In the dying days of 2009, TEN made a programming amendment that saw two of its US shows, Supernatural and Stargate: Universe, dumped from Mondays and replaced with movie repeats.
Since that time, Sci-Fi and Horror fans have been relentless in their anger at the network.
Neither show was rating well enough to stay on air, even in the less competitive summer season. SGU only had three weeks on air, after a successful Fastracking on the SciFi Channel. The long-running Supernatural, which had nearly a three month delay from its US season premiere, was appeasing those fans who had patiently waited for its Free to Air return. Others had resorted to bit torrent downloads, a growing, if illegal, practice aimed at many shows that take their time in broadcasting in Australia. Those may have affected the show’s eventual on air numbers.
So far TEN has been silent about its future plans for Supernatural and SGU. Despite previous network campaigns that “You Blogged. We Listened,” it hasn’t appeared to have heard this flood of online complaints.
On TEN’s own website there are over 400 responding to the Supernatural axing. Some have mounted a campaign to send postcards to the network -a practice that has seen success for other shows in the US.
Fans have also been relentless in their anger in comments on TV Tonight. Ratings stories aside, the thread now has one of the highest comment counts in this site’s 3 year history (Nine’s dumping of Fringe was another). Here’s a sample of what they have been saying:
Ant: “I have had a gutful of Ten. They do this constantly, the channel must be run by idiots. I turned the TV on tonight to watch Supernatural and there was a movie on.”
Aims: “Maybe we’d get more Supernatural ratings if they bothered advertising the damn show in a slot other than the few shows before it airs, and Dr. Phil. Seriously. They’re not even targeting the SPN demographic with their advertising.”
Brooklyn: “I am sick of channel ten, its pathetic. Its the only good show on at the moment, and you take it off!
Channel 10, get your act together.”
Trix: “OMG, here we go again, channel friggin ten has done it again!!! oh yay crappy movies instead of Supernatural (my fav show)…”
Cherrie: “Can the ratings really be trusted at this time of year anyway given so many people have been at Christmas functions and are on hols etc.. I would be surprised if the crappy movies they are showing got better ratings!”
TJet: “Maybe if tv stations started showing some loyalty to their viewers they may get some loyalty in return. Lost track of the number of shows I’ve started to watch and enjoy, only to have them pulled from the air.”
Agent 86: “Boo! I’ve waited long enough for channel 10 to actually screen the new episodes. I guess I’ll have to view them via other means.”
Minnie: “Well, yet another reason not to watch Channel Ten, or any of the main commercial channels really.”
Alaina: “This is one of the stupidest things Ten has ever done, and that’s saying something. Supernatural Rocks! Of course their viewing numbers might be up if they fast-tracked it instead of waiting so long. Big mistake.”
Steph: “Nooooooooooo!!!! I couldn’t believe they swapped the Supernatural time, but this, pulling it off! I had so much faith in Ten to play this correctly, now to do this!”
Clayton Baxter: “Its very simple, keep a record of who advertises in these time slots, when the station does a stupid act like this write to the customer service and marketing office telling them you are going to boycott their products…”
Adding to TEN’s woes is an equally bitter fanbase for Stargate: Universe. They too have levelled sustained criticism at the network since the show was pulled off air.
Mike: “Thanks soo much for canning Stargate Universe Ch 10 Not!………fantastic effort …..get us hooked and finally watching your shows. Oh well back to channel 7 then for this fella…”
Jeremy: “You suck channel 10, you don’t even give SGU a chance to get off the ground. If you have not realised there is a following of stargate fans in Australia who would jump on board if you showed some respect for your viewers.”
Ant: “SGU was great ten u are wrong with taken it off. Put it back on. Everyone stop watching ten. That will show them. People power will win over these.”
Fans of both shows are angry that TEN has not deemed to reschedule the shows in a later timeslot, whilst playing reruns of House, Law and Order: CI and Numb3rs, which all air after David Letterman. But TEN could be stockpiling episodes to screen on it third channel, to launch later this year.
Given the volume of complaints against TEN, TV Tonight sought some answers from the network, in the hope of bringing some optimistic news.
Unfortunately, the response was brief in the extreme:
“The Monday night movie has resonated quite well with viewers, but for those Supernatural fans we may look at returning it later in the year.”
Which is also network-speak for “Frankly, we have no news right now.”
The only good news? Supernatural creator Eric Kripke is said to be warming to the idea of a sixth season.
ten imo should launch their lesser ranked shows out of their existing highly rated shows, Lie to Me got good viewers with the NCIS lead-in, try Supernatural with White COllar lead-in, that way, White COllar gets The Mentalist as competition.
If 10 aren’t going to show them they should sell them on to 7TWO or GO! Both these channels appear to be pretty good at showing this kind of material at the moment, & without messing with the schedule. I’d far rather watch them in HD anyway. Specially free to air instead of paying for a larger download quota.
wow, brings back memories of Charmed, damn channel ten how could you axe it when it was on its last season, and you have been sticking with it for the last 7 years and you decide to end it on its last season, Shame on Youuu!!
Couldn’t agree with you more on that one Janey. But if it is rating so low why not at least switch it to a later time slot? We all now know about Ten’s third channel…I think they’re holding both shows back to put them on it. Wouldn’t surprise me. Seven Two has had great success with Ugly Betty and Stargate Atlantis (from a second channel perspective of course).
I subbed to Foxtel to see SGU. Couldn’t be bothered with commercial networks anymore who cling to an outdated business model. If they actually put the episodes online as pay-to-view, I’m betting a lot of people would do so.
@Nate
All shows on television are measured by the people with Oztam boxes…not just Supernatural. The fact is that a repeat of an old movie rated a lot higher than first run Supernatural. Supernatural is a niche show, but it has always done okay for Ten usually getting between 600,000-750,000, which are acceptable figures (for Ten…there is no way Seven or Nine would have kept this show going in primetime). So, there was an audience of people with Oztam boxes who used to watch the show, but have now chosen not to. As has been stated here by many fans of the show…they cannot wait a couple of months for the show to come to tv, so they watch it “by other means”. I’m sure this would be the case for some of the people with Oztam boxes as well, as they are a sample of the real population and downloading has had an affect on ratings for shows, especially sci-fi and niche audiences who are more passionate about seeing their favourite shows immediately.
It is sad that more people chose to watch a repeat movie rather than great shows like Supernatural and Stargate Universe, but the bottom line is, no commercial network will keep a show on the air if it doesn’t have enough people watching. So you can’t watch a show via your computer, and then expect a network to keep it on the air when most fans have not bothered to tune in because they’ve already seen it.
666,000 for Double Jeopardy last night. It seems the right decision was made.
Look, TEN is a crap station, is the least successful of all the commercial channels and can not sink any lower.
They don’t care, anyone who runs the same movies over and over and over again with very limited success deserves to go the way of the Do-Do. I am sure, sooner than later TEN will go and alot of people will be out of a job.
The australian viewer must be held responsible for this as well…destroyed in seconds, last change surgery, ladette to lady, 20 to 1 and any other low IQ, Bogan shows that rate really well. We have a country of Bogans with so little culture that it could barely fill a tub of yoghurt.
When sport and our ability to have the biggest fireworks display defines a nations identity and confidence then it says it all really. Look how weak we are to the Japanese against the whaling ships (do you think the Yanks would stand for that), we are powerless and weak unless it comes to sport, where we are real men and can beat outer Mongolia in Rugby League.
It doesn’t take long for sci fi fans to turn does it. If these great shows could draw more than 400k then maybe a commercial network would schedule it in primetime. You all (about half I suppose) watched it via your PC days after it aired in the US or you don’t like fitting into a FTA schedule (i.e weekly at a certain time). Maybe email all those people asking why they do this and not watch it again on FTA. I doubt FTA will air shows like this in the future unless it’s a massive hit because the first run crowd will dwindle over the next few years as fast broadband is introduced and prices fall. You will all have subscribe or view via PC soon enough. Makes you understand why Ten invested in ONE when you can’t DL live sport months before it airs in Australia
@ Janey.
Now I’m a Supernatural fan, but not a rabid one. I like it but not enough to “acquire by other means”.
So usually I wouldn’t weigh in, but your comment displays such a high and mighty attitude that I’m compelled to anyway.
All you have to do is watch?
What absolute crap.
It does not matter what the vast majority do! Every TV without an Oztam box could be tuned into a show, but that doesn’t matter unless a decent percentage of the people with Oztam boxes also watch it.
I’m surprised more people haven’t pointed out that of the 3 nights on which Stargate aired, on 2 of them the show was aired an hour before the time scheduled in the tv guides. How the hell is it supposed to get an audience when it’s treated like that? The people in charge at channel ten need to realise that if they keep screwing over their audience, their audience will leave them completely. They may already be seeing the start of this trend. Something else they don’t seem to realise is that when a show is not rating particularly well and they pull it from the air (often without notice) it’s not the same people over and over who they are cheesing off. Eventually everybody will have been treated poorly with several shows they enjoy and just give up. When SGU was first announced, I almost didn’t bother watching it because I knew with 95% certainty CH10 would axe it within a few weeks. Now I’m sorry I bothered. Wake up ch10!
What? After next week. You’re asking me questions I can’t answer. I don’t run TEN.
Define Later in the year….
omg i hate channel ten they are a bunch of lowlife impaitent idiodic d****!!! ive been waiting 4 season 5 of supernatural to be aired and i get soo excited nd as soon as six episodes are aired they axe it wat friken losers seriously u know what im gunna do im goin 2 make a pertition markin that all my friends and family and other people willingly wil not ever watch ten anymore so who wants to join??
I don’t think the issue is with Channel Ten but with the fans of Supernatural that have stopped watching. 398,000! That is how many viewers tuned in to watch the last time it aired on Ten. 398,000!!! I love Supernatural…it is one of my favourite shows, but if you wanted Ten to keep it on the air, then all you fans had to do was make sure it was being watched. You should have had a Twitter campaign for viewers to watch the show because there is no way any network will keep a show on that is doing less than 400,000. Ten wouldn’t have scheduled Supernatural if they didn’t have faith that it would at least last through Summer, so I’m sure they are just as annoyed as everyone here that nobody bothered to watch and they had to make a change. The fans that say they had already seen all the Supernatural episode “by other means” have to take some responsibility for the show being taken off…as they weren’t watching when it aired on Ten. You can’t have it both ways.
Summer is supposed to be set and forget, and by scheduling more first run shows than ever before, Ten probably thought they would be okay. But it seems that most viewers prefer repeat movies/series because they are all that is rating. The quality first run shows like Supernatural, Stargate Universe, Numb3rs etc had to be taken off due to lack of interest.
With all the talk of Channel 10 being a business, etc, wouldn’t it be costing them _more_ money to show movie reruns than tp show the SGU and Supernatural episodes?
I’m assuming Ch 10 would have had to pay money upfront to get the rights to show SGU and Supernatural, and would also have to pay an _additional_ amount to re-run a movie they’ve previously shown.
Or have I got this completely wrong? Do Ch 10 not have to pay if they don’t show the episodes and/or not have to pay to rerun older movies?
ch10sux
i dont watch any shows from Ch10 anymore. Supernatural is their only show worth-watching but then they removed it. what a bunch of idiots.
“The Monday night movie has resonated quite well with viewers, (haha.yeah right…)but for those Supernatural fans we may look at returning it later in the year.” why later in the year??!! why not now!!??!!!!
i hope they realise that they disappointed a Lot of Supernatural (SGU) fans.
Thankyou TV Tonight for approaching TEN trying to get some answers…. the more enquiries and interest the better in our campaign to allow us to view the rest of Season 5 Supernatural.
Disappointed Stargate: Universe fan
Let us all boycott Channel TEN Sydney they only show repeats of the same crap like 9am, hueys cooking adventures , sex in the city, Dr Phil, or The Oprah Winfrey every week.
Why dont they dump these shows.
Bring back sci-fi
Thank you for listening TV Tonight.
Thank you for writing David Knox.
Thank you for nothing Channel Ten.
Sometimes shows that dont rate, create prestige that generates respect and loyalty. Ratings alone for a program isnt its entire benefit. A show can rate well but make the station poison like Sunrise and TT do for certain viewers. The fact is people arnt happy with short term strategies, cutting and moving shows, that make people turn to the DVD box set. You might win the (ratings) war but you wont win the battle.
@Rob
$700 will actually break my budget with upcoming uni/school fees (single parent to two other SPN viewers). And, there are some areas which are excluded, at present, from digital broadcast reception.
However, the other idea that SPN fans should buy a DVD (which isn’t available yet and won’t be until Sept) from the US — I assume that’s the method you’re suggesting — isn’t a bad one. Even with atrocious shipping costs, the US DVDs are cheaper. OTOH, the only legal alternative to that at the present is iTunes. Not cheap and not available in Australia.
At least I still have 3 years to save up my $700. By then the young’uns can support this oldie in a manner to which I can easily become accustomed.
Not surprised, but am outraged. A proud sci-fi geek, but not a nerd as other’s have been saying – I don’t download, I don’t go searching, I’m no computer-tech person. I wait for FTA because I had some faith. Usually Supernatural treatment has been good (usually only just on Monday’s so at least I knew what night it was on!) But now, who knows what will happen!
Did you know Supernatural fans on Twitter are trying to make “Ch10sux” a trending topic? Don’t mean to be rude, but there is a reason why we think Ch10 sux. As far as we concern, Ch10 has declared war with Supernatural fans!
I think it’s disgusting the way that supernatural fans have been treated. We have had no statement from channel ten to let us know what is happening.
All we want to do is watch our favorite show. Surely they (channel ten) must be able to see that this show has a dedicated fan base. i don’t know how ratings are worked out, but i don’t think they realize just how many people really do watch the show.
Channel ten have lost this viewer and i know i’m not the only one
Those saying Ten’s ratings suck because sci-fi is pulled off should remember Ten rates poorly overall but have a great share in 16-39 which is their strong suit. Sci fi doesn’t add or substract but management need some money to stock up sport for ONE HD e.g. bid of football etc. With their new owner being Macquarie Bank (offshoot) don’t expect any major investment rather somecost cutting and retooling of the third channel which was in development since late 2008 waiting for introduction where you’ll then find Ten2 starting around September this year and soon after for SC10.
“The Monday night movie has resonated quite well with viewers, however we really don’t care because even though most Supernatural fans would fall within our target demographic in terms of age and income, you’re still classed as ‘Sci-fi fans’ which means you’re probably a little weird and wear too much black and sit around talking about stuff that the ‘average’ TV viewer would have no idea about. And since we’re marketing ourselves as the ‘Youthful’ alternative to Nine and Seven, you’re probably not going to go out and get smashed at schoolies and then get arrested while taking a pee into your hotel’s swimming pool, which is the sort of ‘Fun’ and ‘Vibrant’ viewer we really want to capture.”
Supernatural gets brilliant views everywhere in the world even here!!!! One bad night and they kill it??? That is so wrong!!!!! If you have issues send letters!!!! The address is in the channel ten Supernatural forums. We want it back!
@yasminke,
A HDTV for $700 ain’t going to break the budget although not every one can afford that but I suspect people on this site wouldn’t have a problem in general. If you’re all real fans than pay the premium and get it from the US and play it on a region free DVD or Bluray (BR – that’s tough to do but if you’re a fan, you should stop at nothing especially as you’ll get extras and better PQ).
As some (only a few) have said Ten is not a (intentionally) niche programmer and smaller than required audiences on a main channel just cannot cut it since it’s the analogue viewers who still have half the viewing audience share – this will change as 2013 creeps up and most likely is 60:40 now (digital:analogue)
To all the people reminding us that Channel 10 is a business … We know it’s a business. We are not stupid. We are venting frustration. No need to be condascending. People like what they like. The criticism should not be for the merits of the programme but for the disappointment caused by business decisions in so called “non-ratings” periods when people thought their shows were safe.
Meh – I agree with ryan and Selma – this is a sci fi show which means there will never be a huge audience for it in Oz, especially at prime time.
Of course the viewers of these shows are complaining on internet etc – sci fi watchers are usually tech heads and therefore will complain online, via e-mail etc etc
I am absolutely sick of CH10 the continued dropping of shows after one, two are in most cases three episodes is stupid maybe they should pull the heads out of the sand and take a look at the followings that most of the shows especially the Stargate and Supernatural franchises and then they would see that they could be making heaps of money, and TEN wonders why channels 9 and 7 beat them with viewer loyalty each year.
Ten’s treatment of many of their shows and in turn their viewers, has led to a lot of discontent towards the network. Nine used to have the ‘Dog’ tag, but now with GO! all of their niche and failed series are getting played out, and mostly at a decent hour. Likewise for 7 with 7TWO.
Ten desperately needs a general entertainment channel to gain back some trust from viewers. Having said that I think another youth skewed network would only further cannibalize what is left of Ten’s main audience.
“The Monday night movie has resonated quite well with viewers, but for those Supernatural fans we may look at returning it later in the year.”
I feel this should be translated into “the truth”.
Translation: “The Monday night movie (which replaced other shows) has greatly upset viewers, but we covered our ears and pretended not to hear. But for those Supernatural fans we may look at returning it really late in the year, but we will only play a couple episodes before pulling it again. Stargate Universe fans, we don’t want to mention you at all, because we have no plans to air any more episodes.”
On a serious note I’m going to paste in my comment from the “Timeshifted ratings: What we’re watching later on” post:
“The irony about Supernatural is that a higher population of the Australian population watches it in primetime (i.e not time shifting figures involved) than in the USA.
Australia – 394,000 viewers (Population 22,107,583) – 1.78% of Australian population
USA – 2,900,000 viewers (Population 308,444,392) – 0.94% of USA population
(Population figures come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics & US Census Bureau) (The 2,900,000 USA viewers comes from Episode 7 of the 5th season which has the highest rating figure) (Episode 5 has the lowest ratings 2,470,000 viewers dropping down to 0.80% of USA population)”
Not that I want to sound like a shill for Foxtel – but when they start a season of a show they pick the timeslot and show the entire season in order at the same day and time until the final episode of the season.
I can see the programmers at 10 – if those nerds want sci-fi – Let’s hit them with “Terminator 2″ & “Timecop”.
Damn straight we turned- its not like this should be a shock. Channel 10 skrewed around with Supernatural so Of Course people are going to download- better to download then sit waiting for something that may/may not be on television in the near/not-so-near future.
I get that the ratings were pretty bad and stuff but maybe, i dunno, advertising it instead of NCIS all the damn time would have helped. Just a suggestion. Oh and taking into acount that the main veiwer demographic for these shows are on holidays and would most likely be away and not able to watch at this time of year. Again, Just a suggestion.
At least someone is acknowleding the backlash even if CH10 is hiding behind their desks pretending that they dont almost get beaten by the ABC each week.
Enjoy your slow fall to failure 10
I am so sick of this bulls**t, i never comment on anything of supernatural through ten or TVtonight but The Axing OMG, How can they leave fans hanging off to wait.. I’d say what was the point in the Aus con? hmm Them coming down to promote their show and here Ch 10 takes it off..? look how many people went to the con doesnt that show the fans? i guess not because thats not Ratings! Thats just the fans who love Supernatural in Australia!
Ive watched SPN since day dot., and i’d hate to wait for the dvds to come.
The only things I watch on ten are the 7pm project and futurama. I did start watching sgu on Mondays but since they axed it they have one less viewer for that time slot.
The least they (CH10) could do is to air the remaining episodes that they have…..10 have been aired to date in the US, even move them to a later time slot. But don’t air 5 or six episodes and pull the pin. For christsake….they aired 9 seasons of the X-files when that flagged in the ratings…at least they had the courtesy to finish it!!
There are a lot of diehard Supernatural and Stargate fans who are extremely disappointed……..obviously we don’t have a little box on our tv’s that records Our viewing habits!
Very disappointed. I have been a fan of Supernatural from the start and was just beginning to enjoy watching SGU as well.
Not sure how accurate these ratings are.. Certainly no one is tracking My viewing habits!
Supernatural has a very loyal following. Even if it was aired in the late night time-slots instead of tired old repeats of other shows, it would be better than nothing at all!
It is a pity for the stargate and supernatural fans can’t see these shows at 11.00pm or even after letterman. Instead ten show a repeats. a pity as even though i am not a fan of either of those shows but that was what i did with star trek next gen, arrested development, buffy and scrubs. The 400 000 or so people would still watch stargate and supernatural. The cult following of shows is dead (sighs).
These programs should air after Letterman but it seems 10 are more interested in repeats. What annoys with 10 is that they don’t sell shows to foxtel so you have to wait until the channel 10 rights expire before foxtel show them and therefore get a dvd release. Atleast with Gossip Girl 9 sold the rights to foxtel so season 1 and 2 are out on dvd.
@ Andrew – but at least so far we have seen both GO and 7TWO play out a number of shows they took off their main channels or felt would not do well enough there like Ugly Betty, Heroes, Fringe, etc.
One would hope that Ten will do the same, but hopefully they can do so without all the last minute changes that plague GO in particular.
Still, we should not have to wait for new channels just to see certain shows that should run through so called non-ratings season confortably and would actually do quite well if remained in a stable timeslot and promoted as such.
everyone thinks that a 3rd channel for Ten is going to be the solution to everything. But as we’ve seen with GO and 7TWO, this is far from the case as these channels have had shows chopped and moved around at a moment’s notice and in some cases before they’ve even started. No reason to think Ten would be any wiser especially as sci-fi is always a bit of a ratings black hole in Australia
if they fast tracked Supernatural it like they said they would then people wouldn’t have to resort to downloading , no wonder the rating were so low , diehard Supernatural fans have already seen all the episodes Months ago…
Returning it later in the year channel Ten will only result in more low ratings….D***heads
It’s Summer ratings.. non-rating period..or at least it’s meant to be anyway…apparently, not according to C10 it’s not. Another thing is..they kinda screwed around with SN themselfs this year… screwing with time slots/ not playing one episode one week…. and playing it the next week instead. You can’t blame it all on people downloading.
Third channel is confirmed. Any more detail isn’t, hence me using the word “may.”
That’s why fans are getting annoyed at Australian TV Networks and turning to the net to watch/down their favourite TV shows.
hey everyone i got a question fo david knox hey david i noticed in this article you said that ten may be stockpiling shows for its third channel is it 100% confirmd that therewil be a third channel if so what chanel will t be on ed 12 , 1 , 11
Are we surprised? Honestly? Look at Ten’s treatment of Smallville…history repeats itself.
Ch Ten has our support if they show us support. I am Not watching Ch Ten Monday night until they bring back Supernatural on air.
If Ten is Not interested in airing the show now and ever, then release the right to air immediately, so that another channel can pick it up. Cable or free to air, I don’t care. As long as Aussie fans get our episodes. If no other channels want to pick up the show, then Warner Brothers or whoever holds the right to do so, should release all previous seasons as well as the latest episodes on iTune.
The truth is that if Ten doesn’t receive enough ratings for a program, the advertisers will go elsewhere and Ten won’t profit. I think these sort of shows are boring. Every week there’s a different antagonist and the “heroes” come out on top or still survive unless a character quits the show. It’s like Charmed, every week they would fight demons, monsters, warlocks etc. and win, it became tedious. It’s the old “villain of the week” type series and I doubt it would receive as much viewers if Jensen Ackles wasn’t there to be looked at.
It probably couldn’t be worse than Billy Madison or Back To The Future shown for the 150th time but protagonists still winning against demons and vampires for the 200th episode in a row would be just as tedious.
I’m hoping that TEN are going to be using their 3rd channel for a lot of these shows. SGU got about 400,000 viewers wasn’t it after the debut of 700,000 right? Well just think about how many of those people use digital TV – A lot. So the audience numbers they’d get on TEN’s new channel would be really good. Supernatural, Smallville, SGU and Battlestar Galactica would go really good on their new digital channel. Remember good ‘ol Sci-Fi night on TEN HD? Why not bring that back on their new channel? If it’s on Thursdays or Friday it would help boost the pretty dismal shares TEN get.
I totally understand that Channel 10 is a business and as such needs to make money or it will go under. However, what hasn’t been mentioned is the complete run around the fans of Supernatural have been enduring here, let me see if I can recap some of them, or at least the most recent ones: 1. Initially we were told Supernatural was going to be fasttracked – didn’t happen. 2. We were told it was going to start airing on such and such a date (sorry I can’t remember) – didn’t happen, it started weeks later. 3. We were given a timeslot of 8.30pm with double episodes for 2 weeks and then nothing on the 3rd week due to the movie length premiere of Stargate. 4. With SGU now being shown, Supernatural was pushed back to 9.30pm. 5. The next episode was advertised and then without warning a movie was put on instead. 6. We have not been informed of anything, as you can see by the response from Channel 10, they May look at returing it later in the year.
So, I have to ask, with all this stuffing around is it any wonder that the fans are confused as to when Supernatural might be on or have given up entirely on trying to watch Supernatural on Channel 10?
Has anyone else seen the official Stargate website? There’s a Channel Ten logo right on the banner and the menu.
What’s the point of that if they don’t even bother to screen the show here? You can’t build an audience when you keep hiding the show or moving it around to unspecified timeslot locations.
Time for another repeat of Love Actually then? (Billy Elliot was just on, so we’ll not see it for at least two more weeks)
Not sure why Ten couldn’t just play out the show late at night or something like that, but why don’t the fans just buy the DVD or even explore so-called “other means”? Problem solved.
OMG”Double Jeopardy” is on again tonight. Must watch as I do forget a few bits of the script before “Hello Nic”. Wasn’t it run (again) only a few months ago. Hurry up TEN. Get your version of GO! and 7TWO running so you can dump all of the trash you’re sitting on onto the new channel, then repeat every episode ten time a week. Drop in a few programs like SGU and Supernatural that TEN programmers personally don’t like but have a strong following and “resonate quite well” (newspeak from some overpaid university graduate with a degree in “communications”) which really means what? Lesson #1. Don’t try using big words unless you know the meaning of them.
Surely they don’t get very big ratings on their HD Sport channel … why not give a sane and productive alternative on there and have evening blocks of viewing dedicated to Si-Fi or other shows they keep dumping for the lame excuse of poor ratings???
What are the sort of ratings they get for their HD Sport Channel???
Jack!
If Ten have another channel and dedicate a few nights a week to Sci-Fi fans, then I’ll be incredibly happy and will watch it religiously. But for now, I’m just furious. They wonder why they get so few ratings? Because everyone is forced to watch it online and by other means, and then because they’ve already seen that episode, won’t watch it on TV again.
But thanks for ending the bad news article with that little Kripke tidbit about Season 6 =) That made me happy again.
@Rob — this season (for both shows) is not available on DVD, and will not be reasonably priced until they go on sale (season 4 is $60-80 and without the extras on disc 6). If the regional DVD sale goes as it did for season 4, we won’t see it here until 4 or 5 months after the rest of the world.
As for the “whingers”, not all of us have HDTV.
Thanks for hearing us Supernatural/SGU fans out.
Surely Channel Ten can at least play the show, even if they have to put it in a late night timeslot after Letterman. Definitely would watch that over Medium or whatever else is on at that time.
It’s really quite immature that people are complaining about a commercial television network removing poorly rating programs from its schedule. Channel Ten do not exist as a charity to cater to you and your demands – they are a business there to make profit! If you have a problem with these shows being axed, blame the Australian public. Chanel Ten are just reacting to a lack of demand.
Anyway, you gotta laugh at the guy who wants to boycott the companies who advertise during the replacement programming. Good luck with that….
You make mention low ratings and the use of Bittorrent downloands. Does downloads come into play when determining the avg cross section of Australian TV viewers when they make up ratings numbers.
E.g. If the homes chosen to report on TV ratings are more or less likely to have a broadband connection capable of downloading TV show and as a result do or do not download TV shows from the Internet. As it could really skew the actually figures.
I also love what slydoggie said ” It would not surprise me that in 10 years time the main FTA networks don’t even exist as they do now, rather Ten’s US Studios like CBS and Fox release the programs online for free but with ads inserted locally from each country” I have often thought what a great business idea that would be and see that its the way of the future of TV/Internet
@ryan Thing is it’s not a case of people not watching, it’s that those watching are not part of the ratings system so they don’t get counted.
As for the Monday night movie rating well, what were the opposing shows? I didn’t bother turning on my TV so don’t know. I can pretty much guarantee one channel showed sports which always rates well because the people polled are exactly the kind who watch a lot of sport and love Aussie soap shows.
Supernatural isn’t a mainstream show in the US so it won’t be here, but it does have a very solid audience. One that is (was) prepared to watch when it aired on FTA as well as staying up to date by “other means”, but I think that now Ten have really alienated that audience.
Keep those postcards going. It probably won’t make a bit of difference to Ten’s decision but it will clutter up their mailbox so they will at least know we are out there.
The mystrey that needs to be answered is why are the channels buying sci-fi shows in the first place if they know they don’t “rate” well????
Channel 10 should be congratulated for not listening to the small minority of crazy Internet fans of little watched shows such as Supernatural and Stargate.
Ten, like all TV stations, are in the business of making Money. They are not a community asset that broadcasts niche shows for the purpose of keeping a handful of fringe viewers happy.
Its a simple equation – if a show receives only 400,000 viewers for a primetime broadcast it is Gone!
Get over it people!
So Ten most likely will use its 3rd channel to show Supernatural and SGU, and once again those of us in regional areas will miss out again. They have so much crap on their main channel surely they can fill some late night timeslots?
The movie didn’t really rate well at all. It is only because 10 are in such a bad state that they say “The Monday night movie has resonated quite well with viewers.
Ok 10, crank up your 3rd chanel and give us sci-fi a few nights a week. We also know you have squirrelled away the rights to the Star Trek !
I was tempted to go bodly forth……. but I won’t, LOL !
LOL. “[W]e may look at returning it later in the year”.
Thanks Channel 10! That’s an incredibly informative response. Thank goodness I caught up on episodes 7 – 10 over the week via “other means”. Episode 10 was a great mid-season cliff-hanger. I’m looking forward to the return of the series to US screens.
Right, that does it! TEN officially have now slapped us all in the face!
Can anyone remember who were the advertisers that were paying for airtime while Supernatural and Universe were screening on TEN??? As someone suggested before, will it have an impact if we threaten to boycot their products???
“Monday night movies have resonated quite well with viewers…” what bulls**t! No-one wants to watch yet another repeat of a movie that they already have on DVD … this is clear proof of how inacurate the ratings really are! Maybe everyone who commented here on TV Tonight about the dumping of the shows should go to the TEN website and make their same comments there … i know I have never bothered to do that and i assume the vasty majority have not done so either …
See how that “resonates” channel TEN! Anyway … back to viewing by other means because the Networks have given us No other option!
Jack!
mmm…such a double edge sword…not enough people watching it so it gets pulled, or leave them both there to the detriment of the business. It would not surprise me that in 10 years time the main FTA networks don’t even exist as they do now, rather Ten’s US Studios like CBS and Fox release the programs online for free but with ads inserted locally from each country.
“The Monday night movie has resonated quite well with viewers that like to watch complete cr@p over and over again, but for those Supernatural fans, they can get stuffed, we do not care what they think, even though they fit into the demographic we aim at. We know best, and do not belive that delaying the show for three months had any affect on the ratings. We may look at returning it later in the year, but don’t count on it.”
So, I guess Mean Girls will be on a Monday night soon?
Maybe the shows just aren’t as popular to justify the screening on the main channel that Ten will show it on the Ten2 channel this year. In any case all the episodes can be bought on DVD and BluRay at reasonable prices without ads and since all the whingers have a HDTV they should get the PQ they can’t on Ten SD
Stock-piling shows for a 3rd channel is not going to work, fans will and have gone else where!
Thanks for the re-cap David.
It was one week’s movie. What if this week and/or the next doesn’t do well at all? Will they dump the movies due to poor ratings?
What a shame TEN can’t be bothered to give an adequate answer. Wonder what percentage of viewers will bother to wait for the launch of a third HD station (or even have HD access) or will they find alternate means to view their shows?
these people need to grow a brain and realise if knowone watches a show then No channel will keep it, dont forget money is everything.