Everybody Dance Now has become the latest reality flop to hit our screens.
Debuting to 592,000, falling to 302,000 on its second day and sitting at 324,000 on its third, the show’s ratings are unsustainable for a prime time time slot. These figures are so low, that on Monday night, digital channels 7mate and 7TWO had more viewers than Ten at the same time.
At the beginning of the ratings year, Excess Baggage on Nine fell to 500,000 within its first week, before being promptly shafted to GO!
Last year, The Renovators on Ten averaged more than double what Everybody Dance now is reaching in ratings yet itself was considered a flop and wasn’t renewed.
There are many opinions as to why Everybody Dance now has not performed, mostly suggesting the format is flawed. Ten themselves have expressed disappointment in the performance so far of the show.
So what should Ten do?.
They could move the show to a later timeslot or to digital channels ELEVEN or ONE, but this, like what happened to Excess Baggage, would result in ratings dropping to less than 100,000 per show and potentially huge losses for the network.
To me the best solution is to sell the show to Foxtel immediately. The nature of the show is more suited to a more niche audience that suit Foxtel better than free to air. Foxtel has had success with Australia’s Next Top Model which itself reached audiences around the 300,000 mark. Foxtel themselves canned the production of their own dance reality show Got to Dance Australia when Ten announced Everybody Dance Now. The show could possibly draw similar numbers on Foxtel – where an audience of that size is considered a huge success, as opposed to a flop in the free to air main channel space.
But then comes the question of what Ten should fill the vacated timeslot with? Just about everybody has an opinion on this one ranging from bringing Neighbours back to Ten from ELEVEN, playing the Simpsons at 6pm and moving The Project to 6.30-7.30 or filling the timeslots with more US content. Given Ten’s lack of content, they may have to look at other shows from ELEVEN to try on Ten. Then there is the question of whether Masterchef US would draw a better audience? That’s another option – it was scheduled fro Friday August 24, but then withdrawn form the line up.
Ten could opt to leave things as they are, tweaking the show as they go, but it is unlikely to have any real benefit in ratings, leaving Ten stuck in a distant third in ratings for the rest of the year.
Whatever Ten do, they will need to act fast. Good thing Sarah is a Murdoch – God bless her!
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