TV smackdown week begins: FlashForward vs The Apprentice vs Masterchef vs Hey Hey vs Andrew Denton
Australia’s TV networks are gearing up for the biggest week since the 2009 ratings season began.
Seven, Nine and Ten all raided their marketing piggy banks over the weekend, with large ads in the Sunday papers.
Seven was the biggest spender, mainly to promote tonight’s debut of Flash Forward, with Nine putting in similar effort to promote the debut of The Apprentice Australia.
Nine has also debuted a brand new “Welcome Home” positioning to coincide with the coming battle, which is heavily reliant on US content. Although Seven has already won the overall ratings fight for the year, key demographics are still in play.
I just hope that Hey Hey gets its comeuppance, and rates horribly.
I’m into nostalgia as much as the next person, and I think nine have made some terrible decisions over the years, but taking Hey Hey off was justifiable euthanasia. Apparently Jackie McDonald is still not sure if she will come out of TV retirement, I really hope she doesn’t, for her sake.
Daryl Somers is the worst compere on prime-time TV (I don’t count Sam Newman – he’s a sideshow, not a compere) – he was just execrable on DWTS, and it succeeded despite him (and because it’s a strong format), not because of him IMHO.
I predict a starting audience of 1.2m, which will fade to under 800k by the end of a looooong Wednesday night.
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Wow that promo looks cheep! I think I have a stock animation disc somewhere with those graphics…
As for Hey Hey* – I think the curiosity factor will kick in for the first show and it will rate very well. I’d guess a peek somewhere around the 2-2.2m mark. The two big wildcard factors are how many viewers the Masterchef premiere on Ch10 can pull away and whether or not Daryl starts the show by singing. If he does, all bets are off and I think Matt’s numbers are looking generous…
Nine’s decision to wheel out a local version of The Apprentice really has me scratching my head. It’s a show that has well and truly peeked (what, four years ago?) and was never that popular in Australia to begin with.
Flash Forward will start slow and then fade – sci-fi viewers have learnt not to get too attached to their shows on FTA in Oz and they either download via BitTorrent or buy the DVDs when they come out – or both.
* Disclaimer: I worked on Hey Hey in the late 80’s early 90’s when the show came to Sydney 2-3 times a year so I’d admit I have a soft spot for it – it was incredibly hard work but it was the most fun I ever had in a TV studio…
Just when you thought you had seen everything the TV Stations amaze us again by really scraping the bottom of the barrel and plumbing new depths.
I wonder how long The Apprentice will last maybe two or three episodes until it is shelved until Christmas like Monster house, I am still waiting to see the last series of Primeval on Channel nine that they were going to show last year!! Maybe they forgot
How long will Flash Forward last in a prime time slot until it gets pushed back later and later until it goes on when we are in bed, rather like The Closer 1.00 am last week. Will it be like Lost ,now that show is really lost. I am suprised they did not make a sequel Found!!.
Maybe the people who chose the programming should be tied to a chair and made to watch their choices for a while?
Good solid start… I’ll be watching!
The new look for Nine is truely horrible. Did they just pull out some old promos from the 80s and use the look? It’s so dated and bland. How many looks are they going to have before they get it right? I mean really, how can such a large company be so often put in the hands of someone who obviously doesn’t have a clue about branding or do they all take turns in all having a bash at getting it right.. Maybe they draw names from a hat – ‘Here mate.. it’s your go this month. Maybe you can make it work’.
Its been said before but it needs saying again. Just as long as Daryl doesn’t sing, dance, play drums or try and be funny it might work but only just.
What’s happened to :30 Seconds?
Has it bombed or peaked?