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Audiences still not drawn to ANZAC programming

Ratings: Both Sunday Night and Foxtel feel the audience fatigue on centenary commemorations.

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Viewers are still showing a lack of interest in ANZAC themed programming with less than a week until centenary commemorations.

Sunday Night‘s part two of The Power of Ten presented by Ben Roberts-Smith drew 674,000 viewers, plunging from its MKR lead-in of 1.36m viewers and trailing 60 Minutes (1.19m).

Meanwhile Foxtel premiered its Deadline Gallipoli miniseries but the numbers were too low to crack the Top 20, dominated by Sport, Real Housewives and replays of The Simpsons.

On Free to Air the night turned into 2 x two horse races, with Seven only pipping Nine due to its multichannel share and a tie for third place.

Seven Network’s share was 31.2% then Nine 31.0%, TEN and ABC both on 16.1% and SBS 5.7%.

Seven News (1.46m) topped the night for Seven then My Kitchen Rules (1.36m), Sunday Night (674,000) and Castle (376,000 across two episodes).

The Block‘s strategically coded episode (Room Reveal: 1.28m / 1.18m) was best for Nine then Nine News (1.28m), 60 Minutes (1.19m), Stalker (482,000) and The Following (196,000).

ABC News (893,000) led for ABC then Australia’s Great War Horse (630,000), Poldark (595,000) and Compass (341,000). Fortitude was 273,000.

Modern Family (609,000 /517,000) topped the night for TEN. Shark Tank was 548,000, NCIS: New Orleans was 403,000, TEN Eyewitness News was 334,000 and Empire was down to 68,000 in 4 cities and 49,000 in 3 cities.

Rome: The World’s First Superpower (256,000), Jesus: Rise to Power (209,000), Dateline presents: Putin’s Way (199,000) and SBS World News (177,000) completed the night for SBS ONE.

GO!’s Big Bang Theory was in front on multichannels at 238,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Sunday 19 April 2015

55 Responses

  1. I don’t necessarily think this is just about Anzac programming I simply think that 8.30pm is the wrong timeslot and too late to be airing Sunday Night or 60 minutes. I will occasionally watch either current affair show If there is a story of interest but since the timeslot change to 8.30pm I won’t even bother with either show anymore.

      1. Sunday Night used to be on at 6.30 when it first started and didn’t clash with 60 Minutes which was on at 7.30 for as long as I can remember. 8.30 is far too late for current affair/interview type programs & they go head to head which I find odd.

  2. On a different topic Ten’s news is bombing with the single bulletin. It’s probably cost effective from a cost per viewer PoV, but it sure sets them up for a poor night.

  3. I enjoy the documentaries more than dramas because they’re ‘real’ so to speak. However I am really looking forward to the movie Gallipoli on Saturday night. I remember going to the movies to see it when it came out and it made a big impact on me.

  4. Perhaps if some of the ANZAC themed shows were screened at an earlier timeslot more viewers would watch,anything after 9pm may be a bit late for some.

  5. If Sydney2218 is trying to say that Australia has changed and become a multicultural nation and that the understanding of our Anglo/Irish history is unknown to increasingly more Australians then he is right. This changing demographic has had a profound impact on television audiences. In light of this the commercial failure of these Gallipoli stories is unsurprising.

    1. I’d tend to agree. I’m Australian born from immigrant parents and the ANZAC story is something from the history textbooks. I understand the significance but I have no emotional attachment to it. My neighbour however, had a great grandfather who fought there and he gets quite emotional even just talking about it.

  6. We already had Gallipoli fatigue when Nine’s mini-series bombed. We don’t want a constant orgy of war porn and nostalgia about anzac. We are over it!!

    1. I find these generalisations very disappointing. A documentary differs markedly from a drama. To dismiss all of these as “war porn’ is incredibly dismissive of what our servicemen and women undertook. I’ve watched all of Nine’s Gallipoli and Foxtel’s Deadline series, plus Seven’s Water Diviner movie and ABC’s doco by Sam Neill tomorrow night. Neill specifically says he does not support militarisation / war (or words to that effect) but he supports those who fought on behalf of Australians and New Zealanders. A large part of his doco is about family ties, so it has a kind of Who Do You Think You Are? feel to it. I get that there has been excess in programming and content must connect with its audience with renewed perspective. But to dismiss them all at once is unfortunate. An hour of most people’s time is not a big ask to Remember.

      1. I find it a little depressing too – but it’s hard to avoid the feeling that the media in general has been milking the ANZAC story, Gallipoli, and The Legend Of Australia’s Unique Greatness for way too many months this time around.

        We’ve had endless heartstring-tugging, we’ve had endless Greatest Sacrifice stories, and we’ve had some quite frankly bizzare (not to mention self-centred and self promoting) attempts at historical Australiana.

        And I think people are fatigued by months of that, and are just lashing out cynically at the next allegedly ‘great’ thing being served up – not at anything specific.

      2. I think you have identified part of the problem David where you recognize that there probably has been an excess of programming, but in my opinion the tone of the material so often lazy, jingoistic, maudalin and commercialised.

        This is not to say that people don’t care about history and can’t recognize the sacrifices made and their historical context, I think they do, I think they just prefer their own methods of reflection and showing respect, rather than participating in TVs simulcast of tedious talking head twadle and cliched poorly written drama.

  7. Out here in viewer land, it all feels like an ego competition between Networks to have the most or best ANZAC coverage. Takes the heart and meaning out of it and we just glaze over and change to something that they think does not rate. 🙂

  8. I thought The Power of Ten Sunday Night special presentation was absolutely outstanding and Ch 7 should be being heaped with praise for it. Ben Roberts Smith is a natural presenter and he brought the right amount of respect & enthusiasm to his role. It’s obvious that no expense was spared on this production and it’s disappointing that it didn’t pull better figures – I hope that on Seven2 and on repeat many, many people get to see it.
    To be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about the first ep, but it was riveting from the start and I’m so pleased to have seen it. Well done to all involved.

  10. “There is no real reason to explain Deadline Gallipolli not doing better” – Yes there is. We all know the story or Gallipoli and while the Murdoch, Bean etc story is really pretty interesting I imagine it’s largely interesting to history buffs. Everyone else is over the same story being retold from a different angle. Also no real star. Sure people know who Sam Worthington is but if everyone loved him his surfing movie would have sold over a million bucks. It didn’t. He’s not a draw card. People will watch him in a block buster but he doesn’t sell tickets or get eyeballs. They should have pushed Rachel Griffith, Bryan Brown and Charles Dance in the promos more than trying to tell everyone how great Hugh Darcy is. We don’t know who he is yet.

    1. No real star… Well for an Aus production it doesn’t get more star powered than Deadline.

      As for the comment below, not being broadcast on an FTA channel seems a strange rationale to its ratings failure. I actually found Nine’s Gallipoli more compelling (once you got past the first 2 hours), mind you I’ve had the luxury of watching more eps so that view might change…

  11. There is no real reason to explain Deadline Gallipolli not doing better .. Maybe it should have been on a general channel but it was superbly well made, extensively promoted. Hopefully over the numerous repeats more will see it .. Just wish there was more Bryan Brown

  13. My home unit neighbours have no comprehension of Australian history , our war service or watch our tv .These programs need to be captioned in Chinese, Korean ,Russian for my neighbours. 52% of potential tv watchers no longer understand the Aussie language.No wonder tv audiences are not watching Anzac stories.

    2. Actually, to James-original and David, whilst I have no stats at all I was living in a block of flats in Sydney at one point and 3 of the 8 flats had dishes enabling owners to receive Chinese programs from Asia. I also lived in the far north coast for many years and so many Indian ex-pats there did the same. They watched no Australian television at all and they told me this in person. Shows straight from India for them. I guess it may be an interesting project to try and get some numbers on this. Perhaps installation companies may have a better clue re numbers?

      1. Not disputing the spread of multiculturalism, it’s part of what makes this country so unique. But to suggest 52% of viewers do not understand English is extreme. SBS would sure love the other 48%,

        1. True, but telling someone they have expressed “utter rubbish” isn’t exactly companionable. I could see it was a sweeping assertion but that the kernel could hold some merit.

    3. Oh, and, the other element re not understanding our Aussie language…Americans have been saying this for years and is one reason Kenny failed so miserably over there. A relative works in the states and they have been teased for certain pronunciations. Mind you, our general knowledge seems to be far better so one for us, however, if other English speaking people suggest they can’t understand us, then the point could have a basis.

  14. To be completely blunt, ANZAC programming is utterly boring. But to be brutally honest, the topic is boring too. It’s depressing thinking back to war and it may sound disrespectful but that’s how many people feel.

  16. I forced myself to watch it Deadline thinking l wouldn’t last the two hours but I did. It was brilliant. C9 should watch and note the light touch used in the telling of heavy story material.

    There might be ANZAC fatigue or it could be war fatigue generally. We have more access to everything war related these days and it might just be that people don’t want to be reminded of it in their entertainment.

  17. I was goona upgrade my plan to get deadline but was way to much, hopefully it ends up on presto or something, seems dumb that I’ve got to pay 25 for foxtel then if I want game of thrones, deadline or anything syfy I’ve got to pay another 15 seems like a waste of money, I’m already paying for sport. so that’s why deadline didn’t do well

  18. The ABC’s program on the Light Horse Brigade has us absolutely consumed and truly moved. We both had tears in our eyes. I’m gutted to read there was such a switch off from ANZAC programming. We say “lest we forget” but by switching off and not learning, we are collectively forgetting the sacrifices and hardships that were endured.

  19. I watched Deadline Gallipoli and enjoyed it. Most cable shows only rate 40-50k.

    GOT and The Walking Dead are exceptions. By the time you add up all their plays, timeshifting on IQs and streaming they are getting better numbers than US dramas on FTA.

    1. GOT rated 270K last week didnt it on the same channel.

      Wentworth (which is a steaming pile) rates over 100K – there’s no real justification for Deadline’s numbers given it was a very expensive Aus production and a pretty good one at that.

  20. All through MKR they were advertising (quote) “a special *encore* presentation” of The Power of Ten… so I assumed it was a repeat of something that had already been on… not that I would have watched it either way… genre fatigue

    1. I suspect you are not alone, Hayley.

      The “Encore presentation” was on Seven 2, I believe, listening to the ads carefully…..but who listens to ads carefully?

  21. It was AFL in Melbourne that won the night for Seven – footy was the lead in for Seven News which got 1/2 million viewers in that city alone. Shows the importance of sporting rights for ratings.

    1. It helps that sunday afternoon AFL is live and the last two weeks have been tight finishes. Its really silly that in 2015 Saturday afternoon AFL is not live into Melbourne.

  23. The whole ANZAC turn off is incredibly surprising. It’s easy for all the commentators to write about ANZAC fatigue in hindsight, but you can’t blame Foxtel and Nine commissioning what were both outstanding pieces of Australian drama.

    1. I beg to differ about Nine’s “Gallipoli” being outstanding, unless you mean that it stood out because it was really bad. I don’t think it was very bad but it certainly was very ordinary – I thought that the casting was mostly wrong and the acting pretty hokey at times. Plot and pacing needed work too. Oh, and the dialogue.

      However, the worst thing about it was that Nine started it way back at the beginning of February, more than 2½ months before ANZAC Day, when people are adjusting to the end of the summer holiday period and families are recovering from having gotten children back to school. Things have been going downhill from there.

      1. I think that part of the reason Nine/Fairfax rolled out Gallipoli when it did was to use it promote Stan as all episodes were available after the first one screened.

  25. While I have a lot of respect for Ben Roberts-Smith, I don’t think he makes a good presenter, or storyteller, which is why I have not watched Sunday Night for those episodes.

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