★★★★★ 0/5

Crunch time for TEN as local products sink

Ratings: Dire figures for This Week Live and a thrashing for Wonderland as TEN puts on a brave face.

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IMG_0816TEN will be facing some major decisions today.

Its primetime schedule on Wednesday fell apart after 8:30 with Wonderland on just 420,000 viewers and This Week Live on just 194,000. On those kind of Total People numbers both shows should be immediately moved if not axed altogether.

The best TEN could manage was 612,000 for The Bachelor Australia.

A TEN spokesperson told TV Tonight, “Of course we are disappointed with last night’s numbers. Both Wonderland and This Week Live are great shows and we have faith in their potential.

“Last night Wonderland was clearly affected by the finale of Winners & Losers. But the crude overnight audience numbers disguise some solid results for the show.”

In the demos Wonderland is hanging on. It was third in its timeslot for 18-49 year olds and second for 16-39s. But no such joy for This Week Live.

TEN points out that the raw numbers improve with catch-up and consolidated figures -as most dramas do.

But looking across the board at local shows including Wanted, A League of Their Own, Recipe to Riches and Revealed it’s hard to find positive news for TEN right now.

Seven network won the night with a  share of 31.4% then Nine 27.7%, ABC 19.1%, TEN 16.4% and SBS 5.5%.

Seven News (1.02m) was best for Seven then Winners and Losers (1.02m), Today Tonight (882,000), Home and Away (868,000), Slideshow (814,000), The Man with the Biggest Testicles (805,000) and Million Dollar Minute (528,000).

Nine News topped the night with 1.04m for Nine then A Current Affair (1.02m), Big Brother (818,000 / 723,000), Arrow (621,000 / 586,000), and Hot Seat (613,000).

ABC News (967,000) won its timeslot for ABC1 then Gruen Planet (908,000), 7:30 (734,000), Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery (613,000), Tractor Monkeys (574,000) and Adam Hills: The Last Leg (428,000).

At TEN it was bad news. The Bachelor Australia was 612,000, then The Project (540,000), TEN Eyewitness News (509,000), Wonderland (420,000). Next was The Bold and the Beautiful (399,000), The Simpsons (300,000). This Week Live was just 194,000 -with numbers trailing even Judge Judy.

On SBS ONE it was Miniature Britain (263,000), 24 Hours in Emergency (201,000), World News Australia (164,000) and The Killing (145,000).

Neighbours was best on multichannels at 307,000.

Sunrise: 383,000
Today: 311,000
ABC News Breakfast: 59,000 / 40,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 25 September 2013

89 Responses

  1. The Project has moved further and further to the right.

    And Charlie Pickering’s recent announcement that he is ‘dead centre’ and has voted for the libs in the past has definitely driven many leftwing viewers – like me – away from the program.

    Not sure what Charlie was thinking when he announced this. Was he afraid that Gina and Lachlan would sack him like they did with Hamish McDonald?

    It’s quite obvious that Ten is the most rightwing network on free TV right now. But it would have been better if Charlie has just said ‘no comment’ when asked what his political views were.

    Sorry – I used to watch The Project – but not anymore.

    In fact, the only shows I watch on Ten nowadays is Get Smart and Simpsons repeats.

    But I will tune in tomorrow for the fast tracked Glee episodes because I want to see how many times The Bachelor promo will appear as a pop up.

  2. Wonderland is lame,The characters are not likeable and at the end of the episode you say “who would give a toss anyway”.This week Live has great potential.Maybe Tom might want to look like he wants to there for a start! The other two guys are very spontaneous and I see a show with just them in it for the future.Offspring’s writing this year had gone down hill until of course the final weeks, so one has to ask,do they need a better writing, production set up.Ten is known to flop and has always lagged behind,but at least they give it a go,Oh and The Project…get a new host/female change a few things,liven it up a bit.

  3. Look at these ratings for June 16 2009: http://tvtonight.com.au/2009/06/week-25-2.html

    Your Gen 1.7m (Before it was moved everywhere)
    NCIS 1.6m
    MasterChef 1.5m
    NCIS Rpt 1.3m
    Ten News at Five 1m
    Neighbours 0.9m
    The Simpsons 0.8m

    Ten only 0.6% behind Seven, 5.4% ahead of Nine.

    If anyone had only been following this site for a couple of years they’d be absolutely staggered that Ten used to have figures like that.

  4. Channel TEN has great programes , keep up the good work channel TEN , not sure why anyone would care about the rating system ,as its based on a small amount of people with the rating box,
    TEN seem more stable to be lately, just remove the home shopping fromTEN overnight, and leave it off ONE/ELEVEN , Althought they should add some new content to ONE/ELEVEN, daytime

  5. Legally Brown got 180,000 on SBS. This Week Live got 194,000. Both shows are at 9.30. I agree that 10 should consider trying something less white or even just more risky. Try and make something different and interesting that can attract an audience and some press. Maybe even make some things themselves. They have no real identity.

  7. i like This week live its a funny show. great entertainment but cant watch it wednesdays. so i watch it on tens online site.it should be moved to friday nights or saturday nights. think it would get a bigger audience on a fri or sat night . not a fan of wonderland

  8. Well said Gonzo. I thought TEN were going to chase a more mature audience (hollow larff). So they put Wonderland on. To begin with it’s the same old, same old. It’s not interesting, full of vapid conversations, and the name of it is just awful. Would anybody in their right minds name a block of flats Wonderland? It means nothing.

    I don’t think their egos are running the network Cynical. There can’t be any egos left, in spite of the billionaires on the Board.

    I’m sad for TEN, I worked with them at its inception when they were really struggling (specially in Melbourne, being Channel 0 with reception problems), and apart from a few times in the sun, it’s been a bit of a struggle ever since.

    The introduction of the extra HD channels has been a death-knell for them.

  9. Im still convinced part of ten’s problem has been histoical …. a vast oversupply of bad trashy reality programs over the years has killed off any motivation for people to take on board any offering from ten – even if it is a quality program or not.

    How may programs have come and failed on ten from the past 2 years? way too many … because one way or another it is the same tripe dished up in another disguise ……

    even though the bachelor was the best rating sucess for ten last night it’s still crap ….

    perhaps stop going for the 16-39 demographic and appeal to a demographic that is not so tech savvy such as the older set …. the younger demo’s are taken up with 7 and 9 … ten doesnt have to go on the bandwagon ….

  10. To all those saying Wonderland shouldn’t be axed because it’s better than Winners and Losers – they’re both shows for stupid people!

    I know that could be perceived as rude or elitist, but it’s true. The reason the ABC are doing so well is because they haven’t tried to chase the Daily Telegraph reading Channel 7 Audience.

    Ten’s traditional audience still lives in Australia, they still buy goods and services and are probably on above average salaries. Ten’s forgotten that being the third biggest commercial broadcaster allows you to take risks. They won’t be rewarded for chasing white bread Australia who have their televisions tuned almost solely to Channel 7.

  11. @laurie, exactly. Their refusal to admit to mistakes is a sign that their egos are ruining this network, and it’s happened time and time again in this industry. Ten need to hire true professionals who know irrelevance when they see it.

  12. Have to feel for Ten….

    Can’t have a go at them for not supporting local Programming. Back in the early 90’s they became a network that just played US content and made local quotas with Bert’s 3 hour morning advertorial show. At least they are investing in local content. The problem is 10 is not on peoples radar.

    TWL is an enjoyable program and would rate well on 9 or 10.

    Ten are promoting the hell out of all their new programs…..on their on own shows and channel….but limited people are watching.

    They are making there programming decisions hoping for a quick fix for advertisers…but the fact is is needs to be a slow ride back.

    And I cant see the Winter Olympics or Big Bash cricket helping much given their limited audiences – but perfect for ONE.

    Can they rebuild the network back (slowly) using Wake up and Studio 10 (stupid name by the way)….maybe……I…

  13. Oh come on Ten. Get a grip. Wonderland is a joke and is the anomaly within a genre they’ve done pretty well with despite a failing schedule.

    The whole ad agency outlook certainly isn’t working and is reinforcing viewers image of Ten. The promos are bad, the water marks during shows are offensive and aiming at the Daily Telegraph audience will make things worse, not better.

  15. Writing stories is one thing David, and I commend you for writing them about each and every network – but I think they come more from a hobby/interest level and the need to fill web content. My point about bias comes more from your analysis.
    What are your suggestions to get underperforming shows working? Move or axe them… why? so you can have a ‘bumped’ ‘axed’ headline…
    Why would ratings see Winners and Losers score more than Wonderland or Offspring for that matter… and yet the show gets no speak in the wider world. What’s amiss here? That’s analysis.
    1 star.

  16. Can I just ask why hasn’t neighbours been brought back onto channel 10? It’s figures suggest that even if it was to get no more ratings it would definitely help the flow of their primetime schedule. Was disappointed to see that sleepy hollow is failing as it’s going great in the US for ratings. They desperately need to get homeland modern family and elementary to fire. I would even suggest throw all your best into one evening out of hopes to pull through

    Wonderland is meh, but it definitely doesn’t deserve to be axed. And even worse than axing it would be to change time slots. All networks need to stop chopping and changing it’s getting tiresome

  17. It is such a shame TWL is not getting numbers. It’s a great show, really funny. I think putting it on Wednesday which is now seen as a traditional “ABC” comedy night is a stupid decision. Wonderland is clearly not getting enough of a lead-in. putting it on Friday? At least give it time to build up an audience. I really hope they don’t axe it!!!

  18. Perhaps 10 could buy some ads for their shows on 7 or 9? Because they are incapable of launching news shows at the moment and short of an entire relaunch I don’t see how they are going to get out of this.

  19. But don’t worry everyone. We’ve just thrown millions at another attempt at breakfast tv. That will solve everything.

    I wonder how James Warbuton and grant blackley are feeling now? These shows are rating worse than Lara Bingle, shire, don’t tell the bride, etc. to their credit they don’t quite have an Everybody dance now type disaster, but some could be on that trajectory.

  20. When Ten is relying on catchup figures you know you’re in trouble. Catchup can’t carry the advertising minutes of free to air so is pretty useless for advertisers. Ten’s idea to commission 22 episodes of Wonderland only makes sense when you are a dominant network with other shows to carry a drama in the short term. Seven is the only network which can get away with this.
    Ten’s only alternative now is to commission quite a few short form dramas and try to establish a reputation as a network with quality, innovative and different dramas. It needs to broaden its commissioning base and give a clear brief. Other than Offspring it has nothing on its main channel.

  21. Only thing I could see TEN doing is some shuffling, they could move Sleepy Hollow to 8:30pm Thursday in place of Wanted and return L&O: SVU to 9:30pm Thursday in place of Revealed and put the new NCIS eps back in at 8:30pm Tuesday (so as the episodes that are shown in the US Weds our time come on here the following Tues like before).

    Wonderland and This Week Live are likely going to have to stay on Weds as all they will have to replace them is Hawaii Five-O which was flopping before. Only other option is to bring in Puberty Blues now instead of next year and have that before Wonderland (moved to 9:30pm).

  22. Wonderland is a good drama, the problem is the Network. This show would rate through the roof on 7.

    Without the brand loyalty, there’s little chance of seeing a promo, without competitive ratings advertising dollars are limited, without magazines there’s no cross promotion and with people running marketing, promotions and yes, the station who are advertising executives not television executives, what chance is there?

    Poor Ten, if only the Numpty’s would leave.

  23. Meanwhile an ABC show on a nothing-budget, featuring a TEN executive, beats anything on 7, 9 & 10 (except for News/CA & a final ep on 7).
    The irony of it all.
    But, “White Collar” on ONE had my tweens hooked as usual.

  24. Watched the season finale of Arrow last night. David have you heard if Nine plans to fast track the new series as there is a lot of chat about the series & they scored big online with their new promo pics of the 4 male stars.
    I hope Nine won’t make us wait until next year.

  25. A well worn cliche sums up the situation beautifully.

    It’s no use flogging a dead horse.

    Commonsense should have told the so called experts at TEN that soapy garbage like Wonderflop wasn’t going to achieve anything. To stick with it would only see its ratings decline further. Then again these wonder boys commissioned 22 episodes, talk about optimistic. As for the demos, when a show can only attract 420,000, a win in the demos means squat.

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