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A spring in TEN’s step

With Masterchef, Bachelor & Spelling Bee, TEN appears to be benefitting from running its own race.

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It’s been a long time coming, but TEN is finally beginning to enjoy some sunshine, if at the expense of its rivals.

TEN’s determination to run its own race has been noticed by viewers, while ‘copycat’ claims and fatigue are terms being directed at Nine and Seven.

MasterChef Australia has given TEN momentum, just as Nine and Seven roll out uninspired cookie-cutter shows.

Last week’s Grand Final gave TEN its biggest primetime audience since August 2011 and the highest primetime commercial share in 25 to 54s and total people since July 2010. Its primary channel will finish the week neck and neck with Seven’s.

Despite rolling straight into repeat shows on Tuesday, the network enjoyed The Bachelor‘s best launch in its 3 seasons. It trumped both Hot Plate and Restaurant Revolution and has drawn plenty of press.

Tomorrow it offers another point of difference with The Great Australian Spelling Bee, strategically placed away from The Voice. While no previews have been released, momentum can never be dismissed -viewers swarm to positivity and are reluctant to back the smell of failure.

Meanwhile The Project is also enjoying some of its best numbers in months, no doubt thanks to Waleed Aly.

Seven has blinked with Restaurant Revolution pulled back to two nights a week while Nine’s Hot Plate has been accused of being an MKR clone. At least Nine still has The Voice plus its early evening News and A Current Affair, while The Ashes is also lifting its network share.

The same can’t be said for Seven News, while Dancing with the Stars is far from matching preceding seasons. Seven leads at Breakfast, but that gap appears to be closing too. Adding Dr.Harry and Border Security has the smell of summer programming.

However, the race is far from over and one upbeat week does not a calendar make. Seven has quite a lead on the competition this year, which will serve as a timely buffer.

X Factor and 800 Words are just around the corner for Seven and there’s no denying TEN still has middling numbers elsewhere in primetime.

But viewers are rewarding TEN for offering a point of difference -which echoes the network traditionally being the cheeky, younger sibling. Last week was a win for Programming Chief Beverley McGarvey and astute timing for CEO Hamish McLennan to finish on a positive, having completed what he was clearly charged with achieving.

22 Responses

      1. I agree that that is prob what they were thinking. I just don’t think Spelling Bee is a strong enough show to launch from, even up against the two cooking-cutter shows.

  1. Well deserved TEN!
    I wonder if we will see any tweaks to the mornings, has Studio 10 improved? A difficult gig to improve morning ratings against the Today / Sunrise lead-ins.

  2. I agree. I like Ten more than Seven or Nine, but never ever watch anything on One, Eleven, Gem or Go. 7Two and 7Mate have a bundle of ‘guilty pleasures’ though.

  3. FTA is over and the networks know it, that is why they now own streaming services to put their actual programs on. Get used to paying for television people. All the networks care about now is programming in which advertisers can “discreetly” put their products in the background, hence multiple cooking/reno shows, a perfect fit for plugging products.

  4. Good on them! While I haven’t watched any of their reality shows we have switched from 7’s news programs over to Family Fued and the first 30mins of The Project and have been enjoying them alot. Also really looking forward to Madam Secretary final this week

  5. Agree re Waleed on the Project – I used to drift in and out, now I make a point of watching every night, even though I dislike Peter Helliar.

  6. Ten is doing well because the alternative is cooking shows on seven and nine .who wants to watch another cooking show . The only one I watch is MKR.hotplate is a rip off of MKR. Ten is smart enough to offer an alternative.

  7. And Channel 10 is demonstrating good chemistry skills this year thanks to strong numbers on IACGMOOH, MCA, FF and The Project. Let’s hope that The Spelling Bee will deliver high numbers.

  8. What an abomination is the idea of watching kids spell on prime time viewing, or watching women degrade themselves ….. I’ll be streaming or watching Foxtel ………

  9. Seven and Nine have created a new genre – the cooking-cutter show. In years to come I’ll gather the young ones around me and tell them that I was there when Aus commercial FTA died a slow embarrassing death.

  10. Yeah, 9 and 7 have been ridiculous lately. It’s bad enough they’re copying each other in both doing renovation/house building shows and restaurant/cooking shows but just astounds me that they also run them at the same time as each other. Talk about killing the audience, leaving those interested in the specified genre not knowing which to watch.

    Good to see 10 running it’s own race.

  11. Ten need to be congratulated on improved programming and offering creative alternatives. 7 and 9 are treating viewers with stupidity and really hurting their brands at the moment. I hope Ten recruit Chris Bath to continue their high!

  12. I applaud Ten for trying new ideas like I’m a Celebrity and The Spelling Bee. Not convinced that Beverley McGarvey is a great programmer. One is a perfect example of scrambled eggs with programs all over the place. Another example is their Tattoo show on Eleven, it simply stands out as being the wrong channel. Then there is the programming on Eleven whereby their daytimes shows have been running for several years with little change. Whilst consumers like regularly we also like variety.

    1. Agree there. One and Eleven appear to be random shows slotted in with little rhyme or reason. I thought One was receiving a rebrand last year at some stage? Just seems to be repeats of repeats currently, Eleven isn’t much better.

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