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Sci-Fi fans turn on TEN

Since TEN dumped Supernatural and Stargate Universe, fans have been venting their anger. TV Tonight looks for answers amid a wave of fury.

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.

97 Responses

  1. 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?

  2. 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)

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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!

  6. 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.

  7. @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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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….

  10. 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

  11. @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.

  12. 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!

  13. 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?

  14. 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.

  15. 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 !

  16. 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.

  17. 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!

  18. 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.

  19. “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?

  20. 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

  21. 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?

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