★★★★★ 0/5

MAFS on top, viewers cop repeat programming.

A big win for Nine, while other networks start scheduling repeats as early as 9pm in the first week of survey.

22
Leave a comment

If networks have any concerns about viewers turning away from Free to Air they only have to look at the amount of repeats on air last night, in the first week of survey.

ABC began repeats at 9pm with Utopia then Spicks & Specks. Seven and 10 both moved to repeats by 9:30 with Kitchen Nightmares Australia and Bull, respectively.

Meanwhile SBS screened first run crime drama Bloodlands while Nine moved to late news by 10pm.

But there is no denying the might of Married at First Sight which was #1 at 849,000 metro viewers, even outranking 6pm news bulletins.

That was ahead of Hard Quiz (476,000), 7:30 (438,000), The Dog House (324,000) and Code 1: Minute by Minute very low at just 205,000.

Later The Weekly with Charlie Pickering was 397,000, Under Investigation (382,000), a repeat of Utopia (254,000) and The Front Bar (223,000).

Nine network easily won Wednesday with 35.3%, then Seven 23.8%, ABC 18.4%, 10 15.0%, and SBS 7.5%.

Nine News drew 741,000 / 685,000 with A Current Affair winning at 643,000. Hot Seat was 305,000 / 204,000 with Nine News Late at 195,000.

Seven News led its slot at 791,000 / 788,000 with Home & Away at 441,000 and The Chase (420,000 / 263,000). Seven otherwise struggled in primetime with a Kitchen Nightmares Australia repeat at just 100,000.

ABC News was 550,000. A repeat of Spicks & Specks was 187,000 with The Drum at 115,000.

10 News First was 234,000 / 144,000 for 10 then The Project (223,000 / 161,000). Fire Country struggled at 110,000 leaving a Bull repeat with only 79,000.

On SBS it was SBS World News (112,000 / 93,000), My Grandparents War (76,000), Mastermind (67,000) but Wildlife ER struggled at 58,000 with Bloodlands on just 48,000.

Peppa Pig led multichannels at 143,000.

Sunrise: 217,000
Today: 195,000
News Breakfast: 93,000 / 59,000

In Total TV numbers last Wednesday were:
Married at First Sight: 1.89m
The Weekly with Charlie Pickering: 779,000
Home & Away: 949,000
The Dog House: 516,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 15 February 2023

22 Responses

  1. One answer may be that the networks now have too high expectations for new shows. Acceptance that viewing numbers are lower all around might make them give new shows a chance to find a footing. Low-ish ratings on the first night now seems to result in crashing the show back to the wee hours, and replacing it with a repeat which will probably rate lowly anyway.

    I would love to see programmers have the guts to put a decent drama or dramedy up against a high-rater, accept that it may rate low for at least six or more weeks, and then decide. Give the show a chance to be watched on PVRs or catch-up and for a buzz to develop. Surely that can’t be worse than shrugging your shoulders and reverting to the old catalogue?

  2. So the networks have gone from scheduling five nights and sacrficing Fri/Sat to sport to basically scheduling three nights. You’d think Seven would have put more effort into the back end of the week with Idol soon to go down to two nights a week. I assumed that Balloon making show would be paired up with it as surely they don’t think that’s strong enough to be the big reality franchise of the week.

  3. Ten missed their chance now that Dr Chris Brown has left. They should of stripped the living room to 30mins weeknights and completely changed up the project (get rid if Waleed) and did a reset on format, content, set design etc for the other 30min (or start their reality at 7pm).

    The project has had its day. Problem is, got nothing to replace it with.

  4. I watched Foyle’s War on Seven Two last night – 20 years old, but still way superior to a lot of the newer programs on air in 2023.
    And yes, you’d call me as one of the over 50s, I’m a 53 year old bloke who loves Vera, Endeavour, Midsomer Murders, Death in Paradise, All Creatures Great and Small and so on, anything high quality from the BBC and ITV and Channel 5.
    I’d guess the major commercial networks assume most people are now streaming shows, hence they don’t really need to bother with those still stuck on free to air TV, so yeah, let’s program repeats on a weeknight once our reality shows have finished for the night. Pretty contemptuous of the viewership, and I too hate how Channel 10 stuffs around SVU fans on Thursday nights.

  5. The Project numbers me how long does Ten persist. I’d have to think Neighbours return at 6.30 on the main channel is looking more handsome as viewers have left The Project. (They where warned to fix the bias)
    Ten need look at its slate and see if it can mould and strip something at 7pm. Inevitably The Project will be axed if numbers don’t lift in the next six months. Is it still there only cause Ten absolutely has no idea how to replace it?

    More people are watching Sandra Sully at 5 in Sydney most nights now then Waled and Sarah. This has to be the slowest TV death in history.

  6. The Networks don’t really care if viewers switch from FTA to streaming as their own streaming sites are gaining in popularity. Maybe they’ve never heard of ad-skipping software for streams.

    1. At least your EPG is probably working better than mine. I looked at my Foxtel EPG and found a doco on their Fox docos channel : ..Rock Legends- Sun Records and it has Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and a singer called….”Toy Obison”. He’s a newbie 🤣 oh my days!

  8. Tonight looks especially bad for repeats as well. We all know about the Law and Order: SVU pushback but Seven are relying on their Hey Hey Specials after three back to back episodes of Home and Away. It goes without saying that this feels like weak scheduling.

  10. I’m old enough to remember “In Melbourne tonight” in B/W with Graeme Kennedy. It didn’t start until 9.30PM or later and was must see tv. (I don’t know if we had ratings then) There isn’t any must see TV on anymore that starts after 9.30.
    Is it us or them? Do we switch off early because there’s nothing on or is there nothing on because we’ve all switched off.

      1. As far as the 1970s are concerned, there were only a few channels (2 or 3 commercial and the ABC) and no VCRs-pretty much a captive audience for whatever was put on! The current situation is literally beyond any meaningful comparison.

        1. I go back to watching BW TV being switched on for the first time, it was only between 4pm and 10pm. Worst part was waiting for the oval shaped Pye TV on a rickety stand it came with waiting for the picture tube to warm up. No selection, very few adds but I loved the Mickey Mouse club and so grateful I’ve survived this long to even remember. 😂

  11. 10 ran three episodes of Bull across two channels in prime time. All repeats. Seven regurgitated Lismore news film, again, and Kitchen Nightmares was on its umpteenth rerun. Nine happy that somehow someone determined 7:30pm programs are now classified M so they can ramp up the foul language and bedroom gropings.
    Tonight Nine 8:30-10:30, Seven 8:30-10:45 are all repeats, and 10 pushes a new L&O:SVU to 10:30 so they can squeeze in a repeat of something unwatched previously at 8:30. All with 20 minutes per hour of commercials and promos and annoying ‘pop-ups’.

  12. And all the promos stated 2023 was going to be a good year. Everything from we belong, it’s going to be electrifying, unstoppable, your #1, enthralled, engrossed and entertained who are they kidding, in my opinion viewers deserve to be treated better and these channels need to take notice of what the viewers are saying about their channel and not treat viewers like we’re mugs.

  14. I watched the end of Friday Night Dinner and Foyle’s War, a frequent repeat, but at least a repeat of a good show that I havn’t seen for 20 years and recorded Bloodlands to watch after True Colours tonight. MAFS has been unbeatable since S5, once Nine got 7:30pm rated and ramped up the “intimacy” and dinner parties, making it as salacious as possible. The ABC has clearly chosen not to compete, they are running Vera then Endeavour at the weekends for over 50s.

    1. Over 50s really! I have family members in their 20s and 30s who enjoy Vera and Endeavour, do you realise ageism is irrelevant with a lot shows, it’s down to the individuals likes and dislikes and what appeals to them regardless of demographics.

  15. Kind of shows that networks have no faith in anything or just are running thin. We should not be having repeat programming already this early into the ratings period. Give us new content already since it is there but instead they give us repeats and shaft the new stuff to late night. Whats the point of that?

Leave a Reply