Trouble in programming for Nine
Nine’s Thursday travel strand faded last night with Trouble In Paradise falling to just 870,000 viewers from its series opening of 1.2m.
Getaway – in the 7.30pm slot – maintained its 1.2m audience, but the holiday horrors of Trouble In Paradise gave viewers little reason to stick around, according to preliminary OzTam ratings. Many instead opted for ABC1’s Ned Kelly Uncovered, which pulled in nearly a million for the channel or for Grey’s Anatomy on Seven which pulled in 1.1m after being pushed back to the 9-11pm slot.
In an evening where ratings were down across the board, Masterchef was most watched with an audience just under 1.6m.
Menawhile, The Ashes continued to be a major drawcard for SBS, with the 7.30pm first session pulling in an average of 630,000 and the second 10.30pm session attracting 350,000.
Maybe there ratings suffer because they don’t start advertised progs on time anymore, often up to 15 – 20 mins late. No wonder people turn off!
That would be “their” !!!
These ratings updates seem to continually be bashing Nine for their ratings. Why bash Trouble in Paradise when Law & Order Criminal Intent delivered a mere 795,000 viewers against it?
What I loved about it was the programmation. I don’t know who is the genius behind it but putting ‘Trouble in Paradise’ right after ‘Getaway’ didn’t seem to be the best choice!
It made me laugh tough!
I wonder what would be the effects on Gateway promotional offers as I am sure some people might hesitate to go to Turkey after viewing the program last night.
Hi The Buyer,
Thanks for your comment. Maybe you get that impression because it reflects what’s happening. Broadly, Seven wins more often than Nine at the moment, and Ten’s currently got an unexpected breakout hit with Masterchef.
In this particular example, I flagged it up the day before Nine launched its travel theme as it was an interesting idea: https://staging.mumbrella.com.au/chaser-makes-subdued-ratings-return-but-even-state-of-origin-cant-stop-masterchef-7031
Then returned to the subject the next day writing about a win for Nine in its first week with the theme: https://staging.mumbrella.com.au/tens-ratings-week-runs-out-of-steam-as-nines-travel-theme-wins-7069
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to return to the subject a couple of weeks later when Trouble In Paradise has lost 25% of its previous audience – particularly when Getaway has stayed steady.
I haven’t noticed a dramatic ratings trend up or down for Law & Order. Out of interest, how would you have reported last night’s ratings? What did you see as the most interesting issue?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Nine should ‘hold the course’ chopping and changing is akin to panic, did you just recently hire new programmers same type of people with the same views or is the boss just that little bit too scary.
It trickles from the top.
We all know Kerry would be rollin in his grave
it looks shaky fellas
Is it just me or would the reason that most people switched off to Trouble in Paradise be because the people in a blatantly stupid and naieve? Is it really considered quality tv when its just a made for tv version of “the darwin awards on tour” ???
Who approves the funding for a show that essentially pays people to recount how stupid they were?
Hi Tim,
I would have focused on the performance of SBS’s coverage of the Ashes. SBS had growth of around 400,000 extra viewers when compared to Mad Men the previous week. These viewers had to come from somewhere. Criminal Intent lost 200,000 viewers, whereas Trouble in Paradise lost 227,000. Criminal Intent is coming off a smaller base, so the % loss is bigger, therefore it’s loss is more significant. Given Grey’s Anatomy has a predominantly female audience to begin with, it was never likely to lose audience to the cricket.
Tim, my comment came from the suggestion that you continually focus on the negatives at Nine, yet all networks have failings.
Hi, The Buyer,
Thanks for your comment. I had focused on the Ashes on a previous day, as it happens. It’s certainly been good for SBS.
I do agree that all the networks have negatives, but each day, I can only pick one thing to put at the top of the story – the issue that I think is most interesting overnight, whether positive or negative. I’m not sure that Criminal Intent was the biggest story of the day.
On this occasion it was Nine, yesterday it was Ten squandering its F1 rights on One. I’m sure it will be someone else tomorrow.
But there’s no special agenda involving Nine. They’ve had a disappointing first half of the year, while Seven and Ten have been on the up, so it’s not surprising they’ve had more poor headlines as a result. When Underbelly 3 breaks, I’m sure that’ll lead the ratings headlines for a while.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Ha ha Tim, looks like you get the last laugh, Trouble in Paradise axed for more episodes of 20 to 1.
BTW Tim, disagree F1 rights are being squandered, it being on One is the best reason to get Freeview to date.
Fair point on F1, The Buyer. It’s the only reason I bought a Freeview box myself. It’s been good for driving takeup.
But it does seem a crying shame for Mark Webber that such a small number of Aussies got to see his big moment live when all they were watching instead on Ten was poorly rating fat Americans (aka Biggest Loser USA). Speaking of which, not long til Dance Your Ass Off. I think I’d better go and sharpen my knives…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
You have my blessing in tearing apart THAT program.
It is a shame about Webber, but things like this need to happen to drive take up – content is the key. Tasmania sits at around 80% penetration, vs mid 40% for the rest of the country, because Ten is broadcast solely digitally there. People needed to upgrade to continue to watch Australian Idol, Big Brother, The Simpsons, etc. Hopefully GO! and whatever Seven comes out with can help drive that, or else we won’t be ready by 2013.