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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.

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. TEN needs a makeover. An edgy, smart viewing market is out there.
    Why not get into bed with Foxtel and get second screening rights to shows like:
    The Walking Dead
    Sons of Anarchy
    Dexter (yes, they had it once)
    Game of Thrones
    Etc… These are the shows that light up the internet, get people talking. Throw in Under The Dome, American Horror Story, Supernatural, The Simpsons and so on.
    Yes, these are cult shows in the main, but a strong focused programming style to build the rest of the schedule around.
    Graham Norton can still co-exist, maybe poach Good Game and Archer from the ABC, make Masterchef more hip by bringing in people like Anthony Bourdain and the chefs from Porteno and so on.
    See where I’m going? At least skew somewhere, instead of the muddle they are in now.

  2. I’m still waiting for New girl, New ncis, New simpsons(Back on ten) puberty blues, the biggest loser,last man standing, sons of anarchy , the goodwife , Army wives and the return of Saving babies, recruits paramedics.
    I think if anyone will be angry with ten it will be their sponsor’s considering what they promised @ the start of the yr- A full yr slate or programming!

  3. I like this week live but like most of ten’s shows it’s totally on the wrong day, when we think of a week ending we think sundays yet this show does wed to wed! Just move to to sun 9.30 already! Wonderland is just a bore! The main character wears the same top and pants every episode, whats with that? And the cast are the most boring bunch of people, it’s like watching pain dry! nothing exciting is going on in the show and using promo’s like ahh is he going to get with Miranda next week? I mean omfg.

  4. The silent heroes/villains here are the promo people at Seven and Nine who do such a spectacular job of keeping the bogans glued to their screens to find out why they Won’t Believe What Happens Next and what’s coming up that will Make History. Who would even think of switching over to Ten to find out what’s on offer?

  5. Wow. I can;t think of recent time when a daily post elicited such a response. (this is my second on this today.

    Firstly I agree that Wonderland is not a show for thinking, it is mindless entertainment if you like that stuff. It offers a show that isn’t actually edgy or uniquely different from the other genres.

    As for the criticism of David, he is making comment. The Americans, was a critically acclaimed show, but struggled in its timeslot for 13 weeks. This Week Live has been doing similar and Wonderland is unlikely to gain viewers. So if TEN want to reduce damaging their brand further David has generated discussion quite successfully that something needs to change, e.g “Crunch time”.
    There is an element in bias when in this instance David is trying to persuade that change should happen.
    There is no bias against 10 in general on this website. Seriously!

  6. I agree with David’s ‘lack of a tentpole’ argument, however there is an even more deep-seated problem… management.

    Let me say that again, Ten’s problems rest solely with management.

    Management decides where funding goes. Management decides which audience to target. Management decides how the network is structured. And, management decided who has a job and who does not.

    Conceptually, there is nothing wrong with Ten, but Ten’s management needs a clean out… and not just to replace the current dinosaurs with more prehistoric laggards. Every time David writes about a new Ten manager, the quotes from this messiah all sound the same “new direction… revitalised brand… energetic people… brilliant new concept” Meh!

    You’ve made your bed Ten…

  7. I completely disagree with people commenting that Ten should revamp their early evening offerings. Although the ratings aren’t great, Ten News and The Project are often Ten’s highest rated programs of the evening. Many of Ten’s new programs have failed to fire recently and a lot of damage has arisen from timeslot changes etc. Yes the 6pm slot could use a revamp, but otherwise Ten need to keep it consistent and hopefully rebuild from there.

  8. Absolute disgrace Ten !

    It goes to show you employ monkeys you get peanuts.

    Maybe we will see another writedown or repositioning statements from the new CEO and old Chairman.

  9. The TEN brand has had it. They need to dump it and start with a whole new fresh look. Maybe rebrand as Fox? (And no, not in anticipation of Foxtel subsuming it) It would make sense.

    And dump the “you won’t believe what happens next” promos. That goes for Seven as well!

  10. The only 2 things I regularly watch on TEN is The Project and Homeland, when it is on. TEN will go up as their base is at rock bottom. I think TENS management are on to it but know it will take time. Once they get their morning shows up and going and the cricket, things will improve. The problem is that they went too cheap. They tried to stretch out their news services and were too tight to pay premium for AFL. In this day and and age you need sport and event TV. They had it and threw it away.

  11. Re TWL – I’ve tried it twice and haven’t lasted the distance either time. Not funny at all for me.

    Re TEN. I think desperate times call for desperate measures. They need to consider a change of all of their now-toxic brand elements: Name / Logo / Tagline / Graphics / Colours – everything.

    And of course, they need to look at their product. They can’t get a whole lot of replacement shows, but they could certainly re-schedule a fair swathe of them; have coherent ‘themes’ for any given evening’s programming. Monday might be comedy, Tuesday for drama, Wednesday for reality / factuals – whatever …

    When they have completed that work – go off the air for a day or a week – and then launch the whole new channel. If they could shift which part of the spectrum they broadcast on, so much the better.

  12. The problem with TEN is its not the content that is bad its the TEN brand that is tarnished. The past couple of years is biting them where it hurts and that is why TEN is in the situation it is now. People have lost faith in the network. Yes there are some sparks every now and then like Under the Dome but the majority of TEN’s product isn’t performing because of a tarnished brand and it all seemed to happen the moment they put a mediocre bids for products like The Voice because they undervalued it.

    Somehow TEN need to find that rabbit they are searching for and pull it out of the hat but i don’t see it happening anytime soon.

  13. I called the Wonderland sink in ratings after watching a few minutes of Ep2. Vapid insipid and turgid.
    But, as many have already pointed out, it’s not telly for smart people.
    Wonderland was the name of a “true story” movie about LA drug/porn subculture a few years back. Names for Wonderland Avenue where the druggies lived. Infinitely better than 10’s schlockfest. Perhaps it’s an homage to Lewis Carroll. Perhaps it will disappear down a rabbit hole?
    David, you’ve flagged a need for “tentpole” shows. Is this a recent phenomenon? As kids did we sugger through stripped talent shows about cooking, reno, singing etc? Didn’t we just watch Happy Days at 5.30pm? Sale of the Century at 7pm, etc? Perhaps 10 should just be a point of difference and aim at a smarter elitist hipper audience than 7 or 9?

  14. Am not saying there is a conspiracy, but what is one to say that when TEN does finally go belly up, the Govt will probably let Foxtel take it over?
    Don’t have to go far to see a Pay TV operator owning and running a FTA network, Prime NZ has been owned by SKY NZ for a few years now.

  15. The worst thing 10 could have done was try that whole “serious news channel” thing a few years back… it’s killed them. As much as everyone says there are too many singing contents, I really think bringing back Idol will be one of the first moves in re-starting the network. Just don’t schedule it up against The Voice or X Factor… so a May-August run would be perfect… won’t happen in 2014, but it should be something 10 think about, which I am sure they have been.

    So You Think You Can Dance and Puberty Blues alone in 2014 isn’t going to help them. Wonderland is an okay program, but isn’t nearly as edgy enough or does it have that “water cooler” effect that they need.

  16. On audience, TEN has totally screwed up by changing their target demographic. As Big Brother has shown, there is still a young audience out there looking for something to watch. And while the audience is getting smaller, it’s not due to young people not watching video content, but just not finding what’s on TV appealing.

    On consistancy, if they’re going to program shows like The Bachelor after a show like The Project, then they’ve screwed up. They’re completely different audiences.

    Starting with the Masterchef finale-split, then The Project changing times constantly, losing Hamish and Andy, killing off Hamish McDonald’s shows, to just weird concepts, like the weird gender-war of Masterchef which was quickly abandoned, and worse, the totally transparent strategies like the “4 days to go” ads for new shows, TEN has treated their small audience like crap and reeks of…

  17. Ten can write off any ratings for the rest of the year. Over the summer, they’ll have the Twnety20 Big Bash League. This will generate 1m+ audience, and be a great advertising vehicle for the next rating year (ala Aussie Open for Channel 7). If the ratings flop after that, then they haven’t maximised their opportunity.

  18. TEN has totally screwed up by changing their target demographic. As Big Brother has shown, there is still a young audience out there looking for something to watch. And while the audience is getting smaller, it’s not due to young people not watching video content, but just not finding what’s on TV appealing.

    If they’re going to program shows like The Bachelor after a show like The Project, then they’ve screwed up. That’s just screwing over the audience. I used to watch TEN religiously, back in the ratings boom, and the only difference between then and now is that TEN screws over the audience constantly.

    Starting with the Masterchef finale-split, then The Project changing times constantly, losing Hamish and Andy, killing off Hamish McDonald’s shows, to just weird, the weird gender-war of Masterchef which was quickly abandoned, and worse, the totally transparent strategies…

  19. Ten is being crushed between the ABC and Seven & Nine. Seven and Nine have MKR, House Rules, The X Factor, The Block, The Voice, BB, AGT and they stagger them across Ten’s lineup from 7/7:30pm on Sunday to Wednesday all year.

    The ABC meanwhile gets a lot taxpayer money to make shows without ads.

    The result is even when Ten has a good show it gets timeshifted or watched on catch-up. Ten can boast about that all they want about that but it won’t generate the revenue to keep them in business.

    Ten relied heavily on Masterchef for the last few years but viewers got tired of it and isn’t working. Every time they try to buy something game changing Seven and Nine borrow more money and bid them.

    The only thing Ten can do is put NCIS back on Tuesdays to get a couple of hundred thousand extra older viewers while they wait and hope viewers get tired of Seven and Nine’s big hits.

  20. There arer some structural and decision making and visionary problems that TEN has. Their new shows are not working because a) they have lost the viewers from poor recent decisions, b) the new content was not properly scheduled ie against stiffer comp and c) not realising where their primary demos have gone. TEN need to look more towards shorter more quality mini series and event tv. Not to mention their content deals need to be better utilised both online and on broadcast. TEN should seriously think about buying the Live broadcast rights to showing music concerts often the more popular ones are often sold out so there would be a market for it, they would be able to show it on 11. Not as far fetched as you would think.

    1. I see the bigger issue in one word: tentpole.

      Last year TEN had no event show stripped across its week post-Masterchef from which to hang / promote other content. I can’t believe they have repeated this.

  21. @Jennome – Ditto, but at TEN at North Ryde. Then, “Number 96” was born and away they went. “Prisoner” for nine years followed. You are right. 3 x as many channels = less eyes on TEN. 29% of FTA viewers last night were watching the “secondary channels” – 3 times more than were watching TEN.
    A classic case of ‘more, more, more’ means less, less, less.
    @Gonzo – Totally true. Look at what won last night. Slideshow (814,000), The Man with the Biggest Testicles (805,000). OMG!

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