★★★★★ 0/5

Puberty Blues skews young for TEN

Ratings: Puberty Blues clears the half a million mark, while ABC also has some challenges. Seven wins again.

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2014-03-06_0910First the good news: Puberty Blues was #1 in its time slot with 16-39 year olds and trended at #1 on Twitter.

At 538,000 viewers it managed to clear the half a million hurdle which is something several other local shows have not been able to do for TEN recently.

Now the bad news: 538,000 viewers for a local drama isn’t exactly anything to write home about and reflects the glum state of the network. Nor does the youthful audience address the bigger chase for 25-54s.

It was certainly not aided by the struggling Biggest Loser which had a lead-in of just 325,000 viewers. Loser is letting down the team badly, dropping from 520,000 as its Project lead-in and unable to go head to head with other Reality fare.

TEN wasn’t the only one with some challenges. ABC comedy shows Spicks and Specks (443,000) and The Moodys (339,000) are also doing it tough.

Seven Network won with a 35.1% share then Nine 28.6%, ABC 17.0%, TEN 15.3% and SBS 4.1%.

Even with its lowest audience this season My Kitchen Rules still managed to top the night at 1.6m viewers for Seven. Next were Seven News (1.11m / 1.04m), Home and Away (903,000), The Blacklist (869,000), Million Dollar Minute (457,000) and Chicago Fire (389,000 / 288,000).

Nine News (1.11m / 1.03m) topped Nine followed by The Block (1.09m), A Current Affair (925,000), Inside Story (700,000), Hot Seat (603,000). CSI: NY was 216,000.

ABC News (766,000) led ABC1 followed by 7:30 (597,000), Mad as Hell (596,000), Spicks and Specks (443,000), The Moodys (339,000) and Adam Hills: The Last Leg (320,000).

Best for TEN was TEN Eyewitness News (580,000) then Puberty Blues (538,000), The Project (311,000 / 520,000), The Bold and the Beautiful (405,000), The Biggest Loser (325,000) and The Good Wife (277,000).

Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve (223,000) led SBS ONE followed by One Born Every Minute (148,000), World News Australia (118,000) and Lilyhammer (69,000).

ABC2’s The Hive (310,000) was best on multichannels.

Sunrise: 355,000
Today: 273,000
ABC News Breakfast: 64,000 / 45,000
Wake Up: 33,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 5 March 2014

33 Responses

  1. Dear Puberty Blues

    I love you.
    I know it’s weird because you are a tv show but I really truly love you. Don’t ever go away for that long again.
    Love
    34 y.o. lady viewer.

  2. tricks March 6, 2014 at 3:10 pm –
    “The actors, the writing, the set, the music, everything last night was superb. I honestly can’t fault any of the actors”.

    For sure.
    One of the few shows which is so engrossing that the time just flies by.
    (Unlike most that always drag in parts).

  3. What would actually help Neighbours is 11 no longer using outdated productions like Raymond at 7pm afterwards.They need to get with the times and put something fresh and up to the minute at that hour of night.

  4. Despite the low ratings I just want to say I’m glad this show is back. The actors, the writing, the set, the music, everything last night was superb. I honestly can’t fault any of the actors, Debbie’s brother is a total stand out, the way that kid plays his role is spot on.

    The preview for Offspring was great too. I can’t wait to have that back either.

    I’m not too worried about the ratings as TEN probably have nothing to replace these shows with so I know I can schedule them in on Wednesdays and they’ll probably stay there, no matter how low they rate.

    Its oddly comforting.

  5. @ VVV.. If I’m not mistaken, when Seven and Nine had their 30 minute bulletins, didn’t The Project rate better at 6.30 than they are now? Now their ratings increase at 7pm. Says to me that people tend to switch over after they’ve watched Seven/Nine News more so than any influence from a few teenagers watching Neighbours?

    @ Andrewb.. I agree with you 100%. In this age of digital tv.. everyone has the same access to all channels. If you want Neighbours.. find it on ELEVEN. Maybe TEN should look at relaunching Sports Tonight at 6pm?

  6. Shows that all seem the same & 7’s crap family drama that can barely be called a drama. ie winners and losers. I do have to say love child is an exception.

  7. I have to say that I was quite scared for PB last night as it no longer had the structure if the book to rely on, however they proved me wrong and it was awesome.

    This is the first time I have commented on Tv Tonight but have read this blog many a times.
    I am a huge Channel Ten fan for the fact they have substantially better content in similar genres then other channels. There coverage of the Olympic Games was excellent with two channels covering it with one 24/7. That meant that I could watch event live on 1 when an aussie was going for gold because on ten they were an hour behind still and for that I believe channel 10 deserves the next broadcast of the Olympics.

    As for there poor rating I am baffled as to why people insist on watching things like ACA and Iside story which is terrible. The Aussie Dramas on ten deffinatley surpass that of 9’s constant fatuation with criminal…

  8. Both Secrets and Lies and Puberty Blues were launched this week with a huge amount of promotion and support. I am very concerned about their figures for next week as they become collateral damage in Ten’s “failure to launch” in 2014. Yes – Wonderland should be very afraid and I’m also scared for one of my personal faves – Offspring – which at least seemed to have its usual great energy in the promo.

  9. @ David,
    When you say number 1, 16-39’s in the timeslot, how’ve you come to that?
    MKR & TB ran till 2050. Seven and Nine both averaged higher than Ten in 16-39’s during Puberty Blues.

  12. @Jezza the first original one. It’s not about TEN vs Eleven, it’s about Neighbours vs The Project.

    Ten have two main scheduling problems.
    1) Stop running Neighbours and The Project against each other. They have a similar youth fanbase, and Ten are just splitting their audiences. The fact that The Project increased by 200k when Neighbours ended proves exactly that.

    2) Move Reality to 7pm. Having three reality shows airing at the same time clearly doesn’t work, and Ten should have done this when Nine extended their news. It might be too late to save TBL now, but when MCA starts, it should be stripped at 7pm, giving at 30 minute lead on the competition.

  13. If Puberty Blues after a mass of advertising can only get 538,000 viewers I would be very worried about Wonderland, a show far inferior which rated poorly last year but was renewed. What were Ten thinking or did they just cave in to pressure from Fremantle, its producers? Ten is now so desperate that only a wholesale change at Board and management level can save it. It needs a radical redirection in its development and programming strategy and fast.

  14. Love, love, love this show !
    By far the best thing on telly for a long time.

    And I’m most dfinitely outside that 16 -39 age bracket.
    Resonates with me as I was a teenager around the same age as Sue and Deb growing up on the Northern Beaches of NSW in the late 70s….was
    a very similar surf culture to that of “The Shire” in the mid to late 70s.

    I find every aspect of PB so true to those times .
    They have really nailed it , right down to the finest detail – the music, he fashion, the language, the atititudes, the culture etc.
    Especially love Susie Porter and Dan Wyllie as Sue’s parents and Ed Oxenbould as Deb’s precocious little brother – what great characters.

    So good to see i back again – it’s been a long time between drinks.

  15. I don’t get the idea of moving Neighbours to TEN. Now that we are 100% digital, everybody has the same access to ELEVEN as they do TEN.

    I would go as far as saying that Neighbours, if moved to TEN, would not do any better than it does on ELEVEN.

  16. Puberty Blues…in the current tv climate, that is a great result…period..It increased its crappy lead in by over 50 per cent, meaning it was destination tv, That is a rarity for ch10 so make hay while the sun shines….

  18. Thank god Puberty Blues did better than Secrets and Lies! That gives TEN a bit of confidence that it isn’t all doom and gloom. I really don’t understand the ratings though. How is it that Nine used TBBT repeats at 7pm whenever their reality juggernauts were on hiatus and got over a million yet when TEN use Modern Family which is arguably the better sitcom it doesn’t even make the top 20? Not to mention, how is it that 200k of people are willing to watch the national news on Seven or Nine but not the first half of The Project which shows very similar content? Something is seriously wrong with people if they are that loyal to networks that they go by network rather than content.

  19. I understand what you’re saying Ryan, but TBL has been up against The Block and MKR previous years as well. And while it has usually come third, it is further behind this year than ever.

  21. Tbl hasn’t worked simply because there are 2 other major shows on at the same time, 3 realities against each other someone has to lose. Doesn’t look like Ten are going to listen to us and strip it to 7pm wknights so it doesn’t have to deal with block or mkr.

  22. It’s a shame The Good Wife isnt getting the numbers it deserves – it is the best season yet.

    Sunrise cant put a foot wrong at the moment – no surprises with those big numbers given their special guest. Its hard to believe they were worried enough about Wake Up that they ‘refreshed’ their female co-host – Wake Up rarely gets more than 10% of Sunrises audience!

  23. Agree TBL town concept hasn’t worked out as well as they probably hoped. Looked good on paper and in theory, but the show has lost a bit in the execution. Also not helping is the fact that more contestants than ever seen to want to go home at different times. They don’t seem as desperate to be there as previous seasons and their overall lack of apparent desire makes it less important for viewers to invest in the show.

    1. Never been detailed to me but I suspect it is contractual and related to the license fee paid for the show. It may also have been part of the pitch to CBS in setting up the joint venture of ELEVEN, as a key driver to the channel, but I am just speculating.

  25. With the better part of a year anticipation, that is a pretty average figure for the retro show. For the first time in 8 years, i’ve drifted off Biggest Loser, having watched every season. It doesn’t have the same pep of earlier years, The concept of the town just doesn’t work for me. The people seems less interesting. Fickle me! Offspring can only pray to come anywhere near that million figure it bowed out with in 2013.

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