Ratings: let’s play fair
Media reports unfairly claim Million Dollar Money Drop lost almost half its viewers from earlier in the week.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
When it comes to analysing television ratings, it’s wise to remember the game is always changing.
With multichannels and shows airing in different cities -and sometimes in different timeslots- it can be a minefield just to keep track of everything. Public holidays are yet another factor.
An AAP report on Million Dollar Money Drop, which has been republished by News Limited today, unfairly claims the game show lost almost half its viewers from earlier in the week.
But it didn’t air in Melbourne on Thursday, the city with its biggest audience.
Without full context those kinds of claims don’t tell the whole story.
Yes the show lost viewers in Sydney too, but Thursday audiences are lower across the board than Mondays.
Million Dollar Money Drop may indeed be dropping but let’s be fair. We won’t have a measurable comparison until next Tuesday morning.
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19 Responses
Reading “Late TV Changes” in Sydney’s “Sunday Telegraph” (p.116) – says –
Tuesday – Nine – 8:30pm – Million Dollar Drop
At the same time Nine’s running a promo on Sunday afternoon for “Top Gear Tuesday 8:30” ??
Mon / Thurs 8:30.
It’s a pretty boring variation of millionaire, particularly once they start losing the dollars. And moving the cash around just smacks of gimmick.
When i read a report titled Eddie’s Million Dollar Flop i was like grrrrr it didn’t even air in Melbourne! Love the show but the end was so depressing! Poor things!
That’s ironic that the programmers are being referred to as drunken monkeys. A few years ago, the white spirits in the boardroom bar of a certain network had to be locked away, or a certain programmer would have drunk every last drop.
Truth in journalism. Reporting facts in proper context. Haven’t seen that in the media for as long as I can remember. I applaud your honourable plea, David. Wonder if it sells newspapers and online ad spaces though?
@JB,
I hope you don’t include Richard Clune in your criticisms, although he writes for the Sunday Telegraph.
@Jezza, consider me politically corrected and I do apologize to the monkeys, drunk or otherwise.
Can I say drunken boners, the official 9 term from when Jess was boned instead ?
Okay, so it wasn’t B105’s fault yesterday when I heard the “MDMD ratings flop” headline. As you’ve said David, it’s better to see a Monday vs Monday comparison, though I (as many) think it will “flop”. Maybe B105 should get their facts from more reputable sources, one television blog site comes to mind… 😉
David, your report is quite right and nicely balanced. However I am glad 9s figures have been incorrectly reported as they deserve it for messing around with so many shows. The programmers should just be sacked and replaced with a random computer. I don’t think we would tell the difference.
NB. Referring to the programmers at 9 as a type of monkey or other animal is deeply insulting to these animals which are far more intelligent and intuitive than 9 personnel.
Heard the same story on the radio last night in the news headlines!
I’ve said it before but the television writers for the Daily Telegraph are terrible and have absolutely no idea about tv.
“Ratings: let’s play fair” I just wish the Aus TV ratings were fair, they aren’t!
im a little confused, what did air? We got MDD on Thursday night on Win, which usually takes all of Nine’s programming ….and I live in Country Victoria. So, what
aired on Melbourne’s Nine station instead of it? and why did Win decide to go against this decision when we still had the footy competing with it?
Thank you for your fair and balanced reporting David. Shame on News Limited.
Thursday night – lower viewship. Add to that, extreme last minute programming change. One city missing as you point out.
Their story should in fact focus more on ridiculous, poorly thought out last minute changes – a change which at first, did not even consider that AFL was on Thursday night. until corrected. The series is now spilt between Melbourne and the rest of the country.
The M and M’s controversy may at least help MDP to higher Melbourne ratings!
Thursday night I was listening to the cricket on the ABC on the web instead of watching channel 9 not showing the first 3 hours of a great match.
I hope channel 9 got dismal ratings for those 3 hours.
I agree David but I just think it was a dumb idea for Nine to show it that night and not include Melbourne. New shows should have been kept on Monday and a re-run shown then.
It isn’t any one elses fault that the show didn’t air in Melbourne and therefore the crap show did drop nearly half a million viewers but I guess the drunk monkey prammer doesn’t like reality !