The first shots are fired in Summer Non-Ratings, and they have produced some interesting results indeed…
Whilst OzTAM has again merged digital channels with primary channels (at the very time some are debating the merits of this), Seven Network comfortably won the night.
There were wins with factual shows, news, repeats of Bones, while Nine scored with 20 to 1 repeats, news and TEN’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival special did better business than a first run of Glee. Why?
Look to the lead-in. Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? US tanked at a dismal 340,000 viewers.
But even more tellingly, it was beaten by Wipeout on GO! The 6:30pm edition pulled 363,000.
This is the first time a show on a digital channel has defeated a show on a commercial primary channel. The first day of summer shows that viewers are serious about the offerings on digital channels and will be a big wake-up call to industry.
Wipeout also had a 5:30pm episode meaning the average of the two combined was 271,000 in final figures.
Meanwhile over on the ABC Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights was competitive with 798,000.
@ Ben: OzTam are kind of doing that right now. They are taking out about 25% of the sample and putting in people that have PVRs (which are in about 25% of homes).
I’m surprised Nine hasn’t tried Gordon Ramsay on GO! yet.
It would seem to be a good fit for the channel, with quite a niche audience, that stuck with the show despite Nine’s best efforts. In particular, the last series of Hell’s Kitchen didn’t even finish broadcasting on Nine, in Sydney at least, so it would be nice to have a conclusion to that.
When is Go going to comission a new Australian production?
Well done GO! It serves TEN right for serving up such rubbish to it’s audience… The question is – now that ratings are over, are TEN going to chop and change the schedule? TEN has a history of not doing so, but with numbers like this it would seem unwise to leave things as they are…
I watched the US Fifth Grader episode just out of curiosity, and it was just as I expected. The Australian version is basically an exact replica, complete with American language, an American classroom, and American everything. Network Ten just seems obsessed with the US.
@Sean M, totally agreed! I love that I can have it on early morning or late night and there’s something like Big Bang or Seinfeld on; very smart move
I know the guy who hosts US fifth grader from that Blue Collar whatever show that nine used to play in the wee early hours, but the very idea that people would watch it made me laugh. Like you said David, who wants to watch Americans win money unless they get injured along the way, like on Amazing Race and Survivor?
Being Summer non-ratings you will probably see the rare victory by a digital channel over it’s competition.If it was to happen during ratings season heads will certainly be on the chopping block
Does anyone know whether OzTam or whoever looks after ratings boxes chooses digital only homes or analogue too? Because surely they’d have to present an accurate representation of digital homes right?
Foreign quiz shows almost never work as they alienate the audience due to questions that are more region/culturally specific.
Smart one, Ten.
It is a good channel.
I could switch it on in the middle of the night or during the day. And there might be a decent program on.
@ Vert: couldn’t agree more….the logic that TEN’s programmers are using astounds me. “Mmmm….the Australian Fifth Grader audience started to really wane and they were clearly tired of it…I know! Let’s stick on the American version which is hosted by someone the target audience has never heard of! That will surely do good numbers!!”
I expected better….
Survivor and Amazing Race aside it’s hard to think of many shows where Aussies are happy to watch Americans winning American money.
Lawrence, there are so many shows that Nine/GO! are still not airing, there’s no need for original content. I’d be happy to see some other first run show that we are not getting to see or things that have only aired on pay tv.
I think a repeat of the Oz version of 5th grader would have done better. For me, the fun in watching quiz shows is guessing the answers, so a quiz show asking US based questions I have no clue about is boring.
@Lawrence I think you’re right. With some original Aussie show’s I could see GO becoming a real force in 2010
@bindi LOL, true. I only watch Ten because of Glee and I missed last Thursday’s ep that’s why I didn’t see the promos for Glee on Sunday but I’m still glad that I was able to watch yesterday’s ep.
Is it any surprise?
Maybe some shows that start on the digital channels will move to the main channels if the ratings are strong enough?
More people are likely to give shows a chance on digital channels during non ratings.
@Edu- 10 can hardly promote a show to you when you don’t ever watch their network, because with the massive number of glee ads I have seen I can only conclude that you have not been watching 10 at all. at the end of the thursday episode of glee there was an ad about the new timeslot and in the few days since then I have seen the glee ad atleast a dozen times.
I agree. I love GO’s line up but it’d be nice to see some Aussie youth based content as opposed to just stuff from the US.
Because Glee wasn’t promoted, I only stumbled upon it yesterday on this site, had I not known, I would have watched season 2 of Extras which I just bought yesterday.
Amazing resul for GO! They now need to start gearing up original content to become a real player
Wow that is very interesting. I watched a few eps of the American version way back when it first aired in the US (early 2008). I got broed with the format after 5 eps. Than ran it as 1/2 hr eps I believe. The WipeOut on GO! at 6.30 was a repeat too, so that’s even more embarrassing for Ten.
I was dissapointed with all the offereings on all FTA and Foxtel. It was 5 eps of Cougar Town for me last night.
This is a great sign for GO!, after all, wasn’t last night the return of the regular Sunday schedule?
Doesn’t really suprise, 5th Grader Aus doesn’t do that well, why would the American version?
It does prove that more and more people are getting digital though.