New SBS factual buried by SBS programming?

A premiere Australian factual series has been given a pretty surprising timeslot by SBS: 6pm Saturdays.

Behind the Front Door, an 11 part series produced by FremantleMedia, goes behind the doors of local neighbourhoods in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to profile “the surprising, remarkable and inspiring stories of everyday people.”

No doubt as an SBS series it will also showcase the changing face of Australia in the lead-up to the Australian Census.

The show was originally due to air 7:30pm Friday nights.

But later this month it will premiere at 6pm Saturday nights, a low-rating timeslot even by SBS standards.

Prior to screening Tour de France highlights in the timeslot, SBS1 had Prototype This airing from 5:30pm. It averaged 53,000 viewers when it last aired earlier this month.

Surely being a new Australian series that purports to reflect the SBS mantra, this might have been scheduled in a timeslot where a bigger audience can sample it?

An SBS spokesperson told TV Tonight, “6pm is prime time for SBS and no less a slot than 7.30pm. We have a strong female audience on Saturday and our desire to capitalise and develop on this is a opportunity for us.

“We think Behind The Front Door will give an extra boost to the slot (which already does well) but more importantly help us develop that female skewed audience. In the current market place to maintain share we have to increase our reach. We think BTFD on Saturdays can both help our share, but more importantly increase our reach.”

Behind the Front Door is the series for anyone who has ever wondered about their neighbours and whether they could be a friend rather than a stranger. Even though neighbours live close to each other they often do not get the chance to learn each other’s stories. Behind the Front Door looks for these stories and lets neighbours take a peek into each other’s homes and lives.

The new eleven part reality documentary series tells the surprising, remarkable and inspiring stories of everyday people. They may have witnessed a brutal dictatorship or narrowly survived the horrors of war. Others have gained Olympic selection against the odds or discovered a high risk answer to a boring job by flicking through the yellow pages. One man has climbed the corporate heights from the depths of heroin addiction. A woman has turned her life around after a near-death experience when she was only nineteen. These are people who have fascinating tales that deserves to be heard.

And all of these people are somebody’s neighbour. Behind the Front Door is designed to reveal the extraordinary stories on every doorstep by knocking on front doors and inviting people to visit the home of someone in their street.

Each episode features two unique stories from different neighbourhoods. After a few of the locals are persuaded to take the front door keys and take a tour around the subject’s house. The neighbours ponder whether the homes reveal anything and whether their neighbour’s lives’ are special. To really get under their skin, the volunteers are given a sensitive DVD portrait to watch in which the hero reveals all.

In a final twist, it is revealed that the story subject has been watching their neighbours explore their home from a van and is about to step inside to say hello. This meeting can be intense as people who have bared their souls come face-to-face with those who have watched their story.

Behind the Front Door offers a range of powerful and fascinating stories to shine a light on the people and cultures that makes up contemporary Australia.

It begins Saturday 30 July at 6:00pm on SBS ONE.