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No Deal at 5:30 in ratings race

Ratings: If Seven wants to address its 6pm News woes it needs to revamp its 5:30 lead in.

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nodeal aokSeven’s troubles at 5:30pm continue to impact on its 6pm News.

Last night Hot Seat was 719,000 followed by TEN News (627,000) and Deal or No Deal (521,000). Buoyed by such a strong lead in, Nine News dominated in Melbourne and Sydney and was the #1 show nationally. Seven still took victory in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Deal or No Deal has been a license to print money for most of its afternoon timeslot, which began in 2004. Andrew O’Keefe’s ability to drive the format, unscripted, has been remarkable. But it is regularly beaten by Eddie McGuire’s Hot Seat which benefits from general knowledge trivia (despite its host locking in correct answers far too quickly and giving contestants more think time when they are wrong). Deal would simply be better served at 5pm if Seven wants to address its ailing News in Sydney and Melbourne. It’s been dragging on too long and they know it.

Last night Nine network share was 28.6% then Seven 27.7%, ABC 19.2%, TEN 18.8% and SBS 5.7%.

Nine News led the night with 1.24m for Nine then ACA (979,000), The Footy Show (849,000), Top Gear (772,000) and Hot Seat (719,000).

Seven News (1.21m) was best for Seven then Today Tonight (1.08m), Mrs Brown’s Boys (993,000 / 392,000), Home and Away (950,000), Border Security: International (877,000), Citizen Khan (584,000) and Deal or No Deal (521,000).

ABC News (1.02m) won its timeslot. ABC’s other performers were The Checkout (912,000), 7:30 (786,000), Desert War (651,000) and Grand Designs Revisited (385,000).

Law and Order: SVU was 637,000 / 506,000 for TEN. TEN News was 627,000, The Project was 528,000, Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals was 526,000 / 515,000 and The Simpsons was 321,000.

Gourmet Farmer (374,000) topped SBS ONE then Shane Delia’s Spice Journey (343,000), World News Australia (197,000), One Born Every Minute USA (163,000) and Marco Pierre White’s Kitchen Wars (149,000).

Bananas in Pyjamas was best on multichannels with 347,000.

Mornings: 139,000
The Morning Show: 132,000

OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 2 May 2013

52 Responses

  1. Personally, I don’t believe replacing DOND with something else will change much.

    When it comes to news, it’s all about the quality of every part of the entire product.

    If WIN in Adelaide, and especially Perth actually pulled their weight, Nine would have been all over Seven in the news ratings for quite some time.

  2. David, i would really like to know, what was the rating for the Footy Show Late yesterday at 11:30pm and also the repeat of Arrow at 10:30pm in all 5 cities. Thanks!!!

  3. Days of our Lives will not be at 5.30 on Seven unless they move their news to 6.30 as it is a 1 hour show.
    I always watch the repeat version of ellen at 5.30 on Gem.

  4. Deal should go, been on too long which I think does damage 7 news, but mainly Melbourne channel 7 news needs to be really addressed, it is so far behind in the ratings in comparison to other states.

  5. Why don’t they put on an Australian version of Eggheads or bring back Letters and Numbers?

    Oh wait – those shows actually required some intelligence – something non-existent on the commercial stations.

  6. Bringing back The Rich List or The Weakest Link would be much better than DOND.

    Seven had an American game show on in the afternoons a few weeks back that I quite enjoyed. Can’t remember the name of it – A player would take on 10 other players and if you got it wrong you dropped through the floor. Sadly they replaced it by repeats of Amazing Race – already seen that and much better to have something that doesn’t matter of you miss an episode.

  7. Lets not forgot that Seven did try Price is Right last year (perfect for “house mums” who do the weekly shopping), and that was a massive flop.

    It’s not as simple as replacing DonD, they need to find something that will rate well.

    What about kid shows? ABC2 usually tops the digital ratings with its afternoon children’s programming. Having said that, ABC’s lack of ads is a big drawing point for me.

  9. The Rich List should have been the new game show at 5:30pm a couple of years ago but Seven persisted with Deal then last year Seven tried The Price is Right and cheapened it so much they blew that opportunity. Wouldn’t it be funny if Seven decided to buy Days of Our Lives and scheduled it for 5:30pm haha. Its something different but would alienate male viewers.

    Deals time is well and done i think and its time to change it, just not with Wheel of Fortune again

  10. My viewpoint is that Seven should bring back the one hour news they experimented with a few months back. If memory serves it did have a good impact and felt fresher.

    David, sorry to ask a question you most likely won’t be able to answer but did “The Morning Show” air in all 5 capital cities yesterday?

  12. I always thought a 30 min ‘minute to win it’ might work at 5.30.
    It’s the kind of show you can drop in and out of while making dinner or doing whatever else ‘busy mums’ do at 5.30
    It rated pretty well when it was on in prime time, yet, never scored a second season.
    Price is Right with a decent budget could also have worked at 5.30, but seven tarnished that show last year, we won’t see it surface again for a few years you wouldn’t think!

  14. Hot Seat is largely about reading Eddie’s body language. He gives away hints for the easy questions, otherwise non-contestants would get to the final tough questions.

    Hot seat has pulled clear this year. It’s gotten to the point where Channel 7 need to try something. Their MKR contestants didn’t work. There is a large risk that something new would rate less than 500k though.

  16. JB – 9 in Melbourne axed Rob Gell for Livinia Nixon. Guess that was a bad move hey? Giaan’s “bit” is more often than not where 7 news in Melbourne now hits its peak. The avg Mon-Fri audience over recent weeks has been 340-350k-ish. Yes, the gap between 7 and 9 in Melbourne is large, but compare to 7, 8, 9 months ago when the avg audience there was mid-high 200s.

  17. At the end of last year, I thought Deal was going to be on at five o’clock and Seven News at 5.30, what happened to that idea? Seven should try Sale of the century at 5.30 after Deal or No Deal.

  18. Deal or no Deal is no more riveting than shows like the Shire or Lara Bingle. It’s a tired format IMO and I think it’s likely to the chop sooner rather than later.

  19. Is it Deal that’s the problem or is it Seven News in Sydney & Melbourne? Seven news in Melbourne is particularly bad, that’s what they need to look at. I don’t know who does the news there, but isn’t it Melb where they axed a meteorologist, for Giaan Rooney?? With decisions like that can you really be surprised it’s failing?

  20. Deal is a game of luck whereas Millionaire is a game of skill. That massively affects it’s ability to play along at home which will always be it’s big weakness.

  21. They should bring back a re-vamped Sale of the Century . . . would be expensive, but an easy win. Move Deal or No Deal to Sat and Sunday at 5.30pm, and have repeats of popular reality shows like RSPCA Animal Rescue, Border Security running at 5pm Monday – Friday. Move 7’s 4.30pm News to First at 4pm for an hour. Done!

  24. A lead in show does not make a difference to me, I watch what I want to watch.

    I do not watch either Hot Seat or Deal, and I watch 7 News. Even the news is on PVR so I can watch it 5 mins after 6pm and FF through the first commercial break. Once sport comes on, it’s over to The Simpsons on TEN or to the kitchen to arrange dinner. The weather I can check on my iPhone app.

    Downton Abbey is a ratings winner, but Mrs Biggs takes only half of its audience following it. I watch Biggs but not Downton.

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