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SBS beats out The Biggest Loser: Transformed

Ratings: Reality hits TEN where it hurts, with another season low for TBL. ABC also struggles with its hard-hitting combo.

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TEN has suffered the humiliation of The Biggest Loser: Transformed now landing 5th in its timeslot.

At another season low of just 289,000 viewers it was beaten by Great Continental Railway Journeys on SBS with 327,000.

Last week Beverley McGarvey said judging the show on one night of numbers was premature but the network is in for weeks of pain if it doesn’t address its performance, pronto. The question is: with what? There are no easy solutions when an entire strip fails as Reno Rumble and Restaurant Revolution have shown…..

Once again it was smothered by Married at First Sight and My Kitchen Rules while Travel Guides hit a season high over the finale of 800 Words.

But TEN was not the only story from last night’s numbers. ABC’s double of Life on the Line and Bullied also did not attract enough viewers, sending its share backwards.

Nine managed a primary channel win but Seven network won Tuesday with 31.7% then Nine 31.2%, TEN 17.2%, ABC 13.6% and SBS 6.2%.

My Kitchen Rules (1.12m) was best for Seven then Seven News (1.05m / 1.02m), Home and Away (768,000), 800 Words (681,000) and The Chase (624,000 / 402,000). Bones was 237,000.

Married at First Sight was #1 for Nine with 1.19m viewers then Nine News (1.02m / 1.00m), A Current Affair (847,000), Travel Guides (691,000) and Hot Seat (490,000 / 279,000). Schwarzenegger The Celebrity Apprentice was 140,000.

TEN Eyewitness News (501,000) was best for TEN then The Project (498,000 / 303,000), NCIS (371,000), Family Feud (340,000), NCIS: LA (316,000) and The Biggest Loser: Transformed (289,000).

ABC News (728,000) and 7:30 (504,000) led for ABC followed by Todd Sampson’s Life on the Line (317,000), Bullied (264,000) and Foreign Correspondent (246,000).

On SBS it was Great Continental Railway Journeys (327,000), Insight (238,000), Dateline (159,000) and SBS World News (127,000).

Shaun the Sheep sure is irresistible to multichannels at 261,000.

The Morning Show: 128,000 / 89,000
Today Extra: 114,000 / 74,000
Studio 10: 90,000 /

OzTAM Overnights: Monday 21 March 2017

55 Responses

  1. Hi David,
    Great website! I’ve been enjoying it for a long time and have only joined tonight. I have a question on ratings for Studio 10. I see it’s competitors get two sets of figures as they cross different time slots. Does it mean it wins in ratings on the second hour of the show? I’m confused by these figures. Thank you.

    1. Welcome. Morning shows are a bit strategic in splitting numbers across their hours. The second figure for S10 is too low to be made available to me. I believe the first figure is for 9:30 – 11.

  7. One option for TEN is to switch things around and offer up an alternative, be the first to take advantage of M Rated shows being allowed at 7:30pm.

    For instance Tuesday 7:30pm NCIS, 8:30pm NCIS: Los Angeles 9:30pm The Biggest Loser, on Mondays I’d actually even give 7:30pm Scorpion, 8:30pm MacGyver a shot. Tonight bring This Is Us and Madame Secretary forward an hour (even if switched in order) and Biggest Loser again at 9:30pm, Thursday is fine as is with All Star Family Feud and Goggle Box as is Friday with The Living Room and The Graham Norton Show.

    time for a channel to take a chance and TEN is the one in the position to do it.

      1. Yeah I saw that and it’s a good move.

        Be interesting if there was some way for TEN to run like that, say if somehow they could get Neighbours back to 6:30pm (is 11 still part CBS owned) and run The Project 7pm – 8pm and start shows like Bull and NCIS as they do in the US at 8pm. Be interesting to see how people would watch with an on the hour schedule instead of an on the half hour one as it now is (well apart from overruns).

          1. Yeah I remember that David with Criminal Intent being that show and it went gang busters, also they had Merlin in at a 6:30pm timeslot and it went well also, makes me wish they had Once Upon A Time as that would slot in there well after Sunday Family Feud.

            Though some of that may be me nostalgic for the time when I was young and Sunday Disney was there at 6:30pm each week on Seven.

          2. Merlin worked really well as broad family entertainment, ideal for 6:30 Sunday. You don’t get too many of those. OUAT is a good parallel but Seven didn’t need that slot filling in the same way.

    2. Not good for families. TBL is one thing you can watch with primary age-young teens, but not any of the shows you mention. I know M-rated is allowed now, but networks need to think carefully before cutting that demographic out of their early evening programming.

  8. It’s pretty obvious that the networks don’t want their own vested interests to clash with an overseas product even if it’s being fast tracked. The Commercial imperatives always apply that is why Reality TV is the preferred genre at peak viewing times on the major channels. The concept of having variable entertainment, including non Australian made products is of secondary importance to establishing viewer loyalty and higher advertising revenue.

  9. People still came for Gogglebox last week and avoided TBL, so there is some cherry picking. But its now so easy to stream original content, so if the fta chs don’t have anything its a case of cya..

  10. I watch Shaun the sheep ( love the puzzle ) but seriously, the programmer at Ten need to be replaced , by someone who knows what there doing , and ten should drop the reality series , which is not inspirational, uplifting , or entertaining, and the guys a bully , and as said before , this show was advertised, to be more of a motivational show , sadly it is not

  11. Has NCIS ever rated 371k for a new episode?

    It’s been a good season so far and I like the new characters they’ve introduced.

    I can’t see lead in affecting NCIS numbers greatly, my bet would be the lack of fast tracking. We are ridiculously behind.

    1. Last week was 416,000 and the week before 441,000, as far as Timeshifted goes it could be interesting as Feb 28th it got 120,000 more (on 550,000 overnights), so be interesting if these has gone up any when the next lot come out. Have to agree this season has been good, great to see Wilmer Valderrama in the show, loved him in From Dusk Till Dawn as Carlos and he brings a point of difference to the show. Though I had become really bored with DiNozzo and had stopped as a regular viewer so him being gone has brought me back, so my view may be slightly tainted.

      1. I wasn’t a fan of ziva so I stopped watching and then returned as a viewer when she left. Whilst I liked tony’s character there was an element of sameness with him still being in the show and his departure signalled a badly needed revamp. I agree that Wilmer has been a good addition to the show. I like the difference he brings to the show. I’ve noticed Duane Henry who plays british agent Clayton reeves on the credits for the last couple of weeks but he hasn’t been in either episode. I wonder how he’s going to factor into NCIS?

  13. In the pre-publicity for TBL TEN released a before and after pic. This led me to believe that this season would concentrate on muscle building, like those transformation pics you see on Facebook of a skinny or fat guy on the left and the same guy on the right being a big ripped muscle dude.

    How disappointing when I tuned in! No muscle building routines, in fact nothing at all really. The grossly obese people who provided the interest in past seasons were gone and there were a bunch of run of the mill people who are boring doing nothing in particular.

    Come on, TEN. I believe the producers just weren’t trying this time around and have landed the station with a turkey. A proper transformation program with intense muscle building routines would have gone down really well in these days of social media selfies but they’ve dropped the ball badly. Maybe next time the penny will…

  14. “At another season low of just 289,000 viewers it was beaten by Great Continental Railway Journeys on SBS with 327,000.”
    Not even the new trainers can save this show.

  15. In more ways than one TBL is Excess Baggage.

    Actually, it’s not fat that needs to be trimmed at all. Ten doesn’t have any fat. It’s a gangrenous leg and Ten needs amputate it before it spreads further.

  16. What did Ten expect with TBL. So many reality fans were already so heavily invested in MKR and MAFS that there are no eyeballs left for that genre. Never start a reality series midway through two others – programming rule 101. Must be moved to Eleven pronto.

    1. They would have expected that most of the I’m a Celeb audience who weren’t watching Seven or Nine would have stuck around for Loser. Neither of the other shows went up when Celeb finished, and they didn’t stick to Ten so they are elsewhere.

  17. How good is this for TV!

    David, when was the last time two networks were both consistently pulling 20%+ main channel & 30%+ network shares?

    But awful days have returned to Ten. MasterChef needs to be promoted like hell and air ASAP.

    ABC also having some bad nights.

    2. I don’t mind it and I hardly watch reality these days. Totally over the genre. I think its the somewhat education elements such as those incorporated into the food challenge segment that have caught my interest. I watched revenge body with Khloe Kardashian which recently finished on e and that is probably what got my mind into a weight loss show.

    1. thefreedictionary.com
      beat out
      Surpass or defeat someone; be chosen over someone. For example, He got to the head of the line, beating out all the others. [Colloquial; second half of 1700s]

  22. Where do Ten go from here? Yes, there’s only a month until Masterchef hits but what damage will leaving the aptly titled The Biggest Loser to fester and rot at 7.30pm do to the entire Network? I don’t have a viable solution, I guess they could push their nightly programming forward and air TBL at 9.30/10.00??

    1. Logic says: move to One, replace with repeats or new shows of NCIS/Family Feud or something
      What TEN will do: Move to a later timeslot, probably not as late as 9pm. Will still have a negative effect on the first few weeks of MasterChef.

      Guess it goes to show that Michelle Bridges and Commando were creating quite some significant audience pull?

      1. In part perhaps, but I think it’s more complex with many factors: the revamp, the competition from 9 & 7, series fatigue & brand history. I do think Commando was popular in pulling in kids / family viewing. Michelle not so much.

  23. Absolutely loving Travel Guides. The mix of groups is amusing and its simple and fun TV not taking itself too seriously. Hopefully a series #2 in the pipeline.

  24. I imagine there’ll be a TV network ripe for a take over soon. All part of a foxy plan, I guess.
    On a separate note, we caught up with the 2 more recent episodes of Blacklist last night. The second of the 2, The Apothecary (No. 59), was the best ep of the whole series so far (imo).
    Really looking forward to the last 4 episodes of this season which (apparently) revolve around Mr Kaplan and Dembe and are due to air in the US from April 20.

    1. Agree. Blacklist is great. Been waiting anxiously for the cleaner lady, “Mr Kaplan” to appear at Raymond’s door.
      Does the endless repeating of TBL-T across multiple channels have anything to do with the lack of viewers of the next ep? Is the theory that endless repeats will generate more primetime viewers a false assumption?
      But what to replace it with? Fortunately, there’s a new show in Iceland that offers all the intrigue, drama, and suspense of your favorite reality series. It replaced The Bachelor Iceland when that ended. Keeping Up With The Kattarshians has taken Iceland by storm. It follows four kittens, Guðni, Briet, Stubbur, and Ronja as they sleep, play, sleep, eat, and sleep. Judging by Seven’s success with “Cats (etc) Make You Laugh Out Loud”, am I just a crazy old TV person or what? OMG, what am I suggesting!

    2. Very likely that Ten is not far off from being part of Rupert’s world.
      Ten’s share price is plunging, as is their bottom line. Ten is in dangerous territory.

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