Australian Idol is leaving its 6:30pm timeslot and returning to 7:30pm.
Dicko broke the news tonight on The 7PM Project.
“We’re listening to public opinion,” he said.
The change is immediate, beginning Sunday September 20th.
The show has been struggling this year with the network indicating its ratings were low due to a slimmer audience at 6:30pm.
On Sunday night it took just 990,000 with some media asking whether the show should be put to rest.
With Daylight Saving due to start on October 4th the network was also staring down the barrel of a more alarming situation as its younger audience enjoy the extra sunlight.
5:30pm – Sports Tonight
6:00pm – The Simpsons
6:30pm – Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation rpt
7:30pm – Australian Idol
9:30pm – Rove
11:00pm – Movie: The Shape Of Things
TEN’s Head of Programming, Beverley McGarvey says of this change, “In television we have the benefit of daily feedback on what audiences want, and it’s clear by the data that the earlier timeslot wasn’t working for Idol, the switch on at 7:30pm was quite distinct.”
“We gave the timeslot change a good go but in this business, you can make a quick change to get back on track and that’s what we’re doing here…the audience spoke and we listened.”
Updated: Ep 2 of Little Britain USA and Nurse Jackie will shift to Monday nights from September 28th, to follow Good News Week -a move that effectively leaves Supernatural in the balance. Previous advice from TEN they would follow Rove this week was incorrect.
Meanwhile Don’t Forget the Lyrics is now out.
If they were really listening to what audiences wanted, they would stop showing such painful television as Australian Idol.
The format is tired and needs to be rested.
Aussie Idol….mmm its not the time its the show, was good with real comments from the love to hate judge Kyle, at least he said things most where too scared to say. new Judge JD how boring its become very Dull,
i have stopped watching… channel go is a go for me on sunday nights
re Rove’s twitter comment – if your show actually performed consistently from week to week you wouldn’t get shoved around so much!
I can’t stand Idol or Lyrics and I have seen all the eps of TBYG so I’ll be staying on Go! on Sundays thank you.
Morons. Nurse Jackie should have always been on a Monday night.
How about cutting Idol into 90mins tops? I don’t think its the timeslot, I think its the show!
It sounds like Australia has voted…..
Hands Up who will be getting Nurse Jackie from other sources now!!
Me!
What a digraceful way of treating a new show.
Maybe they should also listen to public opinion that suggests that the show has had its day and it’s time to axe it.
Nurse jackie ……Heres a tip 10 why not put it on at 3.45 am …F wits
They’d never air Legend of the Seeker at 6.30 – way more violent than Merlin and it would be censored to shreds. Great show though!
nooo! I wanted to watch Nurse Jackie, but now it’ll be too late
Nurse Jackie deserves so much better, Ten would’ve been better holding this until summer and airing it in an earlier timeslot along with Californication.
It could be worse They could replace Idol at 6:30pm with Jerry Springer assuming that show is still around
Don’t touch Supernatural! Or at least ensure it is still “fast-tracked” and screened on another evening.
Channel 10 should definitely “fast-track” season 2 of Merlin. Or buy the rights to “Legend of the Seeker” and screen that in the 6:30pm on Sundays time-slot (although I’d prefer to see it at a later time-slot to prevent the clumbsy editing of violence that plagues Merlin).
@ Mike Retter: too late, Mark Holden officially became a lawyer yesterday and won’t come back.
Timeslot is not solely the issue. Merging the show with the results was a bad idea – one week is too long a wait for impatient viewers. And making the contestants rehearse etc for the next show is a waste of everyone’s time involved if they’re only to be booted off (and the producers will know who said person is on the Monday before the Sunday show), and then making them sing the song which got them voted off in the first place at the top of the show is ridiculous. It just delays getting the show on the road and people just switch off in boredom. The show needs resting to replenish the talent pool. And new judges who actually add value and constructive feedback to the contestants so they have something to go with in improving their next performance.
Unbelievable Ten.
How about moving Idol from sunday altogether to a wednesday slot?Repeating TBYG already is beyond belief & i can only shake my head at the treatment to Nurse Jackie & lesser extent Little Britain USA which is fine after Rove.
Nurse Jackie is the kind of show Ten need as a hit and a fine follow up to Rove at 9.30 or 10 at the latest.You people in the boardrooms making these decisions are morons.Do you even watch any of it?Sadly so much money is put into Idol that it takes precedent.Crazy.
Idol is finished,it has nothing to do with timeslots,it is boring & tired.Andrew G is helpless without James,Marcia looks like she is over it & Dicko is still in midlife crisis mode.The newie?Doesn’t offer much.A new look,new hosts & a sprinkling of talent wouldn’t go astray to keep it fresh & yes it should be finished in 2009.Ten should have got hold of the Come Dine With Me concept (from the UK),which Foxtel is producing.After Masterchef it would have been a winner.
Now all I hope for is Merlin back at 6.30 on Sundays since it is just now returning to the UK, and perhaps even Mark Holden rejoining Idol again.
Lyrics is rubbish and does not belong in prime time, let alone ratings period. It’s even slower and more painful to watch than Millionaire. I expect Merlin to move into the 6.30 slot the week after next .
And I am sick of all the bulls**t comments about the talent this year being crap – it’s arguably one of the strongest line ups in years despite a couple of the wildcards being stupidly overlooked.
I’ll admit the whole Kyle saga has damaged the Idol brand which is a shame. But it’s time to move on – I miss him too but he f’d up and the producers had no choice but to remove him. The hypocrites in the media who called for his blood now running stories about the show dying without him make my blood boil
Yet again, channel is showing contempt for it’s viewers by pushing Nurse Jackie back to 11:45. In a few weeks there’ll be no audience left, so it’ll either be moved to the middle of the night, or just disappear. And they wonder why people have Foxtel.
Bring back Holden.
Good idea with rpts of your-gen.
Bring back holden and sack and I meen sack the new judge that people just dont watch. You cant introduce us with hype big shots any more it dousnt work. Think XFactor Australia. You can only use old big shots. The ones we are already fooled by because we wont be fooled again.
Damn…… i was enjoying Lyrics. Couldnt care less about Idol.
U just lost a viewer Ten…. Back to the internet i go.
Damn them
On the one hand it’s good that a network says it is listening to its audience. But it is a phrase they will likely live to regret as it comes back to haunt them time and time again.
TEN would be better off holding Little Britain for a week and running 3 Nurse Jackie eps from ep #1 on Monday 28 from 9.40.
Ten’s treatment of Nurse Jackie is absolutely disgusting. They may as well not bother at all.
That good news. Should have never changed it from the start! Generation will be better than nothing..
rove is better after 9.30 cause then they can say what they want without being censored, and hopefully ten fast tracks merlin to shove in the 6.30 slot in a few weeks
i have a feeling generation will rate very well lol
Way to kill a show Ten. You expect Nurse Jackie viewers to stay up that late and then follow the show to Monday the next week. No one is going to see the second episode so I guessing it’s going to tank big time in the Monday slot, worse than Dexter probably.
isn’t this Sunday Rove’s 10th year reunion ep? Now with a poor timeslot to waste that in.
An interesting move for Idol which may (or may not) work out, but they should have waited a week to be in time for print guides and to save the wonderful Nurse Jackie from being shown so late. Also putting Your Gen repeats at 6:30 IMO is wrong and could kill the golden goose. But if they put new Merlin on then they have nothing to put on next year pre-MasterChef. TEN have it all to blame on themselves – they should have had credible back-up plans for their failed experiments.
Will give Ten credit for trying to fix the ratings issue, consider many have said the earlier timeslot is a downside and is/could be contributing to the bad ratings. Now to see if there is any improvement.
Can understand Rove being a little annoyed with the late change but would think his show’s time is subject to the Idol, Masterchef or whatever show is currently on beforehand and includes any changes to their start time and end time (including running overtime).
All these shifts at Ten … they’re almost becomming as bad as Nine
I’d like to see Ten eventually move Merlin into 6:30 Sunday, it was doing so well there earlier on in the year.
As for Supernatural I’d think it would do better on a night other than Sunday or Monday. The lead-ins seem to focus more on commedy than on drama. I’d say NCIS or Rush would be better lead-ins, genre-wise, to Supernatural. This is coming from a Supernatural fan
Are they listening when we tell the judges to be honest and call a spade a spade.
The show lacks talent and cred.
Why is “Supernatural s5″ being left in the balance?. Is it still on September 27th or 28th now?.
Will all FTA Shows be shown an hour earlier when Daylight Saving recommences in all states except Qld & WA?.
Now that it’s not in a family-friendly slot!! Bring back Kyle!!!!
Dammit, less than one week now Nurse Jackie has been moved… 11:45pm timeslot sucks for a quality show like this – need to move it to put it at a decent time quickly!
Surely having Don’t Forget the Lyrics at 6PM, Idol at 7PM, Rove at 9PM and Little Britain USA at 10PM would work?
Lyrics is a show which gets our musical side pumping for Idol, and then we shift to Rove which is a nice laugh for afterwards and then shift into much more intense comedy for afterwards.
However, Little Britain USA and Nurse Jackie being on together after GNW pleases me, so I won’t complain about them.
But Simpsons/Generation is a pretty poor offering, and probably won’t help Idol’s ratings that much.
Comission new Generation episodes for Sundays TEN!
they should fast track merlin season 2 which starts in the uk this saturday and put it in the 6:30 time slot like it was before
hopefully TBYG is just a filler and soon there will be an announcement about fast-tracked merlin. the news about supernatural is sure to anger a lot of people though.
Good move by Ten. This needed to be done, if Idol was broke into 2 shows, Idol – 6:30 Idol 7:30 the results would oof looked very different. They need to stick to the 2 hours, and actually finish at 9.30, there are only 10 contestants left, no excueses. Rove suits 9.30 better to be honest. Little Britain after GNW just makes my mondays perfect. As for Generation, not suprised by this move, ten will want to save new Merlin, but they should of at least tried lyrics at 6.30, it fits with Idol. Personally I would of done 6.30 – Glee (from Sunday past), 7:30 Idol, 9:30 Rove, 10.40: Nurse Jackie.
The move means Idol will avoid clashing with the NRL Grand Final on October 4 in NSW, QLD, VIC, ACT and TAS, which would have been a ratings disaster. But it also means the performances will have to be sped up so the program can finish on time.
What a horrible lineup. Screening Your Gen repeats is almost as desperate as airing 20 to 1 or 2.5 Men repeats.
I’m sure other Supernatural fans will appreciate this news…
lol poor Rove, always getting kicked around. But still, I think this is sensible. Should have kept it in the 7.30 slot to begin with. Wonder how TBYG will rate..
Wait for Merlin to be fast tracked to 6.30 Sundays. That would really help their shares. Hopefully from Sept 27, giving them more than a full week to promote. Would have been too soon to put on from this Sunday.
maybe the reason for the rating being bad is. the show isnt worth watching any more. i doubt the time slot is the reason for the show rating so low.
they should have tbyg on for 2 hours and idol for an hour. people would rather watch tbyg than a show that isnt even producing sny decent talent
dont forget people as the weeks go along idol will get shorter and rove will be pulled forward so 9.50 maybe this week but prob not in the next 2 or 3
Why not just put new Don’t Forget The Lyrics in at 6.30pm instead of TBYG repeats? Get the audience in a sing-song mood during Lyrics, then ready to continue it into Idol? It’s too soon for TBYG repeats … it just finished 2 week ago!
TBYG? TEN need to take heed of Channel 9 and Gordon Ramsay. Saviour then ratings disaster. That said, we all expected it to happen to 2.5men, and it’s going strong… But 2.5 has plenty of episodes. Most people will have seen TBYG.
It’s a good move to make Idol at 7.30, but it puts Rove out to 9.50ish. TEN just has a lack of other rating material. TBYG, Rush, Masterchef, NCIS. Other than that, it’s pretty average rating material.
It’s a miracle!!!!!! best move by ten yet!! and again shows why they are the best station! they actually listen to us:)
Rove on twitter
Rove1974Been informed that our show is now on at 9:30pm Sunday night. Isn’t late notice a wonderful thing? Help spread the word!