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The Voice headlines go from hero to zero

If the nation hadn't heard about the lowly ratings for the US edition, it will very shortly.

The Voice is always worth a good headline for any editor with a nose for news.

But today the news of its ratings is not the kind Nine would be looking for. The US show, which TV Tonight hears was slated under instruction by Nine CEO David Gyngell, pulled just 669,000 viewers, down 71% on the launch of the Australian series.

Update: Nine has affirmed that all Programming decisions are made by Nine Programming dept.

If the nation hadn’t heard about the lowly ratings last night, it will very shortly. It’s big news today.

All the daily newspapers have headlines about how the mighty has fallen, both News Ltd. and Fairfax.

They include:

Herald Sun
NEWS.com.au
Herald Sun ‎
The Daily Telegraph ‎
Perth Now ‎
Courier Mail ‎
Adelaide Now ‎
The Daily Telegraph ‎
The Australian ‎
The Canberra Times ‎
WA today ‎
Brisbane Times ‎
Sydney Morning Herald ‎
The Age ‎
Sky News Australia

Strangely, NineMSN doesn’t seem to have gotten wind of it yet….

But the real kicker is an article by Giles Hardie at Sydney Morning Herald.

His story “Deep Voice is bad news for Nine” has gone wide through Fairfax.

The Olympics can’t come soon enough for the Nine Network after their experiment with The Voice (US) failed badly last night.
The one-hour debut of the overseas version of the talent show ranked 19th overall last night, capturing none of the audience magic of the Australian edition. It drew in a meagre 669,000 viewers, more than 100,000 fewer than the two repeats of The Big Bang Theory did in the same time slot last week.

It has been syndicated through newspapers across the country:

Port Stephens Examiner
Milton Ulladulla Times
Perth Now
Land
US Voice slumps
BigPond News
Cootamundra Herald
Bellingen Courier Sun
Gloucester Advocate
Wagin Argus
Bunbury Mail
Collie Mail
Wingham Chronicle
Crookwell Gazette
Wauchope Gazette
Camden Haven Courier
The Islander
Newcastle Star
Blayney Chronicle
Busselton Dunsborough Mail
Bay Post/Moruya Examiner
The Ridge News
Warrnambool Standard
Bombala Times
Eden Magnet
Wellington Times
Daily Advertiser
Cobar Age
Newcastle Herald
Flinders News
Forbes Advocate
Blacktown Sun
Cowra Guardian
Monash Weekly
Blue Mountains Gazette
Whyalla News
Cooma Monaro Express
Bega District News
Hepburn Advocate
Armidale Express
Eastern Riverina Chronicle
Victor Harbor Times
Myall Coast Nota
Camden Advertiser
The Queanbeyan Age
Walcha News
Nambucca Guardian News
Eyre Peninsula Tribune
Penrith Star
Roxby Downs Sun
Summit Sun
Illawarra Mercury
Central Midlands & Coastal Advocate
Barossa & Light Herald
West Coast Sentinel
Cessnock Advertiser
Bendigo Advertiser
The Transcontinental
Yass Tribune
Ballarat Courier
Esperance Express
Tenterfield Star
Boorowa News
Western Advocate
The Young Witness
Braidwood Times
Goondiwindi Argus
Warren Advocate
Moree Champion
Castle Hills News
Ararat Advertiser

That’s smack bang into the heartland of The Voice audience…

If the show doesn’t perform tonight, observers are expecting a quick shuffle hop to GO! to be replaced by… well, you know the rest.

25 Responses

  1. 584,000 viewers as of yesterday.I would not be surprised If from the end of the week It gets pulled for Old Cheers,Different Strokes,Cosby or Married with Children reruns to see Nine through to the Olympics and then Big Brothers before starting all over again.

  2. Kerry Packer must be rolling in his grave thinking how bad Nine has got since he died.Done to Death Sitcom Repeats of all sorts at 7pm(I wouldn’t be surprised if Nine next goes back to Cheers or Married with Children Reruns after the Nightly Current Affair for most of the year when Reality TV shows are not on in light of this Voice US figures).

  3. 9 will be wanting to protect the brand…and it will be pulled quickly i suspect, and i did read the other day in one of the Melb papers an article about the favourite Australian pastime of pulling down the Tall poppy…i see on this website its alive and well. Channel 9 are no way near the great force that it was once…almost a ghost or shadow of its former self…and yet they still come in for the biggest criticisms on this website…. interesting….

  4. “Nine has affirmed that all Programming decisions are made by Nine Programming dept.”

    I’m calling BS on that. I find it very hard to believe that the CEO wouldn’t occasionally “suggest” program content or scheduling, and that the Programming Dept would ignore any such a suggestion.

  5. I gave it 20 minutes before switching channels. The Aussie version was so much better. I got quite a shock as i expected the U.S version to be much better. The talent was good but the judges bad.

  6. The more important thing to note is that Australia’s media has so few independent voices left.. as evidenced by the many newspapers controlled by the one puppet master.

  7. @aussie I seem to recall that the same media outlets were fawning and gushing about the success of The Voice Australia just a few weeks ago, so you can’t say they’re only negative.

  8. “Strangely, NineMSN doesn’t seem to have gotten wind of it yet….” Hilarious, love it!!
    This was doomed to be a failure, and just goes to show how bad Nine programmers are. Everyone knew this would flop except the programmers. David Gyngell needs to step in and replace those programmers.
    Perhaps Nine and TEN should be looking at importing programmers from America’s CBS and ABC?

  9. @ aussie….. I know what you mean, but David has always highlighted huge success stories including several ch9 shows. It is just that this programming decision was an obvious disaster waiting to happen…

  10. Whilst this story constitutes “news” in some circles – including all those outlets listed above, it would seem content that is deemed to be negative is apparently far more interesting to print by media agencies (incl. forums and blogs) in this country. It’s almost as though media outlets love getting people offside by attempting to generate a storm by publicising negative content in the first instance.

  11. While I agree the news makes for a good headline it’s hardly unsurprising the US version is taking a hit. Is this the 1st or 2nd US season?

    I agree it will probably go to GO! after next week.

  12. Is anyone surprised? It’s 3 months old! Nine has spent big on big formats and has no cash in the bank to deliver constancy in their offering. Limping towards the Olympics ready for the massive crash of Big Brother…..which will no doubt will also end up on Go!

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