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TEN’s Wrong Girl struggling in new timeslot

Ratings: The Bachelor wins its slot for TEN, and Socceroos score for 9GO! if not for the nation.

The Bachelor was the top entertainment show on a quiet Thursday pulling 739,000 viewers, on par with last week, and topping the demos.

But The Wrong Girl fell to 336,000, down from 391,000 last week. This year TEN moved the show from its traditional Wednesday slot, presumably to avoid going head to head with Nine’s Doctor Doctor, where it was attracting over 400,000 or 500,000 last year. But it is not retaining enough from its lead-in despite both skewing female.

ABC’s Pulse was not much better at 350,000 down from 392,000 in the same slot, next week is the finale.

Seven enjoyed wins with Seven News and The Chase but it was Nine’s night with a staggered sports schedule, including the Socceroos qualifier pulling 327,000 on 9GO! ACA won at 7pm.

SBS also enjoyed a lift thanks to Great British Railway Journeys.

Nine network won with 29.1% then Seven 26.9%, TEN 20.4%, ABC 14.8% and SBS 8.8%.

Nine News was best for Nine with 875,000 / 828,000 then A Current Affair (769,000), Hot Seat (450,000 / 273,000), Thursday Night NRL (447,000 in 2 cities), AFL Footy Show (300,000 in 3 cities) and RBT (299,000 in 3 cities). NRL Footy Show was just 152,000 in 2 cities.

Seven News was #1 for Seven with 922,000 / 920,000 then Home and Away (678,000), The Chase (554,000 / 387,000) and Make You LOL (476,000). Diana: Her Story drew 253,000 and The Front Bar was 205,000 in 3 cities.

The Bachelor (739,000) won for TEN followed by The Project (537,000 / 351,000), TEN Eyewitness News (407,000), The Wrong Girl (336,000) and Family Feud (334,000). An SVU repeat was 237,000.

ABC News (726,000), 7:30 (506,000), Pulse (350,000), Short Cuts to Glory: Matt Okine vs Food (322,000), Clarke and Dawe: From the Archives (321,000), and a Grand Designs repeat (194,000) comprised ABC’s night. A Heroes special was just 159,000.

On SBS it was Great British Railway Journeys (353,000), Inside Kensington Palace (329,000), Gourmet Farmer (288,000), SBS World News (152,000) and Versailles (121,000).

9GO!’s Socceroos coverage topped multichannels with 327,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 31 August 2017

18 Responses

  1. The promos don’t do anything to compel someone to watch. This week’s: “Lily has to face her boyfriend’s perfect Ex.” (paraphrased). This suggests that the show has no depth or interesting story lines at all.

    There’s a common thread with modern relationship dramas – the courtship takes half an episode, they are in bed by the end of the first, the second episode has to introduce a third person to make a triangle, and all the emotion has been covered in four episodes. They need to learn about pacing and building relationship from some of the classic shows and literature.

  2. Would The Wrong Girl have done any better up against Utopia and Doctor, Doctor? Offspring is down 200k in that slot. S1 of TWG had lots of silly melodrama involving the whole cast, presumably drawn from the book. S2 is being done as more of slower paced serious drama with better structured scripts and less slapstick. But it’s been just about Lilly and rehashing the Lilly, Jack, Peter triangle. Simone and Meredith have been reduced to little more than extras. Not a lot else is happening.

  3. Honestly the first few episodes of s1 weren’t very good at all.
    I think one of the news articles commenting on the difference in writing process of Aus and US shows is very evident here.

  4. Dramas start to late in Australia. Most start 9ish and l reckon that’s just a tad to late for a female audience to follow. Start them at 8pm. I personally fell we should be like America and have shows start on the top of the hour.

  5. Agree!
    Cast ensemble are excellent and timeslot is good as there’s not much competition on Thursday nights.
    The script is unfortunately letting TWG down this time around.
    Enjoyed the first season and the storyline was pretty entertaining. But this season so far has been a bit lack-lustre – just isn’t engaging me as much anymore.
    Hoping it will improve ..

  6. You do have to wonder how many sub-par soap operas, oops, I mean ‘relationship dramas’ this country really needs. It’s not like there are protests in the streets with people dodging tear gas and waving placards reading, ‘We want more poorly-written soap operas, and we want them now.’

    Can’t the networks come up with something different? For example, they could commission some crime, medical and legal procedurals. Wait, hang on a minute…

    1. Just you wait, we are probably getting NCIS: Melbourne with the new CBS-owned TEN.

      I say that jokingly but I would not be surprised if they did something like this (it is a franchise that does decently over here and it would be something that they can put on All-Access in the US).

    2. How about some science fiction? This was once commonplace. I see Richard Anderson has passed away from the Six Million Dollar Man and what a great show that was. I realise a space opera is a big ask for Australia, but something like the Six Million Dollar Man, i.e. a show based around a cyborg is feasible. Just a thought and i’m sure there a plenty of interesting ideas out there which could be considered.

        1. David, I appreciate the feedback but I’m not sure that Cleverman and Glitch are up my alley so to speak. I’m not really interested in superpowers, mythology, the paranormal or fantasy in general. Admittedly I didn’t see Kettering, but I think I would have enjoyed it from what i’ve read about it, so I will give that a go sometime.

          A lot of shows that come under the sci fi banner these days are in my opinion more fantasy based than science fiction, Dr Who is a great example, though I have to point I haven’t seen much of Capaldi’s version. I’d love to see something that is more science based and potentially feasible, hence the example of the Six Million Dollar Man. Stargate was a great example of true science fiction intermixed with today’s world.

    1. To be fair a lot of shows find their feet in S2 so it’s also important not to throw out baby with bathwater, but yes it dropped when Doctor Doctor moved in. Offspring for instance has managed 7 seasons. TWG saw another 129,000 on last week’s Timeshifted.

      1. If a drama flops in S1 these days, it’s rarely going to find its feet in S2, particularly when you change nights. Even with time shifted it is just above 500k. Not good enough for a show with a strong lead-in. TEN should have tried something that may appeal to a broader audience.

        1. Darcey this just isn’t true – Offspring grew from S1 to S4
          David is right, sometime things need a chance to find their feet, or find their audience as it happens.
          Also US dramas aka the aforementioned NCIS or Big Bang took time to catch on in Aus.
          And look at the drama numbers for this year.. people are getting disinterested with the offerings..

          1. Offspring has averaged around 1m (+7) consistently across its entire run. Except for S4 when it dipped a bit and this season when it’s down a couple of hundred thousand.

            In the US you used to see popular shows grow year on year as they dominate a slot. But it doesn’t happen anymore as the general trend for dramas is downwards. CBS is still #1 but its viewers were down 13% on the year before. In Australia when shows are on for shorter runs and moved around a lot it happens even less.

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