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Like it or not Hard Quiz repeats are doing better than The Drum

It's a thumbs up for early evening repeats, pulling good numbers without any extra production costs.

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With his second incarnation of Hard Quiz, an offshoot titled Hard Quiz Kids, set to premiere, host Tom Gleeson is having the last laugh.

Repeats of his ABC quiz are now doing so well in a 6:30pm timeslot, they have blitzed the numbers its predecessor, The Drum, was attracting a year ago.

Take for instance a week in early June last year for The Drum. Its ratings hovered around 160,000 metro linear viewers.

2023:
Monday June 5: 168,000
Tuesday June 6: 155,000
Wednesday June 7: 172,000
Thursday June 9: 157,000

While the ratings methodology has changed in 2024, the following Hard Quiz numbers are like-for-like… 5 city metro, broadcast only.

2024:
Monday June 3: 280,000
Tuesday June 4: 260,000
Wednesday June 5: 253,000
Thursday June 6: 244,000

It shows Gleeson’s repeats have gained around 80,000 – 110,000 on The Drum, whilst saving on the production costs for the latter.

When you add in Regional and BVOD the totals are even greater (which to be fair to The Drum would have also lifted under the new system).

Monday June 3: 457,000
Tuesday June 4: 422,000
Wednesday June 5: 415,000
Thursday June 6: 391,000

Speaking with TV Tonight, Gleeson said, “It amuses me because people do complain to me on social media saying, ‘We’re sick of repeats, bring back The Drum.’ And I try to point out to them, ‘You keep watching the repeats. It’s your fault. So don’t watch!’ The best thing you could do is not watch the repeats and spread the word to not watch the repeats and then they’ll take them off air.

“I reply to people. I try to be logical,” he added.

Gleeson also did not hold back when one former Drum regular complained about Hard Quiz repeats on social media, answering her in a snarky online reply.

“It was Jane Caro, who used to be on The Drum. But that amused me too because she’s wanting to bring back The Drum. You were a guest on The Drum, of course you want it back. I don’t mind having a bit of stick online thrown at me and I’m happy to throw it back.”

Hard Quiz Kids premieres tonight at 7:30pm on ABC Family.

12 Responses

  1. Tom is really hilarious but appearing on TV too much in my opinion. A Hard Quiz special I would like to see is Battle of the Toms with Gleeson, Gleisner (Have You Been Paying Attention), Cashman (Task Master) and Ballard (Former Triple J breakfast presenter) hosted by props guy Marty.

  2. Tom Gleeson is actually spot-on. You could just about re-run any show in the 6.00 to 7.00 timeslot on the ABC and get better ratings than The Drum. This show was a boring waste of a hour.

  3. The Drum was good when it started, but five nights a week was a tad too much for my liking. Good to see a ratings boost pre the 7pm News (with the repeats of Hard Quiz). Love him or not, it appears that Tom Gleeson is popular choice of viewing over on the ABC.

    Looking at the ratings, it looks like Antiques Roadshow (5.30 – 6.30pm) has been given a boost too.

  4. Maybe Ten could consider a high-rating game show on par with Millionaire Hot Seat, The Chase or Tipping Point to replace The Project if it will improve the ratings, considering that some game shows are rating higher than political panel discussions. Deal or No Deal, even when it was on Seven, did not consistently achieve the same level of ratings as Millionaire Hot Seat or The Chase Australia.

    1. What? As I seem to recall, Deal or No Deal was quite successful on Seven during the mid-late 2000s against a number of programs in the same timeslot on Nine. Of course, I can’t argue that Seven’s version of DoND had a slow demise against Millionaire Hot Seat or that the current version on Ten is flopping.

      1. Yes which is why I added the caveat “consistently”. I should also mention The 1% Club as well, which is doing very well. It shows that game shows can capture a wide audience if there’s a good format.

  5. The Drum, when it was 30 minutes was popular. Once they dragged it to 5h hours a week with people on Zoom it was pretty dreadful and the audience had gone. 5 hours of First World Problems and Federal Political Op-Ed are unlikely to rate well in the regions, or make peoples recording lists.

  6. I thought, and David you’ve said this previously, that you can’t compare numbers like this after the the counting system was changed recently. Naturally the figures are going to be higher now. I’m sure all the TV executives are loving this.

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