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TEN’s tears for Idol

Idol sent three photos of a tearful 16yo to media yesterday. But it's TEN who should be sobbing over the ratings.

Cheer up Tom Williams, Channel TEN is crying a lot more than you today after Australian Idol’s lousy Monday performance in the ratings.

TEN finished fourth again (it seems to be pretty regular for Mondays) with just 15.5% share for the evening. Only 893,000 viewers tuned in for the verdict show. Not only was it beaten by The Force, Border Security, Top Gear Australia and Australian Story -it was even beaten by Top Gear Australia in the all important 16 – 39 demographic.

Worse was to follow with 90210 attracting only 616,000, but a better grip on 16-39yos finishing #4 overall for the night in that demographic.

Meanwhile, Top Gear Australia managed 933,000 which was down on an old UK version the week before (939,000). Given all the hype, the network would have been hoping to crack the 1m mark.

Nine should be pleased with 709,000 viewers average for a four hour miniseries. But despite a significant drop for Border Security it was Seven’s night again.

For the second week running, Idol sent TV Tonight photos of a tearful 16yo eliminated from its show (3 of Tom being consoled by Marcia). While it may be the moment of drama captured, it seems a merciless way to publicise the show. Where was the photo celebrating his achievement for making it so far? What does this say about the show’s editorial position?

Meanwhile, calls to lift the age of reality contestants from 16 to 18 go begging….

Week 40

33 Responses

  1. The verdict show is too long and painful to watch. I usually just watch the last 2 minutes – if that – to see who goes. Funnily enough, my quality of life has not suffered from having missed the first five years (or however long the show is now). I think once I watched a bit more, and I distinctly remember a 5 minute block of ads followed by an announcement of who is safe and then another 5 minutes of ads!

    Don’t get me started on “Ok…..the person……who has received….the least….amount of votes…..and is going home tonight…..never to sing again……buy Ricki Lee’s new album she needs the money….is…..one of you….more specifically…it is…the person standing on…..the right hand side….whose name is…..” and so forth.

  2. I agree, I miss the group performances big time. The verdict night has been made way too involved, the bottom 3 don’t need to be drilled so much on what they thought they could have done better or we don’t need to be told again what the judges said – we heard it all the night before. Just drags on too much so lose interest and come back at the end. Why change what was already great – I’m a big fan!

  3. It seems like 10 will do anything to get viewers. And it’s this try-hard attitude that turn people away. I doubt seeing the bottom three perform again will change the votes too much. They see them perform and get what, ten, fifteen minutes to vote again? We don’t know the number of votes each bottom three contestant get but I have a feeling they’re all quite far apart and even when the votes would be close, that extra time to vote isn’t enough for them to change so there’s no point in having it.

  4. ^ I agree. The bottom 3 on the monday night shows should be able to sing whatever they want – not the songs that put them there in the first place – it’s just stupid.

  5. Consider the fact that anyone in a different timezone to New South Wales finds out the verdict before the show goes to air simply by checking the Idol website. More people do this than ever now because they want to save their favourites.

    Personally I think if they’re singing for a second chance they should sing exactly what they want to sing. Originals, something they’ve never done before, with instruments, whatever. If that song couldn’t make us vote for them before, what makes the producers think it will second time around?

  6. Think we’ve had enough discussion on whether Tom should or shouldn’t have gotten the boot thanks. Try the official Aus Idol or behindidol.com sites for debates about that.

    This post is about the performance of the show, not the performer, and the way shows are publicised.

  7. Even though i don’t particularly care for idol, and i don’t even watch it anymore, i think they should keep it, but…….

    1. Cut the results show to half an hour
    2. Make the performance show run for the same time each week, or for finals, it can be 1.5 hours for about 6 weeks, 1 hour for remaining weeks – so people always know when it finishes, next program starts
    3. 2 hour finale, not 3-3.5
    4. Stick to these times, not 5 or more minutes late – it can be done, you have ad breaks to work out if you are behind, ahead or on schedule

    I’m sure there are more to work within the show, but if they do these, people won’t get bored easily, and i assume people will watch the whole results show and performance show, and not switch on at the beginning and end, pushing the average up. It would also stop the lagging audience for the next show because it ran 5-15+ minutes late and gave up waiting.

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