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Geeks rule Thursday

Ratings: Twice the number of viewers who watched Redfern Now tuned in to see four geeks get a makeover.

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Is this the state of television? Twice the number of viewers who watched the excellent drama of Redfern Now tuned in to see four geeks get a makeover on Beauty & the Geek Australia.

Seven’s geeks managed an impressive 1.28m viewers while ABC’s drama had to settle for 644,000. After several weeks of losing Thursdays (aided by no Big Brother on Nine), Seven easily won the night.

Seven Network was 32.5% followed by Nine 24.0%, TEN 19.4%, ABC 18.4% and SBS 5.7%.

Beauty & the Geek Australia topped the night with 1.28m for Seven then Seven News (1.11m), Today Tonight (970,000), Home and Away (934,000), Brynne: My Bedazzled Life (910,000), The Unbelievable Truth plunged from its geek lead-in (572,000), Deal or No Deal (448,000) and Family Guy (301,000).

Nine News was 1.06m for Nine then ACA (911,000), Getaway (618,000), Hot Seat (604,000), The Big Bang Theory (593,000), CSI (494,000), CSI: Miami (416,000). A second CSI ep played in two cities with 203,000.

Modern Family (562,000) was best for TEN. TEN News was 545,000, Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals was 530,00 / 514,000, Law and Order: SVU was 488,000 / 406,000,  and The Project 6pm was 364,000.

On ABC1 it was ABC News (930,000), 7:30 (780,000), Catalyst (663,000), Redfern Now (644,000 was second in its slot), Qi (593,000), Angry Boys (229,000) and Greatest Cities of the World with Griff Rhys Jones (228,000).

Jimmy and the Giant Supermarket led SBS ONE with 271,000 then One Born Every Minute (248,000), Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong 2 (238,000), My Sri Lanka with Peter Kuruvita (162,000) and World News Australia (141,000).

Big Bang topped multichannels with 341,000 on GO!

Sunrise: 370,000
Today: 345,000
ABC News Breakfast: 49,000 / 40,000
Breakfast: 47,000

Thursday 8 November 2012

39 Responses

  1. I can’t believe so many watch this sort of rubish either. There are so many good shows on TV that hardly rate. Haven’t watched Redfern yet, but have it on IQ. The past few weeks, I have been watching The Bridge, Hit and Miss and Blackout to name a few, all hiding on SBS or multi channels. Amazing dramas. Should be seen by everyone.

  2. Wow! This is why I avoid these sorts of shows! I see it as the lowest common denominator!
    Sadly, as I have stated before the level of intelligence to watch these shows is not as high, as those that like to watch drama that requires following complex storylines and characters!
    Most people myself included like to watch some light hearted entertainment, however I feel that the Geek show and others like it reinforce stereotypes, hence why I avoid these shows and watch other light material like Gruen, some ABC comedies and some lifestyle shows.

  3. Looking at the inclusive portrait, here are a number of the countless disconcerting essentials.
    *4500 Sydney-based recruitment consultants unemployed in 2010 according to one of Adecco’s seniors.
    *Medicare used to access the public healthcare system useless when you’re left waiting in excess of 15 months to have a hospital-based medical investigation such as a Gastroscopy. By that point the disease is too advanced for any medical intervention.
    * Centrelink and job network centres contracted to them has seen staff numbers dwindle. Many job network centres has ceased operations due to massive budget cuts.
    *Drastic changes to the Disability Support Pension has harmed a patient seen by my doctor denied this pension and access to a housing commission despite her recently diagnosed MS progressing rapidly. But it’s acceptable to send more money in foreign aid than the US.
    *115% increase in the theft of food with many Australians living well below the poverty line.
    Yes, we’re certainly living in golden times (roles eyes).

  5. I can think of plenty of things that are worse now than they used to be. Road congestion and over crowded trains for one. There is more grafitti covering our fair city than ever before. I know one suburb in Melbourne whoes main area is filthy and it never used to be. I could go on.

  6. Just wondering if the same people pissing on B&Geek feel the same about BB? Personally I couldn’t get myself to watch a full episode of either one.

    As for good times, yes we definitely look back at the past with tinted glasses although there were some happier or less stressful times.

  7. I might just add though, SVU is one show I like to watch. But what’s the deal, playing a rpt after the new ep that is from the same series? How many years has this show been running? Why not play some eps from earlier series??

  8. @Steveany – (you’re comment just appeared) good point about the 18% home mortgage rates of 1989 – they’re about a third of that now. That’s also when I learnt the term J-curve.

  9. David and Kenny, you’re right. Australia largely weathered the GFC and is doing extremely well compared with other “first world” economies. Everybody apart from the opposition, the media, and those they’ve brainwashed know this, which is why our dollar is valued so highly by other countries.

    People also seem to think that crime is worse now than it used to be, the streets are not as safe, and you can’t let your kid’s walk to school any more for fear of being abducted or molested, but police stats show that the opposite is true.

    People say that they’re “doing it tough” but have a mobile phone and broadband internet, a big tv in the family-room of their air-conditioned mcmanshion (and smaller ones in the kid’s bedrooms), mp3 players, microwaves, two fridges, and several computers/tablets. There are people who are really doing it tough in Australia, but they’re not the ones bleating in the media about it.

  10. Thanks @Kenny, you’ve made my day. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, we don’t know how good we’ve got it at the moment, though it’s a curious human foible that we so often whinge about life today, but then view it through rose coloured glasses tomorrow.

    Just on Redfern Now, for me it sums up so much of what Aboriginality is: a wonderful mixture of beautiful gravitas, humour, and pragmatic optimism. It can only be a good thing that more non-black Australians are exposed to it.

  11. @Kenny – well said. Sure, some sectors of the economy are having problems, (car manufacturing, airlines & TV stations) but other areas are booming (IT, mining, online business & home shopping) but this is to be expected as the nature of the world changes around us. Australia’s is one of the healthiest economies in the world and it’s a sign of commercial media pro-Liberal bias to say otherwise.
    @David – You’re exactly right. I recall that the late 80’s and early ’90’s were pretty good, but it’s a false recollection based on my youth and general outlook at the time. The economy then was a ‘banana republic’ style mess with raging inflation and super high interest rates. My mortgage then was 13% and occasionally as high as 18%. We are currently living in ‘the good old days’.
    None of this has anything to do with Geeks, sorry. Or maybe it does? 😉

  12. I watched Redfern Now on this sites recomemdation ( Missed the first ep). Thouroughly enjoyed it. I gotta love a show that unapologetically says some of the things the Grandma said. It also thought the youth about using double negatives. I’m not usually into gritty tv but it actually had humour and hope and themes of new romance and forgivness which appealed to me. I taped the Geek thing, fast forwarded a large part it. They really could have edited it down.

  13. @GuanoLad -” because the current economic climate is a bit depressing”. OMG, our economy is the envy of the Western world. Try the USA, most of Europe, for “a bit depressing”. We are told the economy is bad by opposition politicians who have nothing to offer other than trashing of our economy and Australia in general. Medicare, Newstart, Parenting Payment, Baby Bonus, Pensions, PBS, employer super, 5 percent unemployment, etc., etc.
    It is sad that such trash that Seven serves up is lapped up, rather than quality programs elsewhere.

  14. @David Knox, I agree with you. It is all relative and times are always tough when you are living through them, except, of course, if you have a trust account to live off, or are a millionaire.

  16. I know for myself, tv is escapism. I don’t watch Brynne or Beauty and the geek but I daresay “reality” tv is what so many people prefer because it is so far removed from the true reality we live in day after day. I personally prefer a good comedy rather than anything that was on offer last night:-)

  18. People want to watch what they’re familiar with and can relate to. I don’t think ‘Redfern Now’ was about a subject many people could connect with on the level it sought; even the people it was about are not the audience who would watch it. I guess that’s irony.

    I also think, because the current economic climate is a bit depressing, dark urban dramas are less likely to get viewers when there are positive upbeat transformations on the other channel.

    1. Out of curiosity… was there ever a time the economic climate wasn’t depressing? I always hear “times are tough” and I feel like answering, “sure, but can you pinpoint when they weren’t?” I reckon they are always tough when we are in them… then later we can look back and say “actually, no they were pretty good times.”

  19. That makes me sad – but not surprised. Redfern Now is just superb – the acting is incredible. Last night’s episode was so engaging and ran the full gamut of emotions – laughs, tears, loved the sweetness of the relationship between the kids – the plot twist. Just wonderful television – really gritty and honest – but I love that there is always some hope and optimism despite of the bleakness.

  22. Just as puzzling is the fall of CSI and Law and Order SVU. Both were once guarenteed strong ratings each week but both are terminal on those numbers last night.

    Leave them on over summer with new episodes to build the fan base back up again.

  23. I watched the makeover episode for the first time ever last night. I was surprised at how engaging it was, it was very well done. The transformations were certainly interesting, though in the case of Rich it was a bit unbelievable. Post makeover, he looks like he stepped straight out of Central Casting, looking for all the world like a youthful George Clooney. Lookswise, he is probably in the top 0.5% of the male population, he is an exceedingly handsome dude who could get a job on any catwalk in Milan or New York Somehow, I am not swallowing his supposed geeky past backstory.

  24. David, of course it’s the state of television; it’s also the state of the community. But it has been ever thus. There is no correlation between artistic merit and popular appeal.

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