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Fringe without benefits

Go changes: Double Fringe is now single Fringe while some switches also due for Eleventh Hour and Reno 9/11.

fringekaQ: So why would GO! bother taking out single episodes of Fringe and Eleventh Hour just to play a movie and then reschedule them next week instead? It shouldn’t really matter on GO! right? Wrong.

A: It’s the final week of ratings. As of yesterday the Nine Network and the Seven Network were tied on exactly 27.9% each in the 18-49 demographic for the survey year.

Of course, that includes both GO! and 7TWO in the equation, which have only both been on air together for a handful of weeks. But winning that demo, would make a big difference, even if the playing field is slightly uneven.

Still, both networks could have had a new channel from January 1…

To be clear, Nine was planning a double ep of Fringe this Wednesday at 8:30pm. Now it will show one new ep and add the Spartan battle movie 300 at 9:30pm.

It’s also adding Transformers to 8:30pm Friday in place of Frasier repeats.

UPDATE: Movie: Superbad airs from 9:30pm Saturday.

So all you guys aged 18-49 (or at least those of you with OzTAM ratings boxes) pick your choices wisely this week.

There’a a lot of execs sweatin’ on your decisions.

22 Responses

  1. Interesting it is Seven and Nine vying for a win in 18-49 for the year, seeing it is Ten’s target demographic.

    Any news on the 25-54 and 16-39 demos year to date, are they as close?

  2. @Steve: I totally agree with you and all programmers of the major commercial channels should go. They’re all absolutely rubbish and don’t know how to hang on to regular viewers but are happy surviving on event programming.
    Australian television is rubbish and is pushing viewers into downloading TV Shows direct from the country of origin (unless they don’t mind waiting 3-5 years).

  3. All Australian TV programmers should be fired immediately.

    This is the worst country in the world to watch FTA TV. You never know what’s going to be on until you sit down and watch it. I bet TV in Africa and Asia is a lot better than here.

  4. Who cares? Most folks in AU have seen Fringe season 1 anyway and are up-to-date with season 2, not to mention the nut-case GO! programmers putting episodes of Fringe season 1 up against the latest season of Heroes (Volume 5 Redemption) on 7Two, also which most folks have seen. Even TEN’s effort to get Stargate Universe on commencing 14 December (The Silly Season) has been seen by most Stargate fans in AU. Too little too late.

  5. The mention of Oztam boxes makes me wonder how many people here have a box (probably not a good idea to out yourself publicly) and how do you get on the list to get one?

    Shame my TiVo & IQ2 don’t send info back to Oztam despite the internet functionality (active on TiVo and not activated on IQ2).

  6. Could this also be why Seven have scrapped Ghost Whisperer this Thursday. There was an ad on tonight advertising a holiday travel show on Thurs 7:30pm. Is this true? because i love GW.

  7. Thanks for the heads up David. I was planning to watch 300 (which i haven’t seen before) when it was originally scheduled for Sunday night.. then this Saturday night.. Now I’ll know to set the recorder for 9.30 Wednesday night..

    Actually.. this causes a predicament.. I generally record City Homicide but that’ll run late. Guess I’ll have to watch that and catch Hungry Beast on Thursday. Ahhh, decisions..

  8. Next week on Thursday (Dec 3) there are 3 eps of Drop Dead Diva planned, has this changed? I know this is outside the ratings period but you never know.

    @Daniel – David is talking about Jan 1st 2009 for the 2nd SD channels we now have.

    With TEN planning a 3rd channel I have to wonder what Nine and Seven will do with their HD services. Here in QLD they are still re-building the HD and have been since GO! wen on the air.

  9. Or better yet 18-49’s with ozTam boxes – boycott them both as the last minute changes are riduculous. If I was an advertiser, I’d be more annoyed that I don’t know what show my ad will be on due to constant chopping and changing rather than being with the network that won a demo by 0.1% or something as a result of inconvenient programming changes in the last week of official ratings surveys. It’s almost like it is the TV version of cramming for an exam at the last minute.

    FYI also – on GO’s own website, Transformers is advertised for 9.30 Friday and their own program on their own website does not reflect either of the movie changes. Nor does yahoo’s guide. So good luck getting extra ratings with several guides still wrong.

  10. If, once the ratings silly season is over, GO! and TWO don’t stop mucking around with their schedules, then I’m ruling both out as viable options for watching content, and will shift back to Foxtel and Bittorent, forever.

    Seriously, we’ve enough of this BS.

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