Network feud over Family Feud ratings
Nine says TEN has gotten ahead of itself on judging Family Feud as a big success.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
The February TV war is heating up with Nine questioning the ratings success of TEN’s game show Family Feud, which moves to six nights a week from Sunday.
TEN programmer Beverley McGarvey has previously said, “Australians have fallen in love with Family Feud, making it the most-watched game show on commercial television.”
But while Hot Seat and Million Dollar Minute may arguably be deemed quiz shows -and technically not game shows- Nine head of programming Andrew Backwell suggests the show’s ratings, derived from a simulcast on TEN, ELEVEN and ONE, are nothing to get excited about.
“I don’t really talk down our opposition but if you look at Family Feud the interesting thing is it does half the numbers that Seven and Nine do in the slot. Nine does 1m to 1.2m with the News nationally. Family Feud does 500,000 – 550,000 across three channels,” he told TV Tonight.
“So this is touted as one of the biggest hits on Channel TEN? It does half of what Channel Nine does in the slot and it’s across three channels.
“If you look at the share in the slot, you wouldn’t be touting it as a big success.”
TEN maintains Family Feud has given the network its biggest audience in the 6pm to 6.30pm weekdays timeslot in more than five years. But Backwell points to increased costs involved too.
“Personally I think they’re getting a bit ahead of themselves on the success of the show. In the slot (compared to) what they had there previously, obviously they have grown their audience there, but it’s a local production so they have grown their cost-base in that slot compared to what they had there previously. So your cost base goes up and your audience goes up a small amount,” he says.
“I think it’s done OK but I think people have gotten ahead of themselves about its huge success.
“If everything on Channel TEN is half of Channel Nine I’m more than happy.”
TEN’s Beverley McGarvey says the show is working and has no plans to end its simulcast roadblocking, despite calls for multichannels to offer alternative content.
“It works and it would be crazy for us to on-pick something that works. We have a very robust schedule on ELEVEN and ONE, we offer a lot of first-run content and a lot of Australian content,” she told TV Tonight.
“People engage with Family Feud and it works as a triple test. It’s half an hour a day and we have no plans in the short term to make any changes there.”
This week Nine also premiered The Block on both Nine and GEM to 860,000 viewers.
Family Feud begins on Sunday nights from 6pm this weekend.
Share
- Tagged with Family Feud, Hot Seat, Million Dollar Minute, The Block
36 Responses
TEN should do a few ‘Specials’ of Family Feud on Sundays to see the ratings just on the main channel.
@andrewb – We do watch Family Feud on One purely as anything looks better on our tv on a HD channel even if it’s upscaled SD. Saying that the most annoying thing is switching back to TEN as soon as the closing music starts as not to miss the start of The Project.
Kind of up to Ten to decide whether they are happy with it and keep showing it, not Nine.
How is Hot Seat going these days is the question Nine don’t want asked.
@Andrewb I watch it on Eleven so I can wstch neighbours afterwards.
When Grant Denyer was hosting MDM I thought he was horrible, boring and really turned me off. On Family Feud he is brilliant and charismatic, it really is his show and he carries it well. I thought FF would be cringeworthy rubbish at the beginning as did my partner but now we rarely miss an episode.
So – with all this talk as always about Family Feud airing over 3 channels skewing the ratings, does anyone here watch FF on ELEVEN or ONE instead of TEN?
And out of those who do watch FF on ELEVEN or ONE, would they watch FF on TEN if the simulcast stopped?
Either all channels can potentially simulcast any program or no channel can simulcast programs. Can’t pick and choose 9.
I don’t think channel nine should care since Bert’s Family Feud flopped.
I wouldn’t really call 2 years a flop.
Rutzie – you will notice Ten is campaigning for Grant Denyer, Carrie Bickmore, Asher Keddie, Neighbours and others for the Logies.
Its a bit rich that you are bagging Ten’s attempts to snag a Gold Logie for Denyer.
Remember Karl Stefanovic? Hamish Blake? and last year Scott Cam?
My money is on Carrie Bickmore winning the Gold this year BTW.
I think that channel 10 would do pretty well with family feud being simulcasting onto three channels. Let’s hope that Ten can increase ratings by March.
Nine news has well paid newsreaders, sports readers and weather forecasters in every state as well as news journos, camera operators all over the country. They also have a studio operating in every state at 6pm. Now Family Fued has 1 host and 1 studio. I would argue that compared to Nine News FF would be a very low cost show to produce and would make more money than 9 News. Sour grapes by Nine I say and a very smart move by 10. Family Fued is a stunning success in this day and age.
Sounds like Nine are trying to deflect attention away from their lacklustre ratings performance of the opening night of The Block.
If Family Feud was that good it would be on one channel not three. Say no more.
Watch Nine News At Six.
Cannot stand Grant Denyer
Grant Denyer and Family Feud have been a perfect match , Grant Is truly at home with that show , such a wonderful energetic presence , I feel he Is up there with the likes of Graham, Bert , Don , Daryl and Rove .
He Is a perfect contender for a Gold Logie , I mean would you rather someone like Scott Cam win again ???
It is good to see 10 having success with this show even though it is across so many channels, but don’t think Grant should be considered as a Gold Logie nomination there are so many other excellent recipients that deserve it more.
Ten’s unwillingness to have the show on just a single channel suggests a rather unhealthy obsession with maximising the spruikable viewing figures for the show rather than trying to get more eyeballs to the network overall.
Of course, it would be fascinating to see if there really were viewers out there who would stop watching the show if it wasn’t on One/Eleven…
Ten are worried that people will see the true single channel ratings on FF. that’s why they continue the “roadblock”
And can they really afford to be giving money away every night? If I was an investor I wouldn’t be happy. Why not simulcast neighbours on channel 10 and 11 and then leave it on the channel to hat gets the highest ratings
The networks were given the airways to broadcast content. I’d they are going to play the same thing on the same channels they should let someone else have the license to do something with it. It should be a license condition. People should write to the communications minister.
I enjoy watching Family Feud week night at 6.00pm on TEN. Grant Denyer is very funny and so entertaining.
For someone not wanting to “talk down the competition”, he seems pretty at ease with it. If he was completely comfortable with their relative ratings positions between 9 and 10 – then there is nothing to say – he obviously is concerned.
FF skews very young in the demos, which bodes well for shows like I’m a Celebrity. And I’m baffled why he’s comparing the ratings of FF to 9’s main news telecast – he should compare is against 9/7 quiz shows. And I’m more baffled why he even comments on the cost of the show. Seems to be grasping at straws.
9 should spend less time commenting on how other networks promote their products and more time concentrating on how poorly they treat viewers.
It’s time family feud went to one channel a night. Multichannels are meant to give choice to viewers not air the same thing at the same time.
Agreed, and TEN have been their own worst enemy here …. if you use exteme laymens point of view, if it rates 600,000 across 3 channesl, then theoretically, it rates only 200,000 across each channel … although not accurate as primarily it will rate more on the primary channel, even if it is 80% of that 600,000 on Ten, then that is only 480,000 ….
Ten has lied to itself for too long that this is a success …..
Look, Ten have to hold onto something, don’t they? If you look at all the attention The Project gets you’d think it got great numbers too.
I completely agree. The way Ten have been hyping the supposed success of FF you’d think it was winning it’s timeslot and pulling over a million viewers every night. And now they are trying to get Grant nominated for the Gold Logie.