★★★★★ 0/5

Fast-tracking fails to lift TEN’s Super-Sunday

Update: TEN adds a replay of Homeland after Season Two debut under-performs.

81
Leave a comment

It was always going to be a tough battle, especially for the coveted 8:30pm timeslot, but TEN’s new-look Super Sunday didn’t fire last night.

Once again it has fallen behind the ABC despite new episodes of Merlin, Modern Family, The New Normal, Homeland and Vegas.

Modern Family proved to be its best performer at 850,000. Emmys-darling Homeland was fourth in its slot on 633,000 viewers. Such is the ferocity of the current TV landscape that new titles The New Normal and Vegas will now have their work cut out to resonate as long-term brands. TEN had a better outing  a week ago with local content, led by Underground: The Julian Assange Story.

There will be debate about whether TEN’s fast-tracking is fast enough for die-hard fans, with Homeland having its third episode airing in the US today, and The New Normal already 6 episodes long. Nevertheless, TEN is fast-tracking far more content than Seven and Nine in an aggressive bid to win back viewers.

Nine’s House Husbands proved resilient and won a tough 8:30 battle with 1.04m viewers. ABC’s anticipated Jack Irish was also strong on 950,000.

But it was Seven that won the night in Total People, including another solid outing by Anh Does Vietnam.

Seven Network was 30.3 then Nine 28.4%, ABC 18.4%, TEN 18.1% and SBS 4.7%.

Sunday Night topped the night with 1.35m viewers for Seven. Seven’s other shows were Anh Does Vietnam (1.31m), Seven News (1.2m), Bones (853,000), Killing Time (434,000) and Strike Back (210,000).

60 Minutes was best for Nine with 1.34m viewers followed by House Husbands (1.04m), Nine News (942,000), Big Brother (863,000), The Mentalist (659,000) and Person of Interest (337,000).

Jack Irish (950,000) topped ABC1 then ABC News (811,000), Great Southern Land (784,000), Compass (300,000) and The Slap (215,000).

A new Modern Family episode was best for TEN with 850,000 followed by Homeland (633,000), Merlin (558,000), The New Normal (488,000), TEN News (430,000), The Project (322,000) and Vegas (286,000).

Battle Castle topped SBS ONE with 297,000. Immortal and World News Australia pulled 195,000 each.

FIA Formula One World Championship did well for ONE with the Pre-Race pulling a big 377,000.

UPDATED: TEN adds a replay of Homeland to 9:30pm Wednesday and moves Class of final to 10:45pm Friday.

Sunday October 14 2012

81 Responses

  1. When new NCIS episodes came back on Tuesdays, the initial ratings were a little soft. It took a couple of weeks for viewers to realise it was on and the episodes were new resulting in increased viewer numbers… perhaps word-of-mouth had something to do with it?

    Hopefully, the same will apply to Homeland once those who don’t watch TEN regularly realise it is back on air. Next couple of weeks will be the real test.

  2. Ten’s problems continue to stem from a failed new strategy that has no end in sight.

    Ten needs to fast track some experience and intelligence into a business run by new and inexperienced executives. It is such a shame to witness the slow yet demoralising demise of a once proud and progressive Network.

  3. Agree with Bailey (and any others) that Homeland’s soft numbers are not all down to the two week delay. I suspect that it’s more likely due to a combination of Ten being a damaged brand and people simply not being aware that a new season was starting (because they’re not watching Ten – I don’t listen to commercial radio or watch much on Ten so found out about it here first). Plus, there were some pretty strong shows on three other channels.

    All of which is a real shame as I thought Homeland was excellent last night (altho’ Carries field-craft should be better – you don’t keep turning around to see if your follower is still following as your face is a beacon). I hope the numbers improve and Ten sticks with it. The recovery is not going to happen over night.

    @disappointed – there is no hiatus planned for Homeland’s US schedule – it plays all the way thru to 16 Dec.

  4. I would have watched my Vegas recording (watched Jack Irish live) if it didn’t start twenty minutes late. I’ve missed the end so I won’t bother. If I had liked it, I might have watched Vegas live once Jack Irish is finished.

  5. Homeland always struck me as a pretty niche show for an Australian audience, and I didn’t think it did that much better ratings in season 1 than last night’s season 2 premiere. For all the advertising it was getting, I was sure it was only hovering around 800k or so… perhaps I’m wrong though.

    I watch so little of Ten (or any FTA network) but just watching X Men Saturday night saw an ad for their super Sunday just about every ad break, so I don’t think anyone who watches the station could say that Ten weren’t throwing everything they had getting people to tune in.

    Ten just need to stick with the schedules they have and build trust in their viewers again. It doesn’t take long to destroy the trust, but takes much longer to get it back. Consistency will be the key…

  6. I think the important issue is not fast-tracking, but the fact that people want to watch Australian shows. Jack Irish was brilliant, and we actually commented on how nice it was to see something so real and Aussie. We can identify with them. I have no interest in the high-concept US programmes – just are so unreal and American!!

  7. Also while homeland is absolutely fantastic and amazing, and I adore it, lets be real, its not a mass audience show, especially compared to the extremely low-brow house husbands. It’s on showtime in the US, premium cable, and does fantastically well for showtime, getting around 2 million viewers, which on US broadcast is nothing (its also definitely not a family show, especially the premiere episode of last season, which I think turned a bunch of people off). And quite frequently critically adored shows, especially on broadcast, have very low total viewers (The good wife, community, parks and recreation, 30 rock ect)

  8. such a shane for 10, was really hoping they’d actually start to turn around, two things to point out though, people have become so out of habit of watching ten that they need a really huge reason to turn in, and with their highly unpredictable habit of shuffling shows around and repeats, viewers may not have known the shows were new, I for one thought super sunday started last week, not to mention as smaller people watch ten, fewer people see the adds

  9. @Bailey I agree.

    Problem is that Ten’s Rating figures have been way way down, so they can advertise new Modern Family, Homeland etc until the cows come home on the Station itself and those that deserted won’t see them. Ten needs to go back to advertising outside of the Channel itself, in all forms of Media it possibly can, blitz radio, newspapers and blogs like this (hell go back to putting up billboards).

  10. I have to agree with comments by Mr J and Bailey that TEN aren’t getting less viewers because of the slight time delay in fast tracking, but rather they have just lost their fan base. I personally believe that if TEN can do something awesome over the Summer non-ratings season where networks normally go to sleep, they will get fans back for the start of the 2013 ratings season. Perhaps the addition of some new programming or movie marathons (which have proved to be a success on ONE) or even if they could pick up some last minute sports rights – just something that won’t cost an arm and a leg but will attract enough attention that’ll drag over into ratings season. Obviously my ideas are full of flaws, but that is because I’m not a TV programmer – it’s their job to fix it and come up with something brilliant. Anyone else agree?

  11. IMO it seems fast-tracking for most shows have failed to fire. Its disappointing because Homeland is so brilliant but TEN are in that much of a rut i did say a few weeks ago TEN should not fast-track anything because of the lack of viewership they have and it could hurt them. Look at last night. Should i say anymore?

  12. If homeland was held over till Feb it would have done much better. Watch 7 walk all over ten in Feb now with their slowtracked Revenge, Downton and Mrs. Browns.

  13. Despite some of the other comments here, I very much doubt that the small numbers for Homeland (and Modern Family) are the consequence of delaying by 3 weeks. Unfortunately for Ch 10 it seems that people have just tuned out. Compared to the season 1 premiere, Homeland is down close to 50% in total numbers. That simply cant be explained through illegal downloading. Something much bigger is going here, which has to be troubling for Ten.

  14. This is a real pity for TEN. I haven’t watched a show live in months (perhaps even a year) as I can’t stand ads, but last night I watched Merlin and Homeland live as they are such brilliant shows I couldn’t wait 24 hours to watch them. TEN should be proud of their effort and keep it up and hopefully the viewers will come back once they realise TEN is back on par.
    @ gavin – TEN have been playing new Modern Family ads all week, with ones shown during Homeland for next week.

  15. In response to Gavin: the promos for new eps of Modern Family have been on TEN for about three or four weeks (they’re on so much that my five year has made the comment that it’s been on a lot!) and TEN have been promoting the all new episodes for Sunday night (Merlin, Modern Family, The New Normal, Homeland, Vegas) for a while now, including on the radio and heaps on tv. Maybe people haven’t noticed because they’re not watching TEN so much and are expecting the same level of advertising that Seven provide for their shows – which TEN and to a point Nine, have never done.

  16. With Vegas starting at 9.47pm, no wonder people didn’t hang around to watch. I wonder how much TENs programs will increase in ratings with PVR additions?

  17. I don’t think TEN can win (damned if you do, damned if you don’t). If they had fast-tracked these shows within days of their airing in the U.S., when the shows went into hiatus there we would not have had them on here. This way, we get a continuous run and by the time they come back from hiatus in the U.S. we’ll be back on par. Nevertheless, as someone who likes the shows on TEN, and doesn’t download them ‘within hours’ of their airing in the U.S. I’m quite a happy viewer, thank you TEN 🙂

  19. I didn’t even know last night’s episode of Modern family was new. And I don’t recall any promos during Homeland telling me there’d be a new ModFam ep next week. The big preview article for Homeland was only in the SMH TV Guide today, the day after ep 1 went to air. So the publicity is not working and, given that, I can’t see this getting any better for them.

  20. Huge fail for ch10 which is a shame as they had some good stuff on. However a great win at 8.30 for home produced Aussie dramas seeing off the foreign language (American) dramas…..

  21. Enjoyed Homeland so much last night – pity it didn’t rate.

    But I enjoyed Jack Irish even more – very well made drama. Proves that when the ABC get it right, they really get it right.

  23. This is ludicrous – last night we were shuffling PVRs around to handle 10 shows we wanted to watch.

    Tonight, there are 6 shows at 9.30 we want to catch.

    Tomorrow night = 1.

    Grrrrrrr….

  24. Agreed re: not fast tracking fast enough. Either do it within 48 hours (foxtel style) of dont bother doing it @ all given numbers are down in total this time of year.

    I havent found alternate sources for Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, SOA or the Walking Dead this year because of Foxtels fast tracking.

  25. Ten’s idea of ‘fast tracking’ is airing episodes three weeks after they’ve aired in the US. With ‘edge of your seat’ shows like Homeland, they simply can’t afford that. As I write this, Episode three of the new season of Homeland is about to air over there, yet the season opener has only just aired here last night. Perhaps they should look up the meaning of the word “fast”.

Leave a Reply