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TEN’s The Starter Wife got off to a better start last night than Cane a week ago.

After Cane only premiered to 648,000 TEN hurriedly shuffled its scheduling around to move The Starter Wife from 9:30 to 8:30pm, and dropped a planned second hour of the US drama in the process.The Queensland-based mini-series managed an improved 1.01m.

Meanwhile TEN continues to be selective and creative in reporting audience figures for the show, which it claims was “the No.1 show in 18-49 with a 54.5% share and pulling over 1m viewers.”

Wrong.

It was 54.5% in 18-49 in free to air commercial share. But what about The Chaser which had 1.2m?

TEN had 657,304 18-49yo viewers between 8:30-9:30 while the ABC had 605,223. That still puts TEN in front, but by the time you add up the other three networks 54.5% is a bit of a stretch.

Still, TEN press releases continually focus on the 18 – 49 demographic between 6pm-10.30pm, completely ignoring other demographics and the remainder of prime time which ends at midnight.

TEN claims advertisers are more interested in the earlier timeslot, but other networks give evening shares based on the full 6 hours.

6 Responses

  1. Am I the only one struggling to watch this show? I was reading an article today about it being Emmy award winning and I could only think as I watched tonight ‘how so?’

    I’m finding it hard to get past the fact that the show is based around a bunch of Aussies in a clearly Australian setting, trying to pretend they’re Americans in America. It’s like ‘oh, there’s that actor from…what’s that stupid comedy show called?’ …and there’s the mean girl from Looking For Alibrandi…

    Is it really just me?

  2. Whether primetime should run to midnight is a separate issue. All other networks gauge their evening shares based on 6pm-midnight. TEN opts not to, filtering its press releases with select material. It’s fine to say you received XX% in a demographic if its accurate. To ignore other free to air broadcasters and elevate your share, sorry, is just inaccurate. Advertisers want truth when deciding where to spend their money.

    Benjo, as you noted, there are actually ads on SBS too.

    Nathan, Starter Wife was shot here because its cheaper, with some Americans and the rest Aussies. Even Mark Holden had a couple of lines. Now it has been given a modest series run it will be interesting to see who returns and where its shot.

  3. Is this an American show or is it Australian? Or is it filmed in Australia with Australian background actors but with American main characters but just filmed here because of the weather?

    Im confused?

  4. 18-49 is used as the standard in America, as that is what advertisers want and what is hard to get. Also Ten base their percentages on commercial figures because there’s little, if any, advertising on public broadcasters. So 54% of people watching tv ads saw Ten’s tv ads between 8:30 and 9:30 last night.

  5. I agree. As far as I’m concerned, primetime takes place between 6pm and 10.30pm. None of the FTA networks seem to be bothered with airing anything worthwhile after 10.30pm anyway.

    Ten’s press releases though are a bit of a stretch.

  6. i dont see why primetime slot has to go till 12:00

    12:00 is not really primetime becaause not many people are watcing tv. unlike 7:00 till 10:30
    where lots of people watch tv!

    i reckon prime time should stop at 10:30 anyway

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