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1.47m for Idol

And Idol reached as high as 1.71m for the moment Stan Walker was announced as winner, but it wasn't enough for TEN to win Sunday night.

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stwAustralian Idol averaged 1.47m last night for the moment when 19yo soul singer Stan Walker was announced as winner.

It pulled its biggest audience in Sydney with 476,000 viewers over Melbourne’s 421,000 viewers between 9:21 and 9:47 “The Winner Announced.”

TEN divided the show into no less than three parts, broadly dividing into a first hour, second hour and winning announcement. The first two sections averaged 1.1m and 1.23m respectively.

Its peak audience during the closing moments was 1.71m.

TEN’s chief programming officer, David Mott, said: “These results just go to show, Australians love Idol. After seven years the show continues to wow audiences with its fresh talent and skilled performers.”

It wows some audiences perhaps, but while the peak may hint to life in the old dog this series was troubled by formatting issues and audience fatigue.

In 2008 1.6m viewers tuned in to see Wes Carr announced as winner, with an evening peak of 1.85m.

TEN will need  to retool Idol for 2010 with as many sweeping changes as it brought to Big Brother.

Despite the pull for the finish, it wasn’t enough for TEN to win the night.

The Force was again first for Seven on 1.55m, with Seven News on 1.49m and Sunday Night’s 1.17m defeating rival 60 Minutes on just 928,000. TEN’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation xmas special was 1.06m -well behind its traditional Tuesday figures, but winning its slot in key demos.

Nine’s Twenty20 Cricket had a batting average of 1.12m.

The last ever Einstein Factor bowed out on 666,000 for ABC1 with Samson & Delilah taking 646,000. The last edition of Sunday Arts: Young Performers Award 2009 was only 139,000.

The Big Bang Theory topped a big 318,000 for one episode on GO! and Chicken Run was 131,000 on 7TWO.

Including multichannels, Seven took the first win of the final week with a 30.3% share with Nine close behind on 29.1. TEN lagged behind without any help from ONE.

Week 48

18 Responses

  1. This program has done enough damage hasnt it?

    It has globally managed to hurt the music industry and young bands and artists that have actual talent but don’t want to appear on a glorified karaoke show.

    Labels don’t want anyone that is not pre-sold and as a result many, many young and talented artists that would have succeeded on the 60’s,70’s,80’s,90’s now have Zero chance. All thanks to Idol.

    Oh Idol has managed to change the key music buying age from mid teens and 20’s (in 80’s & 90’s) to 8-13 year olds and all the charts now reflect this.

  2. I’m surprised to hear David Mott say that Australians love Idol. A figure of 22 million would mean that Australians love Idol. A figure of 1-2 million just means that a fair few were curious to find out the winner, and it was the final after all. And as for Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation’s key demos, well isn’t that everyone? I would’ve thought that the show was about, therefore targeted at, all generations/demos.

  3. The final of idol was great! I lost interest during the entire top 12 part leading up to it though (for the first time in the 7).. I think it is due to not getting to know the idols – feeling no connection. The Monday night results show should return and be filled with behind the scenes footage, show the ups and downs etc.. rather than filled with “and we’ll find out, right after this add”. I also think the judging panel needs to be shaken up – Dicko has hurt his own brand with his time at 7 and no longer being with SonyBMG, Marcia I love, but, I think we need a new female voice. Kyle should be returned to the mix – love or hate him – he made good tv…
    I agree with Ren, and I think JB’s idea is worth thinking about… 🙂

  6. Im not one of those Anti- Australian Idol people, but I have to say, the format is really getting tired. I liked it in the early days, when Australia had few idols, but now there are so many Aussie idols I have no idea who exactly they are.

    I don’t mind them keeping the show, but please change the name, because the winners are no longer Australia’s Idol, instead, they’re just another musician with talent.

  7. It was like every “twist” they used to invigorate the show failed miserably. They got rid of Kyle and suddenly all the judging became less entertaining or even constructive. The loss of Matherson also contributed to the lack of “fun’ in the show. The new 6:30 timeslot was a bad choice (especially for the demographic) which was quietly fixed. The decision to eliminate at the start of the show was a horrible way to start the episode. It really just needed just a half hour (or even 15 minute) show on Monday to give out the results. The talent showed promise but you hardly got any soaring moments like previous seasons.

    That’s a lot to fix but they’ve fix it once before when the show was on the edge of being axed!

  8. I think if Ten “encored” TBYG in its regular timeslot they might get a better audience. I think people were just used to repeats being on Sunday evenings. I forgot about it til the last minute.

  9. I think both Big Brother and Idol would have lasted longer if they took a year on, year off approach and swapped with each other. For me the lost interest comes with the fact that it’s just too much, particularly with idol artists oversaturating the marketplace with the show every year – I also think the quality of contestants would be better if the show was on every second year. Big Brother was also a great guilty pleasure but every year was just too much…I think I’d be much more excited about the shows coming back on if they hadn’t been on the previous year, there’d be much more excitement…

  10. I really never liked idol bit this season didn’t have any of the feel of the previous years. I think the format has gone stale. Congrats to seven for a great night with bones and castle though

  11. The problem with Idol is the filler which takes up more space than the actual performances… I love the show, but I don’t watch it. I watched the auditions and the semi-finals – but then just watched the actual performance shows on the official website, because it cuts out all the dodgy comments and awful padding. Was there for the finale though!

  12. So it’s worth four months of very average ratings to then finish (mainly) second on the final night? Interesting.

    Ten might promise sweeping changes, but 19 are infamously strict about the format (it was considered a very big deal when contestants were allowed to play instruments), and really, you can’t change to bones of the show anyway. So are we to just expect new judges and hosts?

  14. Ten couldn’t have promoted the TBYG special too well which may explain the less than impressive viewer figures. I had no idea it was even on & just by chance flicked onto it at the start.

  16. the cricket clearly beat idol by a fai way if you ask me. 1.1 million isn’t a great figure for a finale. i can garuntee 1 thing.10 wont change this show around either. as for sunday night. that inteview was typical of seven and their usual way of looking too grab ratings.

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