Sci-Fi fans turn on TEN
Since TEN dumped Supernatural and Stargate Universe, fans have been venting their anger. TV Tonight looks for answers amid a wave of fury.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
In the dying days of 2009, TEN made a programming amendment that saw two of its US shows, Supernatural and Stargate: Universe, dumped from Mondays and replaced with movie repeats.
Since that time, Sci-Fi and Horror fans have been relentless in their anger at the network.
Neither show was rating well enough to stay on air, even in the less competitive summer season. SGU only had three weeks on air, after a successful Fastracking on the SciFi Channel. The long-running Supernatural, which had nearly a three month delay from its US season premiere, was appeasing those fans who had patiently waited for its Free to Air return. Others had resorted to bit torrent downloads, a growing, if illegal, practice aimed at many shows that take their time in broadcasting in Australia. Those may have affected the show’s eventual on air numbers.
So far TEN has been silent about its future plans for Supernatural and SGU. Despite previous network campaigns that “You Blogged. We Listened,” it hasn’t appeared to have heard this flood of online complaints.
On TEN’s own website there are over 400 responding to the Supernatural axing. Some have mounted a campaign to send postcards to the network -a practice that has seen success for other shows in the US.
Fans have also been relentless in their anger in comments on TV Tonight. Ratings stories aside, the thread now has one of the highest comment counts in this site’s 3 year history (Nine’s dumping of Fringe was another). Here’s a sample of what they have been saying:
Ant: “I have had a gutful of Ten. They do this constantly, the channel must be run by idiots. I turned the TV on tonight to watch Supernatural and there was a movie on.”
Aims: “Maybe we’d get more Supernatural ratings if they bothered advertising the damn show in a slot other than the few shows before it airs, and Dr. Phil. Seriously. They’re not even targeting the SPN demographic with their advertising.”
Brooklyn: “I am sick of channel ten, its pathetic. Its the only good show on at the moment, and you take it off!
Channel 10, get your act together.”
Trix: “OMG, here we go again, channel friggin ten has done it again!!! oh yay crappy movies instead of Supernatural (my fav show)…”
Cherrie: “Can the ratings really be trusted at this time of year anyway given so many people have been at Christmas functions and are on hols etc.. I would be surprised if the crappy movies they are showing got better ratings!”
TJet: “Maybe if tv stations started showing some loyalty to their viewers they may get some loyalty in return. Lost track of the number of shows I’ve started to watch and enjoy, only to have them pulled from the air.”
Agent 86: “Boo! I’ve waited long enough for channel 10 to actually screen the new episodes. I guess I’ll have to view them via other means.”
Minnie: “Well, yet another reason not to watch Channel Ten, or any of the main commercial channels really.”
Alaina: “This is one of the stupidest things Ten has ever done, and that’s saying something. Supernatural Rocks! Of course their viewing numbers might be up if they fast-tracked it instead of waiting so long. Big mistake.”
Steph: “Nooooooooooo!!!! I couldn’t believe they swapped the Supernatural time, but this, pulling it off! I had so much faith in Ten to play this correctly, now to do this!”
Clayton Baxter: “Its very simple, keep a record of who advertises in these time slots, when the station does a stupid act like this write to the customer service and marketing office telling them you are going to boycott their products…”
Adding to TEN’s woes is an equally bitter fanbase for Stargate: Universe. They too have levelled sustained criticism at the network since the show was pulled off air.
Mike: “Thanks soo much for canning Stargate Universe Ch 10 Not!………fantastic effort …..get us hooked and finally watching your shows. Oh well back to channel 7 then for this fella…”
Jeremy: “You suck channel 10, you don’t even give SGU a chance to get off the ground. If you have not realised there is a following of stargate fans in Australia who would jump on board if you showed some respect for your viewers.”
Ant: “SGU was great ten u are wrong with taken it off. Put it back on. Everyone stop watching ten. That will show them. People power will win over these.”
Fans of both shows are angry that TEN has not deemed to reschedule the shows in a later timeslot, whilst playing reruns of House, Law and Order: CI and Numb3rs, which all air after David Letterman. But TEN could be stockpiling episodes to screen on it third channel, to launch later this year.
Given the volume of complaints against TEN, TV Tonight sought some answers from the network, in the hope of bringing some optimistic news.
Unfortunately, the response was brief in the extreme:
“The Monday night movie has resonated quite well with viewers, but for those Supernatural fans we may look at returning it later in the year.”
Which is also network-speak for “Frankly, we have no news right now.”
The only good news? Supernatural creator Eric Kripke is said to be warming to the idea of a sixth season.
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- Tagged with Dr. Phil, House, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Numb3rs, Stargate: Universe, Supernatural
97 Responses
@yasminke,
A HDTV for $700 ain’t going to break the budget although not every one can afford that but I suspect people on this site wouldn’t have a problem in general. If you’re all real fans than pay the premium and get it from the US and play it on a region free DVD or Bluray (BR – that’s tough to do but if you’re a fan, you should stop at nothing especially as you’ll get extras and better PQ).
As some (only a few) have said Ten is not a (intentionally) niche programmer and smaller than required audiences on a main channel just cannot cut it since it’s the analogue viewers who still have half the viewing audience share – this will change as 2013 creeps up and most likely is 60:40 now (digital:analogue)
To all the people reminding us that Channel 10 is a business … We know it’s a business. We are not stupid. We are venting frustration. No need to be condascending. People like what they like. The criticism should not be for the merits of the programme but for the disappointment caused by business decisions in so called “non-ratings” periods when people thought their shows were safe.
Meh – I agree with ryan and Selma – this is a sci fi show which means there will never be a huge audience for it in Oz, especially at prime time.
Of course the viewers of these shows are complaining on internet etc – sci fi watchers are usually tech heads and therefore will complain online, via e-mail etc etc
I am absolutely sick of CH10 the continued dropping of shows after one, two are in most cases three episodes is stupid maybe they should pull the heads out of the sand and take a look at the followings that most of the shows especially the Stargate and Supernatural franchises and then they would see that they could be making heaps of money, and TEN wonders why channels 9 and 7 beat them with viewer loyalty each year.
Ten’s treatment of many of their shows and in turn their viewers, has led to a lot of discontent towards the network. Nine used to have the ‘Dog’ tag, but now with GO! all of their niche and failed series are getting played out, and mostly at a decent hour. Likewise for 7 with 7TWO.
Ten desperately needs a general entertainment channel to gain back some trust from viewers. Having said that I think another youth skewed network would only further cannibalize what is left of Ten’s main audience.
“The Monday night movie has resonated quite well with viewers, but for those Supernatural fans we may look at returning it later in the year.”
I feel this should be translated into “the truth”.
Translation: “The Monday night movie (which replaced other shows) has greatly upset viewers, but we covered our ears and pretended not to hear. But for those Supernatural fans we may look at returning it really late in the year, but we will only play a couple episodes before pulling it again. Stargate Universe fans, we don’t want to mention you at all, because we have no plans to air any more episodes.”
On a serious note I’m going to paste in my comment from the “Timeshifted ratings: What we’re watching later on” post:
“The irony about Supernatural is that a higher population of the Australian population watches it in primetime (i.e not time shifting figures involved) than in the USA.
Australia – 394,000 viewers (Population 22,107,583) – 1.78% of Australian population
USA – 2,900,000 viewers (Population 308,444,392) – 0.94% of USA population
(Population figures come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics & US Census Bureau) (The 2,900,000 USA viewers comes from Episode 7 of the 5th season which has the highest rating figure) (Episode 5 has the lowest ratings 2,470,000 viewers dropping down to 0.80% of USA population)”
Not that I want to sound like a shill for Foxtel – but when they start a season of a show they pick the timeslot and show the entire season in order at the same day and time until the final episode of the season.
I can see the programmers at 10 – if those nerds want sci-fi – Let’s hit them with “Terminator 2” & “Timecop”.
Damn straight we turned- its not like this should be a shock. Channel 10 skrewed around with Supernatural so Of Course people are going to download- better to download then sit waiting for something that may/may not be on television in the near/not-so-near future.
I get that the ratings were pretty bad and stuff but maybe, i dunno, advertising it instead of NCIS all the damn time would have helped. Just a suggestion. Oh and taking into acount that the main veiwer demographic for these shows are on holidays and would most likely be away and not able to watch at this time of year. Again, Just a suggestion.
At least someone is acknowleding the backlash even if CH10 is hiding behind their desks pretending that they dont almost get beaten by the ABC each week.
Enjoy your slow fall to failure 10
I am so sick of this bulls**t, i never comment on anything of supernatural through ten or TVtonight but The Axing OMG, How can they leave fans hanging off to wait.. I’d say what was the point in the Aus con? hmm Them coming down to promote their show and here Ch 10 takes it off..? look how many people went to the con doesnt that show the fans? i guess not because thats not Ratings! Thats just the fans who love Supernatural in Australia!
Ive watched SPN since day dot., and i’d hate to wait for the dvds to come.
The only things I watch on ten are the 7pm project and futurama. I did start watching sgu on Mondays but since they axed it they have one less viewer for that time slot.
The least they (CH10) could do is to air the remaining episodes that they have…..10 have been aired to date in the US, even move them to a later time slot. But don’t air 5 or six episodes and pull the pin. For christsake….they aired 9 seasons of the X-files when that flagged in the ratings…at least they had the courtesy to finish it!!
There are a lot of diehard Supernatural and Stargate fans who are extremely disappointed……..obviously we don’t have a little box on our tv’s that records Our viewing habits!
Very disappointed. I have been a fan of Supernatural from the start and was just beginning to enjoy watching SGU as well.
Not sure how accurate these ratings are.. Certainly no one is tracking My viewing habits!
Supernatural has a very loyal following. Even if it was aired in the late night time-slots instead of tired old repeats of other shows, it would be better than nothing at all!
It is a pity for the stargate and supernatural fans can’t see these shows at 11.00pm or even after letterman. Instead ten show a repeats. a pity as even though i am not a fan of either of those shows but that was what i did with star trek next gen, arrested development, buffy and scrubs. The 400 000 or so people would still watch stargate and supernatural. The cult following of shows is dead (sighs).
These programs should air after Letterman but it seems 10 are more interested in repeats. What annoys with 10 is that they don’t sell shows to foxtel so you have to wait until the channel 10 rights expire before foxtel show them and therefore get a dvd release. Atleast with Gossip Girl 9 sold the rights to foxtel so season 1 and 2 are out on dvd.
@ Andrew – but at least so far we have seen both GO and 7TWO play out a number of shows they took off their main channels or felt would not do well enough there like Ugly Betty, Heroes, Fringe, etc.
One would hope that Ten will do the same, but hopefully they can do so without all the last minute changes that plague GO in particular.
Still, we should not have to wait for new channels just to see certain shows that should run through so called non-ratings season confortably and would actually do quite well if remained in a stable timeslot and promoted as such.
everyone thinks that a 3rd channel for Ten is going to be the solution to everything. But as we’ve seen with GO and 7TWO, this is far from the case as these channels have had shows chopped and moved around at a moment’s notice and in some cases before they’ve even started. No reason to think Ten would be any wiser especially as sci-fi is always a bit of a ratings black hole in Australia
if they fast tracked Supernatural it like they said they would then people wouldn’t have to resort to downloading , no wonder the rating were so low , diehard Supernatural fans have already seen all the episodes Months ago…
Returning it later in the year channel Ten will only result in more low ratings….D***heads
It’s Summer ratings.. non-rating period..or at least it’s meant to be anyway…apparently, not according to C10 it’s not. Another thing is..they kinda screwed around with SN themselfs this year… screwing with time slots/ not playing one episode one week…. and playing it the next week instead. You can’t blame it all on people downloading.
That’s why fans are getting annoyed at Australian TV Networks and turning to the net to watch/down their favourite TV shows.
hey everyone i got a question fo david knox hey david i noticed in this article you said that ten may be stockpiling shows for its third channel is it 100% confirmd that therewil be a third channel if so what chanel will t be on ed 12 , 1 , 11
Third channel is confirmed. Any more detail isn’t, hence me using the word “may.”
Are we surprised? Honestly? Look at Ten’s treatment of Smallville…history repeats itself.
Ch Ten has our support if they show us support. I am Not watching Ch Ten Monday night until they bring back Supernatural on air.
If Ten is Not interested in airing the show now and ever, then release the right to air immediately, so that another channel can pick it up. Cable or free to air, I don’t care. As long as Aussie fans get our episodes. If no other channels want to pick up the show, then Warner Brothers or whoever holds the right to do so, should release all previous seasons as well as the latest episodes on iTune.
The truth is that if Ten doesn’t receive enough ratings for a program, the advertisers will go elsewhere and Ten won’t profit. I think these sort of shows are boring. Every week there’s a different antagonist and the “heroes” come out on top or still survive unless a character quits the show. It’s like Charmed, every week they would fight demons, monsters, warlocks etc. and win, it became tedious. It’s the old “villain of the week” type series and I doubt it would receive as much viewers if Jensen Ackles wasn’t there to be looked at.
It probably couldn’t be worse than Billy Madison or Back To The Future shown for the 150th time but protagonists still winning against demons and vampires for the 200th episode in a row would be just as tedious.
I’m hoping that TEN are going to be using their 3rd channel for a lot of these shows. SGU got about 400,000 viewers wasn’t it after the debut of 700,000 right? Well just think about how many of those people use digital TV – A lot. So the audience numbers they’d get on TEN’s new channel would be really good. Supernatural, Smallville, SGU and Battlestar Galactica would go really good on their new digital channel. Remember good ‘ol Sci-Fi night on TEN HD? Why not bring that back on their new channel? If it’s on Thursdays or Friday it would help boost the pretty dismal shares TEN get.