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Why has TV forgotten finale week?

Once upon a time the last week of the ratings year was packed with big events.

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To be fair next week has a few notable events worth noting next week: Friday on My Mind, ARIA Awards, Struggle Street, Junior Eurovision, Family Food Fight & Secret Daughter finales and ABC’s Ripponlea special The Dream Factory– but we are a long way off the way TV used to end the year.

Remember when there were big ticket events like Australian Idol at the Opera House, a Block auction, and an X Factor winner?

They were stay-at-home, order-a-pizza events. Our VCRs were working overtime just so we could keep up with them all.

This year it’s almost as if programmers, and viewers, have taken early leave. Only the ARIAs feels like it will come anywhere close to the Live events we used to get, and it will be delayed.

Looking back through the archives here’s a reminder of the finales / events we used to get, including some last-ever episodes:

2009:
Australian Idol, The Apprentice Australia, Celebrity MasterChef, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation Xmas Special, Hamish & Andy Xmas Special.

2011:
Spicks and Specks, Wild Boys, Celebrity Apprentice, The X Factor, Junior MasterChef, The Slap, Beauty and the Geek Australia, IF Awards, Australia’s Funniest Home Videos.

2015:
The Block, The X Factor, Celebrity Apprentice, ARIA Awards, TBL Families, Junior Eurovision, Gruen, Mary: The Making of a Princess, CSI, Hitting Home.

13 Responses

  1. I hear a lot of complaining about their being nothing to watch but I feel at the moment I have too much to watch. I guess it depends on what your watching though? The one thing I will say is that most of my viewing is late night timeslots which means a lot of it is catch up. At the moment the shows I’m watching every episode on free to air are Bull, Wisdom of the Crowd, NCIS, Unreal, double episode of Chicago Fire over two nights, sisters, madam secretary, rosehaven, the letdown, riviera, bosch, gogglebox. I’m behind on the nineties but that’s a show I may not watch every episode depending on the topic. When you think about it the big finale’s are for reality shows and I would rather watch drama then that.

  3. This might just be me but there was a time when you really knew it was non ratings period with overseas shows coming on in the place of The Don Lane show and no days of our lives because the cricket is on but now I don’t miss ratings period because there is nothing that great to watch. Maybe a bit off topic

  4. Your headline is wrong

    Instead of: Why has TV forgotten finale week? it should be Why has TV forgotten their audience, what they stand for and their purpose?

  5. Yes – we definitely fade into summer programming now – not sudden end of ratings like years gone past. Felt like ratings ended when Bachelorette finished.

    I remember in the 80’s the nightly game shows would all be replaced with US sitcoms come summer. Now they all continue just with repeats.

  6. This article highlights the rise of streaming and the decline of normal fta. Watching a drama show on demand without ads is great its difficult to go back. Ch7 have a miracle on their hands with The Good Doctor…is it the last big ratings winner for US drama on fta?……aahh I really miss Beauty and the Geek

  8. I was just having this discussion with my husband, when we were watching tv last night – commenting that this week there really hasn’t been a whole lot to watch – he asked if the ratings season had ended and was surprised when I said no. Like, come on guys, you want ratings, give us something exciting and worthy. Netflix and Stan are already getting a good workout in my household!!

    1. Great point, but they’d probably bring in flashy stars from the US, how great and organic did it feel with Mark, Marcia and Dicko were on! You can’t manufacture that

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