Comments on: US dramas struggling for Heroes

By: jack

jack — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:08:50 +0000

Why are Ammerican shows rating lower in OZ?

Because now we have our own dramas, like- Packed to the rafters, City Homicide, The Strip ect.

By: Katrina

Katrina — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:14:24 +0000

Basically there were few people watching any show Thursday night. The top was 1.2 million? Only the top 5 over a million.

Even RPA did pretty badly. So I don’t think it’s much of a reflection on Heroes or Prison Break, their ratings had dropped last season anyway.

By: doug

doug — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:03:40 +0000

18 MINUTES of Ads per hour which irritate me no-end is the reason i do not watch 7/9/10 . These USA shows are fully funded & paid for by USA citizens.On their network sites the shows can be watched the day after shown on tv for free.

By: Leo

Leo — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:32:57 +0000

I have to admit, I don’t watch either Heroes or Prison Break but I did love Ugly Betty & Im really p****d off 7 took it off air. It was only last year when they hyped the s**t out of it & now its canned.
I know it all depends on ratings but if people dont watch the new American shows which are fast tracked, they may say, well stuff you lot, no more fast tracking, cause when we do, you dont watch em.
I also believe that the public would rather see local shows, lok at the ratings for Packed To The Rafters, City Homicide, Rush, The Strip etc – its fantastic people are watching local content over overseas stuff – if this continues we will see many more quality local shows on our screens which is good for the local industry!

By: Neon Kitten

Neon Kitten — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:57:04 +0000

Tim Worner is hardly a reliable source for info on TV show downloading. I doubt he has any real idea of the extent of downloading that’s going on.

I dispute the “certain demographic” theory. I see TV shows being traded on DVD-R all the time between people who don’t even have enough interest in the internet to get broadband. Ordinary people with no interest in the politics of TV but a real interest in seeing shows before they go to air here. I can honestly say there is barely a single person I know who doesn’t watch some amount of downloaded TV. And I know a *lot* of people…

By: Kursaal

Kursaal — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:48:50 +0000

The problem is that the three commercial stations are treating their audiences with s much disrespect. Shows are taken off air with no notice, don’t start on time, chopped to fit ads, put back on air with no notice, etc, etc, etc.

TV shows these days often have complex story arcs that can go over a whole season. You can’t afford to miss episodes but the networks don’t care.

Why start watching Heroes on Channel 7 when in all likelihood, its timeslot will be changed with no notice or it could be totally ripped off the air? With the last season, they took it off air with only two episodes left of a story arc. By the time they did show those episodes (with minimal warning), you would have literally lost the plot?

Channel 9 cut Fringe so they can fit more ads in so you don’t even get the whole episode.

Channel 10 are just as bad with chopping and changing.

The TV stations only have themselves to blame and I feel absolutely no sympathy. They are driving their viewers away. They expect their viewers to be loyal but are never loyal back. Loyalty is a two-way street.

By: Jack

Jack — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:07:39 +0000

i did like ten for several years now and the reason why i dont watch ten anymore is purely because they keep changing the time slots of the tv shows and i hate that the most! i like 90210/house and its gone because there was no major advertising for it, ten doesnt seem to advertise its shows well enough anymore! Seven and nine are doing a little better at least.

btw if they keep removing shows and changing the times, people will get annoyed, everyone will be downloading…

By: Benno

Benno — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:20:46 +0000

Matthew, as long as the american networks make money from the shows, we can get them. They make a large majority of their money from their own revenue from ads and dvd sales. If the networks over there keep making money, the production companies (often subsidiaries of the networks) will keep producing shows.

With reference to Ramsay’s kitchen, i seriously doubt that this show has been dented much by downloads (i couldn’t understand why anyone would bother really with this show), but that the fad has passed.

A bit off topic, but If i were channel 9, i would further capitalise on 2 1/2 men while it lasts, and put a few other half hour shows after them (similar to what they are doing with til death, but ones with much better quality, not the least including big bang theory) to get people interested. In case they have forgotten, 2 1/2 men only worked because it was on in a consistent timeslot for more than a few weeks at a time.

By: matthew

matthew — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:40:34 +0000

If everyone downloads episodes, that will mean that TV networks won’t buy them. Which means Production Companies won’t get money. Which will lead to no money to make episodes!

So if FTA TV dies so will Prison Break\Heroes\House etc

If Prison Break was promoted, fast tracked and shown at a decent hour, it would had better ratings

Matthew

By: Benno

Benno — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:40:05 +0000

David, the link you had with the ‘here’ text isn’t working.

By: Benno

Benno — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:38:59 +0000

I think every time they promote a (new) show as fast-tracked when 4 episodes have already aired in the states, or worse, 7 episodes as with prison break, it lessens the effect that the term has.

I knew heroes couldn’t crack the 1m mark for this season, despite the obvious quality increase. I Agree completely with Neon Kitten that they made a huge mistake delaying these shows. There was ample time for them to get their things in order to show them within a few days, but they passed on that. With Tim Worner saying that with the new season of heroes they would show it ‘fairly quickly’ is certainly a joke now, especially among core fans.

By: Fraggle

Fraggle — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:05:51 +0000

Um how could 7 expect Prisonbreak to rate well? They didn’t promote it’s return at all and it’s in a 10.30pm time slot. By the time the show actually started it was almost 10.45pm. Im an avid fan of PB but even I can’t be bothered waiting until 10.30pm to watch my favourite show hence Ive resorted to downloading it. It astounds me that the tv channels wonder why shows arent rating as well as hoped when they show fans zero respect by chopping and changing times, having shows start late, taking shows off mid season. Seven pretty much murdered any chance PB had during season 2

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:18:26 +0000

Hi There.
I argee with all that has been said, but to add my 5 cents…
As a long time, long suffering sci-fi fan, I’d had enough of waiting up to five years for series to air on the big three stations, and then in a crappy timespot with no promotion. They are now reaping what they have sown for decades. Once downloading was possible, Aussie TV to me became irrelevant. I watch these shows when I want to! Not when the networks finally get around to showing them! And from the sounds of it, so do most people now, ratings are for the most part now useless unless its a first run Aussie show, any other OS show was already downloaded by the time it got to air here!

Oh, another thing, sometimes you come across shows which sound interesting, but you know that Aussie Free TV will NEVER show (Dead like Me, Deadwood, Regenisis, Chuck, etc) that are far better than the crap now shown. (Hell if the Simpsons still rate after repeat after repeat, what does that tell you!) Yet once you see such a show (Regenisis did it for me) you wonder why that are not on the networks here? I just think the program directors are lazy and will not got beyond US or UK high raters when there are a whole world of programs out there!

Ian

By: Mia

Mia — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:36:42 +0000

Evan, I meant no offence. It’s just not my sort of show. I watched season one, but I was never really drawn to it. Season 2 lost me. I can see how other people would like it, though. And I would watch it over Packed to the Rafters in a heartbeat. It’s just not appointment television for me (don’t worry, I don’t have one of those dumb ratings boxes).

Anyway, I agree that Seven is treating it really badly. I’ve seen enough of my own favourite shows on the short end of the stick to sympathise.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:15:42 +0000

A question about the new episodes of gordan ramseys kitchen nightmares usa,
the figures showed a loss of viewers compared to the previous season, was this due to viewers being fed up with ramsey or because people have access to a new series with more torrents.If nine screen hells kitchen series 2 would this have the same effect in ratings?
For the record house has gone downhill with the same old and heroes is just boring have a look at the figures in the usa.

By: bindi

bindi — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:43:59 +0000

well the view count on heroes on the channel 7 website as of right now is
episode 1= 2879 views
episode 2= 7057 views
and that is after 1 day- so add that to the ratings!