politics Australians can stand? Some viewers hoped a success with WW would encourage the ABC to pick up other intelligent shows badly treated by Nine, such as Six Feet Under and The Sopranos. This now seems unlikely.

3 Smallville poses a similar problem for Ten, which bought this NIne series about Superman's high school years, with high hopes that it would suit Ten's younger target audience. But Smallville has managed only 702,000 on Thursday nights, making Ten reluctant to take over any more of Nine's fumbles.

4 Backyard Blitz (9) used to hold 1.9 million viewers on Sundays but now pulls a mere 942,000 on Fridays. Are Australians no longer houseproud? If so, how come Better Homes and Gardens attracts 1.1 million? Did Jamie Durie, like Rove McManus, lose his mojo?

5 Magda's Funny Bits (9) draws just 690,000 on Tuesdays, despite being hosted by Australia's most liked woman (according to the Q Scores popularity poll). Did she tarnish her image with those Jetstar ads? And will the awfulness of this show bump her from top spot in the next Q Scores report?

6 Supernatural (10) opened five weeks ago with 1.5 million viewers, causing this column to link it with the success of Ghost Whisperer and assume Australians wanted to see dead people in bulk quantities this year. But do they? Moved to 9.30 on Mondays, Supernatural has sunk to 657,000.

7 E.R., once a champion for Nine, has sunk to a mere 929,000 viewers on Wednesday nights, at a point in history when Australians are supposedly obsessed with hospital dramas (such as House and Grey's Anatomy). It's not yet an F word, but the shark is approaching.

8 Lost (7), with 1.6 million, is still a huge hit, but has lost half a million since its opening. Those viewers don't seem to have joined any other program on Thursdays. Where did they go? Are they off watching illegal downloads of later Lost episodes on their computers? And is that a vision of how Australians will be consuming all their American entertainment in the very near future? More and bigger ulcers are inevitable.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). His latest book is Soffritto -- A delicious Ligurian memoir. To join a daily discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 10:12 AM
• Comments (134)

Friday, March 3, 2006

The ratings race week 9

This blog is now history. To join the latest discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

Updated 10am Friday March 3

For the past year it has been looking as if Channel Seven must have done a deal with the devil, whereby everything Seven touched would turn to gold and everything Nine touched would turn to dung. But Satan, true to his traditions, has started to get tricksy, and the result last night was bad news for everybody.

Lost, Seven's hit drama from America, failed to recover from last week's low point of 1.6 million (after starting the year with 1.9 million). And the 300,000 Australians who have deserted Seven at 8.30 pm don't seem to have gone anywhere else on mainstream television, because Nine and Ten showed no improvement in their audiences. Perhaps the lost Losties are watching illegal downloads of future episodes.

The ABC had the worst news of the night: the audience for The West Wing, which it took over from Nine, has sunk to 393,000 (from a launch figure of 501,000). Perhaps Nine has stolen some ABC stalwarts by showing Midsomer Murders at 9.30.

Seven won the night with a prime time share of 33.9 per cent, followed by Nine on 27.5, Ten on 21.1, ABC on 12.1, and SBS on 5.4.

What Australia watched, Thursday
1 Lost (7) 1.6m
2 Seven news (7) 1.5m
3 Today Tonight (7) 1.4m
4 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
5 The Amazing Race (7) 1.3m
6 Getaway (9) 1.3m
7 Nine news (9) 1.2m
8 Las Vegas (7) 1.2m
9 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
10 Medium (10) 1.1m.
OzTAM mainland capitals

Updated 10am Thursday March 2

Australians seem to be growing frustrated with how long it is taking Michael Scofield to find a way out of jail. Not even a full scale riot could prevent the tattooed bank robber from falling behind the grumpy diagnostician in the audience figures last night.

After launching with 1.9 million viewers in the mainland capitals five weeks ago, Prison Break now attracts only 1.4 million, and is 20,000 behind House on Channel Ten. The writers had better get Scofield and his brother outside and on the run pretty soon, or Channel Seven will lose its stranglehold on Wednesdays.

Wednesday has turned into Ten's best night. House is surging ahead (especially with viewers under 40, despite Hugh Laurie being neither young nor hot). And four other Ten programs attract more than a million viewers: NCIS, Jamie's Italian Escape, The Biggest Loser and Bondi Rescue.

The ABC is pleased with 911,000 viewers for Little Britain and 904,000 for Spicks and Specks, because most of them are aged 16 to 39 -- a demographic rarely reached by the national broadcaster.

Nine's only comfort is that McLeod's Daughters is holding its audience. But, as they say around Nine a lot these days, everything will get better once the Commonwealth Games arrive.

Seven won the night with 29.1 per cent of the prime time audience, followed by Nine with 26.3, Ten with 25.9, the ABC with 14.7 and SBS with 4.0.

What Australia watched, Wednesday
1 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
2 House (10) 1.4m
3 Seven news (7) 1.4m
4 Prison Break (7) 1.4m
5 McLeod's Daughters (9) 1.4m
6 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
7 NCIS (10) 1.2m
8 Nine news (9) 1.2m
9 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
10 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.1m
OzTAM mainland capitals

Updated 10am Wednesday March 1

Australian drama may be sick, but it is far from dead. Last night Channel Seven launched a new series of All Saints, and attracted 1.5 million viewers in the mainland capitals. That makes the medico thriller/soap Australia's most successful drama series (followed by McLeod's Daughters on Nine, which gets 1.4 million).

Of course, All Saints has the advantage of the nation's most watched program as its lead-in. Last night Dancing With The Stars attracted a record 2.23 million, eager to see if Simone Warne could embarrass herself even more than she did last week. But sadism was left unsatisfied as Warne performed competently and the viewers voted off Molly Meldrum instead. Never underestimate the power of pity.

Seven won the night with a prime time audience share of 40.8 per cent, followed by Nine on 22.1, Ten on 19.4, ABC on 13.3 and SBS on 4.4.

What Australia watched, Tuesday
1 Dancing With The Stars (7) 2.2m
2 All Saints (7) 1.5m
3 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
4 Home and Away (7) 1.4m
5 Seven news (7) 1.4m
6 Nine news (9) 1.2m
7 A Current Affair (9) 1.1m
8 CSI: NY (9) 1.1m
9 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.0m
10 The Simpsons (10) 1.0m
OzTAM mainland capitals

Updated 10am Tuesday Feb 28
At last, Australians have found an American president they can admire -- even lust after. Channel Seven's launch of Commander-in-Chief on Monday night gripped 1.7 million viewers in the mainland capitals, an amazing success for a show that starts at 9.30pm.

The new-look, deep-voiced Geena Davis (best remembered as the skinny scatterbrain in Thelma and Louise) held on to all but 200,000 of the 1.9 million viewers who had joined Desperate Housewives at 8.30. That was only part of the bad news for Channel Nine's new boss Eddie McGuire. He learned that he's going to have trouble extracting himself from hosting duties on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Eddie had to present the show because he has so far been unable to find a replacement, and the result was an increase in audience. Millionaire attracted 1.3 million viewers against Desperate Housewives, which dropped nearly 200,000 on the previous week. Today Eddie may be repeating the words of Michael Corleone in The Godfather III: "Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in."

Seven won the night with a prime time audience share of 33.7 per cent, with Nine on 27.0, Ten on 18.7, ABC on 14.3 and SBS on 6.3.

What Australia watched, Monday
1 Desperate Housewives (7) 1.9m
2 Commander in Chief (7) 1.7m
3 Today Tonight (7) 1.5m
4 Seven News (7) 1.4m
5 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
6 20 to 1 (9) 1.3m
7 Who Wants To Be A Milllionaire (9) 1.3m
8 The Biggest Loser (10) 1.3m
9 Nine news (9) 1.2m
10 The Great Outdoors (10) 1.1m
OZTAM mainland capitals

Updated Monday Feb 27
Australia's love of mass destruction was not enough to keep Channel Seven ahead of Channel Nine on Sunday night. The viewers preferred forensic analysts with blue lights and a Belgian detective with waxed moustaches to meteorologists with wind machines.

Seven devoted three and a half hours to a telemovie called Category 7: The End of the World, but could only average 905,000 viewers in the mainland capitals. At 8.30, the storm was mopped up by CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on Nine with 1.5 million viewers and Hercule Poirot on the ABC with 1.1 million.

But earlier in the night, Seven discovered that nostalgia definitely is what it used to be. David Koch's Where Are They Now, with 1.5 million viewers, easily beat Georgie Parker's Clever, with 908,000. The heart triumphed over the head.

It was the ABC's strongest night so far this year, with 19.3 per cent of the prime time audience. Nine won the night with a share of 29.8 per cent, followed by Seven on 26.5, and Ten on 20.3.

What Australia watched, Sunday
1 CSI (9) 1.5m
2 Where Are They Now (7) 1.5m
3 Nine news Sunday (9) 1.3m
4 60 Minutes (9) 1.3m
5 CSI Miami (9) 1.3m
6 Seven news Sunday (7) 1.3m
7 Australia's Brainiest Housemate (10) 1.2m
8 Life in the Undergrowth (ABC) 1.1m
9 Agatha Christie's Poirot (ABC) 1.1m
10 ABC news Sunday (ABC) 1.0m
OZTAM mainland capitals

Last week's highlights
Bert Newton is a dead man talking ... and talking ... and talking. His Family Feud remains on air at 5.30 each weekday only because of the kind heart of Eddie McGuire and Channel Nine's inability to find a speedy alternative.

He started two weeks ago with a disappointing 678,000 viewers in the mainland capitals. By the end of last week the audience had dropped to 431,000 -- exactly half the number watching Deal Or No Deal, the Seven game show Bert was hired to destroy.

Back in Nine's ruthless heyday, he'd have been off air by now, replaced by reruns of Friends. But Nine has bigger problems later in the evening, so Bert will be allowed to keep talking at least until the Commonwealth Games in mid-March.

Bert's failure to deliver an audience to Nine's 6pm news was only part of the reason Channel Nine fell further behind Channel Seven in the second week of the "official" ratings season. Seven's prime time audience share was 31.3 per cent, while Nine managed 26.8 per cent, and Ten got 20.7.

Seven launched a new season of Dancing With The Stars, drawing 2.2 million in the mainland capitals, and exploited a growing enthusiasm for the Winter Olympics after 9.30 each night.

Now the Games are over, Seven is maintaining the late night momentum by launching the US drama Commander in Chief tonight, All Saints tomorrow night, and The Amazing Race on Thursday night.

Meanwhile Nine seems frozen like a roo in the headlights, apparently saving its programming push till after the Commonwealth Games.

As Nine sinks, the ABC rises. Its audience share of 16.3 per cent was up two points on the previous week -- largely due to Billy Connolly's appearance on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, which drew a rare 1.3 million viewers, Hercule Poirot (1 million) and the return of Little Britain (993,000).

On Thursday the ABC launched The West Wing, the US series it bought from Nine. The 90 minute showing averaged 501,000 viewers, which would be a poor result for a commercial network but not bad for the ABC, considering that many fans have already bought those episodes on DVD and it's hard to get the ABC's usual audience to stay up after 10pm.

How Australia watched, week to February 25
1 Dancing With The Stars (7) 2.2m
2. Desperate Housewives (7) 2.0m
3. CSI Sunday (9) 1.8m
4. Lost (7) 1.7m
5, 60 Minutes (9) 1.5m
6. Winter Olympics Tuesday (7) 1.5m
7 Prison Break (7) 1.5m
8. House (10) 1.4m
9 Today Tonight (7) 1.4m
10 McLeod's Daughters (9) 1.3m
11 Seven news (7) 1.4m
12 CSI Miami (9) 1.3m
13 Seven news Sunday (7) 1.3m
14 Home and Away (7) 1.3m
15 20 to 1 (9) 1.3m
OZTAM mainland capitals

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). His latest book is Soffritto -- A delicious Ligurian memoir. To join a daily discussion of Australian attitudes, go to http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.

• by David Dale in The Tribal Mind at 10:55 AM
• Comments (191)