Seven News thrashes Nine

Unless everyone has taken up the opportunity to watch the news on the internet, then Nine news is in trouble. Dropping the title ‘National’ has not boosted ratings as last night, Seven thrashed Nine by almost 600 000 viewers nationally.

Seven News accumulated 1.7 million viewers and was Australia’s most popular program last night while Nine News lagged in 11th position with a tickle under1.2 million viewers.

Nine lost every single market convincingly with Seven News having almost 200 000 more viewers in Sydney alone. Seven (510 000) versus Nine (307 000)

Melbourne was slightly better for Nine who lost by only 60 000 viewers. Seven (424 000) versus Nine (362 000) while Brisbane saw Seven win by a similar margin.

Adelaide and Perth were also Seven's by 43 000 viewers and almost three times the audience in Perth where Seven flogged Nine 271 000 versus 100 000 viewers.

The news for fill-in A Current Affair host Eddie McGuire is not much better who had a sensational start to the week with Monday’s ratings some of Nine’s highest with ACA attracting 1.42 million viewers nationally which was marginally behind the winning Today Tonight, 1.47 million viewers.

Tuesday was a different story as Eddie’s honeymoon finished, ACA returned only 1.21 million viewers as apposed to Today Tonight who had 1.5 million viewers and like Seven News had the highest current affairs audience in every major capital city.

Million Dollar Wheel continues to struggle and could now realistically be facing the axe delivering only 561 000 viewers to the news and current affairs hour while Deal or No Deal provides Seven News and Today Tonight with 937 000 people.

So what is so different that makes Seven News more popular?

The lead-in? The reporters? The presenters? Peter Meakin?

And what will Nine do?

One week separates Nine and Seven

Nine has won Week 14 by 0.2% with 60 Minutes taking the Number 1 most watched show. This trend will continue with another State of Origin contest in Week 16 which should see Nine take that week and this week, things would not appear to be changing too much.

The week came down to Saturday night with Seven screening The Rich List which is bombing in its new day and time slot capturing only 715 000 viewers. The previous season, in 2007 screened on Monday’s at 7:30PM consistently rating around the 1.2-1.4 million mark.

Are game show’s dead?

Million Dollar Wheel has not exactly shot out of the blocks with its first week figures looking like this:

Monday 26/5: 733 000
Tuesday 27/5: 607 000
Wednesday 28/5: 596 000
Thursday 29/5: 542 000
Friday 30/5: 607 000

Deal or No Deal on the other hand consistently beat Wheel with its figures:

Monday 26/5: 975 000
Tuesday 27/5: 904 000
Wednesday 28/5: 890 000
Thursday 29/5: 799 000
Friday 30/5: 815 000

Figures courtsey of MediaSpy

Million Dollar Wheel’s figures are not impressive or challengine Deal in it’s first week but the show must be given time to find an audience. I do think there are some flaws with the show that may prevent a successful reinvention.

The set looks tacky with bright neon lights and the debut show had an over zealous audience whose clapping and cheering was a distraction.

On the plus side, Tim Campbell is an energetic fresh faced host while Kelly Landry’s role is still being developed. Is a letter spinner actually needed, especially when the letters are not spun, rather ‘touched’?

In plain and simple terms one would imagine that Wheel should be more popular than Deal because it actually makes you think. Deal is just a game of luck, opening suitcases, basically gambling. Wheel encourages you to think about sayings, names, words, phrases and the like which makes for more viewer interaction.

The host’s role is important and like him or loathe him, Andrew O’Keefe is very professional. Witty, knowledgeable and funny – he is what gets Deal over the line but Campbell, given time will give O’Keefe a run for his money, as the entertainer.

Looking at the game show genre in further detail there seems to be a decline in the number of productions on air and in further development on commercial networks. At the moment, Ten does not have a game show on air, Nine is only screening Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune (plus old episodes of 1 v 100 in non Rugby League states), Seven is running Deal or No Deal and The Rich List.

Nine’s decision to currently ‘rest’ a two of its game show franchises, Millionaire and Temptation is further indication to the changing genre. The network is developing a new type of game show, Hole in the Wall, a popular Japanese concept that breaks from the traditional game shows that the networks have previously screened.

Thought provoking, challenging game shows are currently on the backburner with network’s and audiences preferring game shows that entertain or allow you to ‘tune out’.