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All the drama of Sunday

Just under 1.3m viewers tuned in to see Nine's Wicked Love telemovie -but the ABC audience switched off My Place in droves.

There were two locally produced dramas on television last night: one was the highly-publicised Wicked Love telemovie on Nine, the other was the ABC3 family series My Place which had its first run on ABC1 in a prime Sunday night slot.

Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story did well with an audience of just under 1.3m winning its timeslot and pushing The Good Wife down to 902,000 on TEN. Seven’s Bones was sandwiched with a respectable 1.23m. Reviews had panned the Nine telemovie but viewers still tuned in to see the sordid tale, or Rebecca Gibney…. or both.

But it was My Place that was the real story of the night.

The handsomely-produced series, which had already had a run on ABC3, was a disaster in the 7:30 slot. It pulled just 283,000 viewers. The ABC News lead in was 907,000 indicating a huge switch-off by ABC viewers. Had enough viewers had already seen the show on ABC1 or have Programmers misread the audience? A week earlier Doctor Who in the same timeslot was 840,000.

As a result the ABC’s evening share was just 11.8%.

Elsewhere last night the return of 60 Minutes took 1.03m, third in its slot behind Air Ways / Border Security (1.34m / 1.27m) and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (1.18m) while Sunday Night (1.07m) beat The Biggest Loser (835,000) and Domestic Blitz (821,000).

Dateline returned for 2010 with 158,000 for SBS ONE.

Ice skating comedy Blades of Glory was strongest on digital channels with 256,000 for GO!

Nine won the night.

Week 10

Updated: Nine claims GO! took a 10.1% share for 16-39s last night, the first time a demo nudged into double figures on a digital channel.

16 Responses

  1. I saw My Place on ABC 3 and the first eps of the series are by far the weakest . The last ones – the early Australiana ones, are pretty good fun, the early ones are tryhard bores. Shame.

  2. Two reasons why My Place bombed:

    1. It’s a kids show. What do you expect?
    2. It’s a repeat. What do you expect?

    If it’s a surprise that a repeated kids show rated less than its first run adult competition, then what isn’t? It’s not rocket science.

  3. ABC on Saturday night is a complete disaster! This week was ditto for Sunday night.
    We used to watch the ABC all the time, now mostly switch off after the news.
    Thanks for Foxtel and DVDs – otherwise we’d be up S*** Creek!

  4. gerry: You’d be surprised if those old shows did rate well with the younger demographics. Compared to those vampire love fest, reality find a lover and plastic surgery show, to some of the viewers the old sitcoms are a god send. Go! reaches every demographic it seems.

  5. Maybe if GO! stopped showing extremely old shows like Blackadder and Get Smart, Bewitched, etc, they could have great numbers for their demos all the time.

  6. Re ABC @ Ronnie ” the programmer needs to take a lot of responsibility for these bad decisions as well”
    I agree !!

    I also note that people in the ABC forums continually ask for the ‘Spooks’ Series – now up to Series 8 – to be fast tracked every year but this never happens, thus sending the fans out to buy the DVD’s which are out months before ABC air’s the series.

  7. Switched off (My Place) this household didn’t, watched it, then waited for Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin.

    Australians are hopeless at making good drama, drama in our image, drama based on our culture, our humour, our language, and why, oh why they use news items for a base boggles the mind, and their eternal fascination with relationships, nudity and sex is a real turn off, usually means the writers aren’t capable of stringing 20+/- x 45 minute episodes together.

    Nah, hell will freeze over before I’ll watch any Aus drama on commercial telly, they’ll have to lift their game

  8. I’d like to know how the new slot for Collectors, from Friday night to Sunday evening is faring in ratings. If the Collectors feedback page is anything to go by, all the fans want the old timeslot back. Be interesting to see if the numbers have indeed dropped.

  9. I wonder if the Good Wife and House’s timeshifted figures will make up for the loss in ‘live’ figures. We watch the Nine movie last night and taped House. Usually we would watch House as it was broadcast.

  10. I watched My Place on ABC2 so I’m not watching it again. I would prefer some fabulously exciting new drama, a la State of Play. The 7-30pm timeslot on the ABC has been woeful for a while now. Bed of Roses?? I don’t even entertain the idea of thinking of watching it. Watched the first season and that was enough for me, I’ totally over tree/sea/whatever change dramedys.

  11. When I saw the TV Guide I thought the ABC must have wanted the night off. A kids show followed by a movie about penicillin. That’s why I turned off after the ABC News.Bed is Roses is a bor, but so is the The Bill these days too. They need to put something like 7.30 New Tricks, 8.30 Midsomer 10.00 The Bill

  12. I certainly thought a lot of Wicked Love was in poor taste considering how recent the events were. Having the late Maria narrate the movie, sharing opinions nobody could possibly know she had, and ones she most certainly did not have, seemed a jarring choice.

  13. Although I agree ABC drama commissioning is lost in the wilderness the programmer needs to take a lot of responsibility for these bad decisions as well.
    My Place is a kids drama – not Sunday primetime fare. BOR is appropriately named – boring. Must try harder.

  14. The ABC is really getting its Australian drama wrong. A children’s drama on Sunday night & a turd like Bed of Roses on Saturday night. Of course, they are producing The Slap. Groannnnnnn.

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