It's not all peaches and cream for Seven

Mediocre, moreover a disappointing result for Seven’s much hyped Make Me A Supermodel last night only returning 936 000 viewers but what is more of a worry, is the once dominant Ugly Betty is in trouble only attracting 536 000 viewers last night in it’s new 9:30PM time slot.

It won’t be long before Betty is bumped to 10:30PM or pulled from the schedule. Another American series that has had a difficult year on Seven in 2008 along with Heroes, Prison Break and Lost plus the failure of new series, Lipstick Jungle, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money, none of which have had the same impact that returning series Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives have and continue to have.

Luckily Seven have invested money into their Australian dramas like the stunning debut of Packed to the Rafters this week and City Homicide continues to rate well, both near the 2 million viewer mark while All Saints consistently rates above one million viewers.

Last night more people found their remote controls which had been stuck on Seven since the Olympics also seeing the gap close between Home and Away and Two and A Half Men which were only separated by 20 000 viewers.

The news and current affair hour was again dominated by Seven with Seven News still capturing 400 000 viewers more than Nine News but the news is a little better for A Current Affair which trails Today Tonight by 300 000 viewers.

Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos was the biggest shock of the night winning the 8:30PM slot and being rewarded as the evenings highest rating show and Nine’s largest audience share last night. Kerry Packer may have axed the show mid-screening in 1992 but in 2008 almost 1.4 million people tuned in to see what was so bad about it.

Could Nine now turn this into a regular series?

Let’s hope not but the one-off special helped Nine win their first night this week and their first night since August 6 and the Olympics. Getaway also had more than 1.3 million viewers while The Footy Show ticked over the million mark to give Nine 30.4% of the audience share compared with Seven’s 25% and Ten’s 23.6%.

Despite Seven losing they will win the week and you would expect executives will not be too concerned that Thursday’s are a weak night but Nine are launching their new Australian drama, The Strip at 8:30 next Thursday which now has the opportunity to do big numbers. Next week will be more competitive – stay tuned.

It’s Thumbs up for Two and A Half Men and Hole in the Wall

Commercial television gauges its success by ratings and this morning Nine would be smiling with the news that last night, Wednesday 6th August a brand new episode of Two and A Half Men was the nations most watched television program with 1.64 million viewers and their new gameshow, Hole in the Wall finished third and won it's slot capturing 1.56 million viewers nationally.

This is a big win and a strategic victory for Nine who had competition from Seven, Ten and the ABC with the Seven launching Make Me A Supermodel hosted by the glamorous Jennifer Hawkins but the program finished at Number 13 for the night with only 1.07 million viewers narrowly beating two hours of So You Think You Can Dance (American version) with 1.05 million viewers.

Nine won the night which read:

Nine 28.4%
Seven 27%
Ten 20.1%
ABC 19.7%
SBS 4.8 %

OzTam

Earlier this year, the op-inion questioned Nine’s decision to continually try and find Two and A Half Men a home after many attempts and poor ratings. Well I conceed and I become a johnny-come-lately because over the past few months this show has grown on me and I also find it very funny.

It’s no Seinfeld or Friends but it is a close substitute and the best American comedy on our television screens. Give it a go and obviously more people are giving the show a go with the 7PM weeknight repeats providing strong opposition to Seven’s Home and Away with Men winning the timeslot a few nights a week.

Home and Away has been forced to seen a number of new characters enter the Bay after the departure of Kate Ritchie, Mark Furze and Indiana Evans. After Sally’s estranged brother Miles (Josh Quong Tart) joined the show, he was followed by a raft of new faces including, Roman (Conrad Coleby) who brought daughter Nicole (Tessa James), new police woman Charlie Buckton (Esther Anderson), her sister Ruby (Rebecca Breeds), their father occasionally appears on the show with new wife, Home and Away veteran Morag (Corneilla Frances) plus Phuket refugee Jai (Jordan Rodrigues).

With six new regular cast members in six months, audiences have had to watch new characters and new story lines develop whilst Two and A Half Men has slowly been stealing some of the audience. Ten has also provided little challenge in the 7PM slot since So You Think You Can Dance and The Biggest Loser finished, now placing repeats of Friends against winning repeats of Two and A Half Men.

Last nights success of Hole in the Wall is not a surprise given the high ratings that Wipeout has been receiving. The shows objective is quite simple, get through the obscure and difficult holes in the wall or be subjected to falling in the pool.

Sounds simple enough but entertaining when you place attractive women in figure hugging space suits up against men who make the suits look far to small and the holes impossible to fit through so when contact is made the wall breaks and they are subjected to falling in the pool.

Nine will be excited by the success of Hole in the Wall and Two and A Half Men last night as the network gears up for a post-Olympic stampede in order to finish the year as well as they started.

Kochie versus 60 Minutes

It’s the Battle of Sunday night’s…

In the Red corner we have the challenger, Seven who has struggled to dominate Sunday’s with the falling Gladiators, My Name is Earl, Most Shocking and Grey’s Anatomy (unlike the winning Where Are They Now? / Ugly Betty / Grey’s Anatomy line-up of 2007)….

Against the Champion in the Blue Corner, Nine with a resurgence from 60 Minutes, strong ratings from Domestic Blitz (and before that Royal Flying Doctor Service / Medical Emergency) and the dominant CSI.


Seven are pinning their hopes on David Koch who will attempt to unearth 60 Minutes in the key 7:30PM Sunday night slot. Kochie’s Battle of the Choirs will be screened from Sunday week, June 15.

Competiting choirs vying for $100 000 = riveting television... NOT

Will it work?

I don’t think so.

Seven are on a time bomb with this one. 60 Minutes is back. Dancing With the Stars has been done and will be back, It Takes Two 2008 has been screened and figures were down, so why would choirs be any different?

Seven still have some ammunition within their armour in what has been a successful slot for Australian drama and/or comedy with Kath & Kim and Ugly Betty finding success in the 7:30 slot.

Packed to the Rafters would appear as the perfect fit to their 7:30 Sunday slot. Maybe it is coming and maybe I am going to be proved wrong about Kochie’s Choirs but I don’t think the show will be as big a success as Seven are hoping.

The network has also announced a new reality TV series, Make Me A Supermodel which is cashing in on the success of Fox 8’s Australia’s Next Top Model. The Seven series, Make Me comes from the British format which is a smart purchase for the network to appeal to it’s younger demographic. Somewhat of a surprise that Seven has bought the right’s to what appears on the surface to be a Channel Ten-esque show but nevertheless a clever strategic move.

Seven have also got a lot of new episodes of City Homicide to screen which the network’s scheduele is screaming out for as audience numbers are on the slide with Criminal Minds and Bones being used as 8:30PM shows.

Grey’s finishes up very soon as does Desperate Housewives so expect to see the new spin-off of Grey’s, Private Practice to air in the Grey’s slot, 8:30PM Sunday while City Homicide may replace Desperate Housewives again in what would be an interesting and unique challenge.

Aussie drama versus Aussie drama with City Homicide (Seven, 8:30PM Monday) up against Sea Patrol (Nine, 8:30PM Monday). I cannot remember the last time networks put one Aussie drama against another... can you?

Seven may resist doing this as it has not been done for some time and the Aussie drama sector may wish to protect itself against putting two products against each other.

Which still leaves the debut of Packed to Rafters unknown at this stage while Nine remain tight-lipped about McLeod’s Daughters.

Kochie (The Battle of the Choirs) versus 60 Minutes starts next Sunday, June 15.