US dramas struggling for Heroes
It's not just the US stock markets in a meltdown. Heroes and Prison Break have a lousy season debut for Seven. What's going on, people?
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
As the global financial market continue to slide, so too are ratings for American television programmes in Australia.
Despite the recent cast member promo visit, last night’s premiere of Heroes‘ supposedly revamped series managed a rather paltry 878,000. A second episode took 785,000. At 10:30pm the new season of Prison Break tanked at a lousy 387,000. Thanks to its early evening shows, Seven will be pleased it still won the night in 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54 demographics.
These are shows that two and three years ago were hailed as shining beacons for Channel Seven.
It follows the lack of interest in another former hit, Ugly Betty, which is now bumped until summer.
But Seven is not alone is finding American shows are out of fashion. TEN’s new season of House is getting about half the ratings it once enjoyed. Kitchen Nightmares USA was so poorly received it’s gone too.
The American shows that are working are Two and a Half Men, NCIS, and Criminal Minds -precisely one for each commercial FTA network.
Meanwhile Aussie productions such as Packed to the Rafters, City Homicide, 60 Minutes are connecting with audiences. Australian Idol is TEN’s strongest local brand.
The ABC has better insurance against the US fatigue with its British components. Its Sunday, Friday and Saturday British dramas have a loyal following, with Midsomer Murders and Doctor Who having given the commercial networks a headache.
Many would argue the lack of interest in some of the American product is a complex equation. Some shows are ‘fasttracked’ too late. Some have poor lead-ins. Others have been damaged by too many repeats or not enough viewer awareness of its place in the schedule.
There is now considerable anger from viewers watching other shows ripped off air at a moment’s notice, which damages loyalty to the network. Today’s Daily Telegraph has picked up on the mood in this article.
TEN is particularly on the receiving end of viewer anguish right now. Its audience is particularly susceptible to the habit of downloading, regardless of whether it is legal or not.
How much of a U-Turn we have taken when a few years ago the big imports like CSI, Desperate Housewives and Lost consumed us. Now US stocks seem to have fallen in television too. At least we know they can rebound back overnight…
45 Responses
Why were the ratings crap ???? By the time CH7 decides to show these programmes most of the audiece has seen programming because of the internet. Thank god for the internet I say!!!!!!
Ever heard of downloading?? Thats what people who have loads of bandwidth do when ch 7 take too long to put the shows and who keep changing the time slots. They download tv shows instead, it serves ch 7 right not to have the ratings they were expecting. They are so arrogant.
Lets face it, FTA is becoming more irrelevant as time goes by.
The ridiculous way ratings the measure, the completely arrogant attitude of tv networks screwing over loyal viewers is starting to bit. With Channel BT so freely and easily available, its only a matter of time before the death of traditional FTA
Prison Break is on late, which suits me – but I can see it being a headache for Seven. Perhaps they could put it on HD as a repeat?
It’s great TV from what I saw.
The networks have no-one to blame but themselves . Low ratings are payback for withholding episodes, endless repeats, constant schedule changes and non-promotion of new series / timeslots.
I doubt that everyone would give up on a show if they think it had a lousy season. A lot of people hate the second season of Heroes and there was also some hatred towards the third season of Prison Break. I think those fans will eventually come back and new ones along the way will join but I seriously doubt they’re going to rely on a lousy Australian free-to-air network for their fix.
Access to TV shows is getting easier and easier. The networks can’t afford to stuff around. Seven’s most popular shows are still very popular but fans watch them when they choose to. They’re certainly not going to wait the ridiculously long time to see the next season of Desperate Housewives!
i suggest a tv channel dedicated to american content. imagine week after week filled with new eps of prison break, lost, housewives, anatomy etc. and it’s all super dooper fast tracked. I would like to see a tv channel not overly concerned by ratings and competition with other channels, but rather show programs which actually the Australian public want.
Excuse me Prison Break boring ? That is a first Mia, maybe sit down and watch it a bit more, it is exciting plenty of twists and is just not getting a fair go by Seven, lift Seven and promote it 10:30 is too late as well.
This time of year, people are in wind down mode. They are starting to go out more, spend more time with family and friends or outdoors. It’s the wrong time of year to get it into these shows, that require a fair bit of concentration. It was the same with Fringe, I new it looked like a good show, I forced my self to watch but I really just wasn’t in mood. See , in the US they have just had their summer holidays. I belive the time of year is the main reason why Fasttracking isn’t working here. I know its a big call. but I truly belive that to be the case. Offcorse the downloaders may not agree. I did watch Heroes, all the while not sure if I would keep watching, but as usual they have a delicious cliffhanger that keeps me coming back. I taped PB, havn’t watched it yet, But, I think, I just want to see Sarah come bacl to life, then I might leave it.
Yes, true if it wasn’t for this site (and by chance looking at the back of yesterday’s Herald Sun) I would not have even known Prison Break had returned.
I saw no advertising for it on the TV.
I love Prison Break but 10.30 pm is far too late for me to stay up and watch it. Noting the comments about lack of promotion, I agree with that – I was only aware it was returning thanks to TV Tonight.
I think I might have a theory as to why the ratings are down, and not due to any perceived drop in quality.
We live in a world where everyone is multitasking to such an extent that we generally can’t focus on one thing only. Heroes, LOST, Prison Break, etc etc – shows like that demand a certain level of attention that most people can’t/won’t give to one single thing. And that is a shame, because some very good programming is getting hamstrung due to ADD-style behaviour.
Amen to that neon kitten! I am prepared to wait about week or two for some shows, but I am like one of many who am not prepared to be screwed around with by the networks anymore with time swapping or delaying half way through a season. Ugly Betty is a fine example of that. Seven aired it so late after it aired in the US that anyone who actually cared about watching it already downloaded it in order to avoid watching more shows like “World’s Funniest” or “World’s greatest” or some other lame show that costs them $10 to make.
Neon Kitten couldnt agree more , 7 are the ones to blame for there low ratings of top shows , like you said any heroes fan would have long got into bittorrent to watch all the new stuff instead of waiting the amount of time the networks want us to .
were up to ep 4 of heroes now & if i had a choice of wating for chan 7 to get off its lazy ass to show the programs or using bittorrent i know which one id use.
yeah holding back those 2 eps of heroes was a huge mistake , ill never watch a hit show on tv again , i now just download everything i watch within 2 hours of it being shown in the usa & can watch it when i want ,
oh & if the networks dont like us downloading do something bout it like fix your programing times or change the law so its so much harder to download [ha].
Answer is very simple
No promotion of Prison Break.
I regularly watch 7 (dancing with the stars, Packed to the rafters, news) i saw promotion for heroes but nothing for Prison Break.
If Channel 7 wants viewers to watch there shows, they need to promote them!!
If it wasn’t for this site, I would not have known that Prison Break was on!
Thanks tvtonight!!!
Matthew
The torrents for the season-opening episodes of Heroes were the most popular torrents I’ve seen in a long, long time. I’m talking *tens of thousands* of people downloading and sharing the files all at once. A quick peer check revealed that ab huge proportion of these were from Australia.
Seven has made a huge mistake in allowing Heroes to run three episodes ahead in the US. For fans of the show, that’s a wait they’re not prepared to wear.
Also, fans of the show have not forgotten the object lesson in the value of BitTorrent downloading that Seven gave them with their holding back of the last two episodes of season 2.
In short, Seven has no-one but themselves to blame.
Heroes & Prison Breka have both shed viewers in the US, and thats usually a pretty good indicater in how popular shows are going to be over here
Heroes was actually the top rating show last night in both the 16-39 & 18-49 demo’s, so it wasnt all the work of H&A and Supermodel…
PB is just OTT at the moment….i gave up on last nights episode after about 20mins, the plot was just too far gone
Heroes was awesome last night, but non-fans would have lost interest – it’s still hard to believe this is the same show that premiered 18mths ago with a good 1 million extra viewers
Perhaps Heroes is a niche sci-fi show with a limited demo that ‘s the main reason. These types of shows (others would be sarah connor,the 4400,supernatural etc) rarely do well in oz and IMO to get 800+k is fairly impressive though you wouldn’t think Seven would be happy with it.
Shows like 2.5 Men,NCIS and Criminal Minds appeal to a much broader demo (incl those that rarely download current tv shows)and thus get better ratings.
The problem is the fan base I think.
People who watch Lost, Heroes, and, to a lesser extent, Prison Break, are mainly dedicated fans, because these shows require every episode to be seen. Add to that the main audience for those shows is probably the younger demographic, and no wonder no one watches them on TV: they’ve already downloaded them. I can absolutely assure you, even if they’re fast tracked, 15-30 years olds will still download them: no ads, and they can be watched whenever you want, and more than once too.
Desperate Housewives, on the other hand, appeals to the over 30s more than those other shows. Therefore, there is less of a tendency to download it, and so it rates over the million still.
It’s sad, because Lost is, for mine, TV at its best, but no one will credit that here. Heroes is still a good show, and Prison Break is watchable, without being close to realistic.
I totally agree Koro, I did not see one promo for Prison Break in the last… well since the eps they showed earlier in the year, how do there expect people to know something is on when the average viewer doesn’t come to sites like this?
Plus I agree they it really isn’t fast tracking when they are 7 eps ahead in the US, I wonder how many eps ch7 will leave hanging when the rating period ends this year?
I think the handling of these shows in australia with the writers strike as well has pushed more people off into the realms of dvd and downloading.
Surely at least some of the reason for this is that the people who want to see these things have other ways of obtaining them. I don’t watch Heroes but everyone in my office who does has done so via download or buying the DVD sets. Lost is another show that seems to be watched via non-traditional methods. hese shows appeal to the younger demographic who are very comfortable with new media and also very keen on time-shifting their viewing. Shows like Criminal Minds and NCIS don’t seem to generate quite the ‘cult’ status of the others and also probably appeal to a broader range of ages so they wouldn’t necessarily fall victim to the same kind of downloading frenzy.
My problem (and it always has been) is the people meters.
SO much ratings wise, depends on so few.
How do we know that the 100 or (whatever small figure it is) is a true refection of people watching tv.
BTW, I after watching my usual Law & Order (and then seeing the next L& O was repeat) I watched Heroes/Prison Break for the first time since initial first eps (which i hated) and was mildly surprised this time.
Bit what would my opinion count, NEVER been asked to be a people meter nor known others that have it and I been around on this planet for awhile.
I don’t understand it. I find Heroes and Prison Break a little boring, but it’s not as though the Aussie shows that are rating so well are of greater quality (imho). And they are a much higher standard than Two and a Half Men (it is beyond belief that that show gets the ratings it does). I’m going to sound like a snob, but I think the problem’s the public not the shows.
FWIW, I watch The Office, Pushing Daisies, Gossip Girl, 30 Rock, House, Life and Doctor Who. And only half on Aussie FTA.
I don’t see how Seven could be dissapointed with the PB result given there was no promotion for it…
It’s such a shame because it was a great episode too.