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Yet another programming make over by the Nine Network.

Today, it is GEM that gets an overhaul.

Changes start from tonight.

As predicted, seeing that a last minute movie change on Monday got GEM a share of 4.0%, they have done it again for tonight (Wed Dec 15). Tonight, the movie As Good as It Gets will be seen instead of The Mentalist, The Big C and Weeds.

The last minute removal of The Big C from tonight’s schedule comes just as the show receives an Emmy nomination.

The Mentalist will now move to Thursday nights from next week, instead of movies on Thursday nights. The changes also include confirmation that movies will now regularly air on GEM on Monday nights and Wednesday nights. This comes after a GO make over that has seen movies on GO instead of regular programming on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

So – we get the strategy here. Movies seem to help the multi channels. Nine are using GO and GEM to alternate as movie nights during the week. GEM has movies on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. GO also has a movie on Sunday, as well as Tuesday and Thursdays now. All three channels have movies on Friday and Saturday nights. Problem is though – most of these movies are now running at very short repeat cycles – sometimes as short as a month between airing on two different channels.

Nine, GO and GEM have all seen major overhauls in their summer schedules.

Here’s the latest GEM changes in summary.

Wed Dec 15
8.30 Movie: As Good as it Gets
11.15 Conan
12.10 Friends
The Mentalist, The Big C and Weeds are out.

Mon Dec 20
8.30 Movie: US Marshals
11.15 Southland
12.15 Friends
Law & Order, Rizzoli & Isles are out

Tue Dec 21
10.30 The Closer replaces the Tuesday night encores of The Big C and Weeds as they were not aired on Wed Dec 15.

Wed Dec 22.
8.30 Two Weeks Notice
10.30 The Big C
11.00 Weeds
11.30 Conan

Thur Dec 23
8.30 The Mentalist
9.30 Amazing Medical Stories
10.30 Embarrassing Bodies
11.30 Conan

Sat Dec 25
9.45 CSI: Miami
10.45 CSI: NY
11.40 Conan
Scheduled movie: Meet Me in St Louis is out.

Sun Dec 26
8.30 Man on Fire
11.20 The Wings of Eagles.
Movies Legends of the Fall and Birds of a Feather are out.

Mon Dec 27
8.30 Movie: The Perfect Storm
11.30 Southland
12.30 Friends
Again Law & Order and Rizzoli & Isles are out

Wed Dec 29
8.30 Movie: Made of Honour
10.30 The Big C
11.00 Weeds

Thur Dec 30
8.30 The Mentalist
9.30 Amazing Medical Stories
10.30 Embarrassing Bodies
11.30 Movie: Confessions of a Young Bride

Mon Jan 3
8.30 Movie: Breach
10.50 Southland
11.45 Friends

Wed Jan 5
8.30 Movie: Friends with Money
10.20 The Big C – season final
11.00 Weeds
11.30 Friends (Conan off over holidays)

Thur Jan  6
8.30 The Mentalist
9.30 Amazing Medical Stories
10.30 Embarrassing Bodies

Fri Jan 7 (a weird one?)
8.30 The Mentalist
9.30 Law & Order double

We cover a lot here about programming changes, but here is the story behind the reason why High Road, Low Road was suddenly pulled from Seven’s schedule at the last minute.

Travel show high Road, Low Road was to air at 7pm Saturdays, after No Leave, no Life – itself a travel shows of sorts, sponsored by Tourism Australia.

Tourism Australia told Seven that they would withdraw all sponsorship if the show they sponsored was to be followed by another travel based show.

To avoid losing valuable sponsorship dollars, Seven were left with no choice but to make the sudden programming change, that was so last minute, some guides did not represent the change on the day.

Tourism Australia felt that the second travel show would detract from the one they were sponsoring and it may have affected the benefit they receive from their sponsorship. The other issue, of course, is that High Road, Low Road promotes international locations which also violates the mission statement of Tourism Australia whose purpose is to promote tourism within Australia instead of overseas.

High Road, Low Road will air on Seven, but not until No Leave, no Life concludes. The season final for No Leave, no Life is at 6.30pm, Sat Jan 15. With the Australian Open Tennis being on Seven for the two weeks subsequent, High Road, Low Road may not be seen until Sat Jan 29 or later.

I guess I can add “an irate sponsor for a paid program” as another reason that is fair enough for a last minute program change.

 Source: Sunday Telegraph

 VS

GO! have released their program guide for the week starting January 9, 2011 that therefore covers January 11, the day of the launch of Ten’s new channel Eleven.

In a schedule that is screaming for amendments as January 11 draws closer, there are large chunks of TBA’s on the night of January 11 and also most of January 12 as well. There are chunks of programming that utilise episodes of The Big Bang Theory and The Middle, while a number of new shows return that week.

On Monday January 10, there will be a new episode of Hellcats at 7.30pm, followed by new Pretty Little Liars. New Hellcats is being promoted on GO now, as is The Vampire Diaries which won’t return until Mon Jan 31 as the next new episode of The Vampire Diaries in not even seen in the US until Jan 27.

On Wednesday January 12, the premiere of season 2 of V comes to GO. It airs at 8.30pm. On Thursday, new The Inbetweeners is scheduled to air at 9pm.

 Full details in the GO Guide.

The first TV guide for Eleven is expected to be released close to Christmas. Only then will we have an idea of what will be on Eleven each night, and it will prompt GO to fill in the blanks on their schedule for that week as well as tweak the guide so as to reduce any effect Eleven may have on the GO audience. The demographics of both channels have a huge overlap.

Meanwhile, 7TWO and 7mate schedules for that week (based on highlights anyway) appear much the same as usual. While the launch of Eleven is not likely to affect 7TWO, there may be changes to some 7mate programming to keep viewers on their channel. A possible 7mate Thursday night revamp is likely, with the finale of Stargate Atlantis airing Thur Jan 13.

More changes from Nine.

Try and keep up with me here…!

Ready?

OK – tomorrow night – Wed Dec 15, The repeat of CSI: Miami at 10.30pm has been replaced with a repeat of Cold Case.

Considering there is now new CSI: Miami at 8.30pm, then new CSI: NY at 9.30, the repeat of Miami at 10.30 did not make sense to remain on the schedule any way.

So – from tomorrow, Wed Dec 15, Wednesday nights on Nine are:

8.30 New CSI: Miami
9.30 New CSI: NY
10.30 Cold Case repeat.

Next.

Were you one of the 398,000 or so that watched – and perhaps enjoyed – Chase last Sunday night on Nine? Then did you feel rewarded that there was another episode straight after it that you did not know about it until that night?

Well – bad news for you.

Chase – thanks to low ratings – yes 398,000 is too low for 9.30pm on Sunday on a primary channel even if it is summer – is now gone. Not sure where it will now end up – hopefully somewhere on GO or GEM for those that were following it – but then again, even GO and GEM are having their schedules stripped of anything not performing to the strict requirements of Nine Network execs or programmers… or whoever is making the actual decisions there.

Fringe has gone from GO, Nikita as well a few weeks ago, Rizzoli & Isles gone from GEM. The list goes on.

Anyway, back to the point.

Chase, 9.30 Sunday on Nine is now replaced with the three part / two hour per part series The Commander. The Commander will be seen at 9.30pm Sunday Dec 19, Dec 26 and Jan 2.

Next.

Just yesterday, we reported that Myth Busters was coming to Nine, taking over the time slot that was occupied by Survivor Nicaragua – which has its finale Tue Dec 28. Some readers questioned whether Nine had secured the rights for the popular show from SBS – who also are still screening Myth Busters.

Not anymore.

Myth Busters will not be seen on Nine on Tue Jan 4. Instead, a repeat of 50-1. The “Super Sized” version of 20-1 which always seems to pop up on Nine each year around Christmas / New Years. It’s the 50-1 of All Time Greatest movie Quotes. “Play it again, Sam”. And Nine are.

That’s it for today’s changes at Nine.

Big time disclaimer:

All programming information is subject to last minute change. Most recent programming posts supersede older ones. Sometimes I may go back and edit some of them to reflect latest changes but may not always get the chance.

In any case, it I probably a good idea to check EPGs or internet guides on the day. The 10.30 Wed Dec 15 change for Nine is yet to show up on any guides as I publish this post. It should do so before the end of the day.

Monday December 13, 2010

It never ceases to amaze me how well a digital channel can rate in shares when last minute programming changes are made. GEM had its highest share so far – at 4.0% – thanks to a last minute programming change that saw the movie The Fugitive – in glorious HD – replacing its usual, now defunct, Monday night line up.

The question I always have is this: If it can do so well with a programming change that not everyone is going to know about, then imagine how well it could have done had the movie been in the schedule earlier and everyone knew about it?

Still, ratings panic stations at the Nine network continue to ensure their channels are subject to the most last minute and erratic programming changes of any network in Australia. And, if the late changes result in such high shares, then they will keep on coming. Summer non-ratings or not.

Despite the high GEM share, 7TWO’s was higher – in fact as much as GEM and GO combined. Seven’s primary share was above Nine’s as well – so the Seven network won again – the umpteenth night in a row.

Shares:
1 Seven 22.1% (nw 31.5%)
2 Nine 18.8% (nw 25.5%)
3 Ten 17.9% (nw 18.6%)
4 ABC1 15.2% (nw 18.1%)
5 7TWO 6.7%

6 SBS ONE 5.3% (nw 6.3%)
7 GEM 4.0%
8 7mate 2.7%
8 GO! 2.7%
10 ABC2 1.6%

11 SBS TWO 1.1%
12 ONE 0.7%
13 ABC3 0.6%
13 ABC News 24 0.6%

Top shows for the day:
1 Seven News Seven 1,292,000 308,000 376,000 244,000 146,000 217,000
2 Today Tonight Seven 1,099,000 292,000 303,000 200,000 111,000 193,000
3 Nine News Nine 1,032,000 270,000 350,000 223,000 106,000 84,000
4 ABC News ABC1 987,000 272,000 261,000 186,000 107,000 161,000
5 A Current Affair Nine 950,000 249,000 355,000 183,000 88,000 74,000
6 Family Confidential ABC1 917,000 262,000 264,000 182,000 68,000 142,000
7 7.30 Report ABC1 912,000 256,000 262,000 192,000 74,000 128,000
8 Undercover Boss Ten 909,000 279,000 301,000 130,000 85,000 113,000
9 ICU Seven 885,000 219,000 276,000 200,000 85,000 105,000
10 Criminal Minds-Mon (R) Seven 885,000 243,000 239,000 190,000 100,000 113,000
11 Two And A Half Men -Mon Nine 839,000 215,000 324,000 154,000 74,000 72,000
12 The 7pm Project Ten 808,000 242,000 232,000 165,000 82,000 88,000
13 Two And A Half Men -Rpt Nine 787,000 197,000 304,000 145,000 75,000 66,000
14 Ten News At Five Ten 747,000 211,000 219,000 119,000 75,000 122,000
15 Glee Mon Rpt Ten 734,000 226,000 204,000 125,000 72,000 107,000
16 Animal Squad Seven 714,000 185,000 215,000 165,000 57,000 92,000
17 Stephen Fry In America Rpt ABC1 652,000 165,000 193,000 132,000 57,000 105,000
18 Good News Week – Best Of Special Rpt Ten 581,000 162,000 187,000 86,000 79,000 67,000
19 The Middle Nine 581,000 145,000 222,000 107,000 58,000 49,000
20 How I Met Your Mother-Summer Seven 563,000 156,000 139,000 93,000 44,000 131,000
21 The Mentalist Nine 555,000 157,000 230,000 98,000 42,000 27,000
22 Outlaw Seven 548,000 136,000 199,000 90,000 50,000 73,000
23 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Nine 518,000 122,000 212,000 94,000 55,000 35,000
24 Hot Seat Nine 501,000 128,000 135,000 166,000 32,000 40,000
25 Neighbours Ten 494,000 110,000 172,000 92,000 51,000 70,000
26 Willie’s Chocolate Revolution ABC1 452,000 129,000 138,000 68,000 54,000 62,000
27 The Simpsons Ten 451,000 130,000 149,000 78,000 38,000 56,000
28 Deal Or No Deal-Summer Seven 435,000 111,000 124,000 90,000 50,000 60,000
29 The Bold And The Beautiful Ten 427,000 102,000 132,000 104,000 39,000 50,000
30 Sunrise Seven 414,000 104,000 92,000 119,000 42,000 57,000

36 NIGELLA EXPRESS RPT ABC1 303,000 74,000 79,000 64,000 28,000 58,000
38 WILLIAM SHATNER’S WEIRD OR WHAT? SBS ONE 275,000 75,000 88,000 37,000 34,000 40,000
39 SOME MOTHERS DO ‘AVE ‘EM CHRISTMAS SPECIAL 7TWO 271,000 44,000 77,000 58,000 51,000 42,000
66 THE VAMPIRE DIARIES GO! 136,000 40,000 34,000 32,000 19,000 11,000

OzTam Five city Live and As Live Preliminary Ratings Figures. Raw data sourced from Media Spy, Tv Tonight and/or the various networks. Five Cities are Sydney (S), Brisbane (B), Melbourne (M), Adelaide (A) and Perth (P). Figures are shown in order Total, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth. Shows not aired in certain cities denoted by 0 or n/a (not aired).  Does not take into account overruns or extreme last minute programming changes. Shares are 6pm – Midnight unless otherwise stated. Network abreviated to “nw”

Southern Cross Ten viewers in regional Australia can expect to see the Ten Network’s new multichannel Eleven at the same time as their metropolitan counterparts, the regional broadcaster has announced.

In a statement, Southern Cross Media Group said that it would broadcast Eleven from 11 January for the aggregated markets of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, the same day that Ten plans to launch the youth-oriented channel in metropolitan areas.

Confirmation that Eleven will be available in regional areas from 11 January represents the latest move by the media group to assuage the concerns of its viewers. Earlier this year, Southern Cross said that it was unable to commit to bringing Eleven to regional areas due to concerns over infrastructure investment requirements.

Rhys Holleran, Southern Cross Media’s chief executive, said yesterday that the arrival of Eleven would be a welcome development for regional viewers.

“We’re thrilled to announce that we will be offering and launching Channel Eleven for regional viewers at the same time that metropolitan viewers will have access to this new service,” he said.

 Source: Media Spy

Sunday December 12, 2010

Again – Nine’s last minute programming changes throws both viewers and ratings off. I had to edit the list of shows to take into account that Motorway Patrol changed to RBT and there were two episodes of Chase on, not one – the second one replacing Without a Trace.

Having two episodes of Chase on now every Sunday means it will actually start falling in ratings as not everyone has a PVR and will stay up for the second one. At our house, we were planning to give it a go, but still have not watched the first episode. Now, with two per week we’ll probably leave it be as the number of episodes recorded will build up too quickly.

Seven – who have very stable programming when compared to Nine won the night. A 6.8% from GO was not enough to make up for Nine’s shortfall. GEM had a good night as well, thanks to the movie The Aviator in HD which was watched by 157,000. Men in Black on GO was watched by nearly as many people watching Chase on Nine. In fact, if you average out the two hours of Chase, you get the same number of viewers!

Ten, however – what were they thinking having Reministmas on three weeks after it first aired? And surely it is time to confine Rules of Engagement to Eleven or outside of prime time? And how many times has the movie PS – I Love You been on Ten? Yes, we know they are saving content for Eleven but losing network shares to the ABC can not be pleasing advertisers.

Shares:
1 Seven 23.3% (nw 31.7%)
2 Nine 19.2% (nw 29.6%)
3 Ten 14.3% (nw 15.4%)
4 ABC1 13.1% (nw 16.0%)
5 GO! 6.8%

6 SBS ONE 6.5% (nw 7.3%)
7 7TWO 4.3%
8 7mate 4.1 %
9 GEM 3.6%
10 ABC2 1.6%

11 ONE 1.1%
12 SBS TWO 0.9%
13 ABC News 24 0.7%
14 ABC3 0.6%

Digital total: 23.7%. As far as I can recall, this is the first time that the total percentage of people watching the digital channels has exceeded the percentage watching the highest main channel – in this case Seven at 23.3%, total digital 23.7%.

So if all digital channels were grouped together into a single network – like what they do for Pay TV – it would have won the night.

Top shows for the day:
1 Seven News – Sun Seven 1,189,000 236,000 380,000 285,000 122,000 166,000
2 Nine News Sunday Nine 1,044,000 260,000 392,000 188,000 128,000 77,000
3 The Vicar Of Dibley Christmas Special Seven 1,006,000 188,000 342,000 221,000 128,000 126,000
4 Border Patrol Seven 966,000 209,000 291,000 230,000 127,000 108,000
5 The Enforcers Nine 858,000 207,000 344,000 157,000 76,000 75,000
6 Coastwatch Seven 851,000 179,000 263,000 202,000 115,000 93,000
7 RBT Nine 826,000 208,000 300,000 183,000 61,000 75,000
8 ABC News-Su ABC1 825,000 246,000 219,000 138,000 88,000 134,000
9 Bones (R) Seven 818,000 219,000 233,000 159,000 95,000 111,000
10 60 Minutes Nine 781,000 173,000 289,000 160,000 60,000 99,000
11 The Mentalist Nine 681,000 147,000 257,000 147,000 49,000 81,000
12 Castle (R) Seven 648,000 171,000 219,000 102,000 79,000 78,000
13 Hamish & Andy’s Reministmas Special Rpt Ten 648,000 143,000 236,000 112,000 84,000 73,000
14 Schools Spectacular 2010 ABC1 597,000 236,000 148,000 90,000 54,000 69,000
15 Who Do You Think You Are? SBS ONE 534,000 128,000 184,000 99,000 56,000 67,000
16 Framed ABC1 531,000 160,000 176,000 71,000 50,000 73,000
17 Ten News At Five Sun Ten 529,000 128,000 121,000 120,000 66,000 93,000
18 P.S. I Love You Rpt Ten 528,000 143,000 182,000 88,000 56,000 59,000
19 Rules Of Engagement Sun Ten 451,000 113,000 155,000 91,000 50,000 42,000
20 Chase ep1 Nine 398,000 94,000 140,000 79,000 44,000 41,000
21 Sports Tonight Sun Ten 394,000 104,000 91,000 97,000 34,000 68,000
22 Rules Of Engagement Sun Rpt Ten 379,000 69,000 157,000 78,000 35,000 39,000
23 Men In Black Go! 351,000 91,000 102,000 51,000 60,000 48,000
24 Crimes That Shook The World (R) Seven 345,000 67,000 134,000 31,000 51,000 61,000
25 Weekend Sunrise – Sun Seven 316,000 82,000 81,000 73,000 37,000 43,000
26 Chase ep2 Nine 303,000 74,000 103,000 65,000 35,000 26,000
27 The Simpsons Sun Ten 291,000 56,000 116,000 53,000 33,000 33,000
28 Escape To The Country-Sun 7TWO 275,000 47,000 92,000 53,000 46,000 37,000
29 Weekend Today – Sunday Nine 273,000 86,000 93,000 49,000 21,000 24,000
30 Two And A Half Men Tx1 Go! 227,000 58,000 65,000 36,000 21,000 46,000

OzTam Five city Live and As Live Preliminary Ratings Figures. Raw data sourced from TV Tonight and/or the various networks. Five Cities are Sydney (S), Brisbane (B), Melbourne (M), Adelaide (A) and Perth (P). Figures are shown in order Total, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth. Shows not aired in certain cities denoted by 0 or n/a (not aired).  Does not take into account overruns or extreme last minute programming changes. Shares are 6pm – Midnight unless otherwise stated. Network abreviated to “nw”

Wow.

They just keep on coming.

Yet another last minute programming change from the Nine network – for GO!

This time, Fringe fans will not be happy while fans of The Big Bang Theory might not feel so bad that the Thursday night episodes were removed.

Fringe, at 8.30pm Wed Dec 15, has now been replaced with two episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

But for anyone trying to keep track of The Big Bang Theory episodes on GO!, these last minute Wednesday night episodes are from season 1. Those that were going to be on Thursday were from season 2. And then there is one on Nine as well on Tuesday nights…

Then again, The Big Bang Theory is available on DVD in a 3 season box set.

It will get to the point that Nine and GO! Will not be able to keep filling timeslots or looking for extra last minute ratings with the Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. People will simply stop watching, having either seen every episode too many times, or sick of trying to keep track of when they are on, what episode will be on and deciding whether to commit to watching another repeat or not.

Too much of the one show on in too short a time frame will mean that even the most die hard fans that watch every single episode will also stop watching all of them. And the planned effect of using these shows to help ratings will no longer work.

A similar problem will arise for the CSI franchise and The Mentalist as both shows are now spread over the schedules of both GEM and Nine.

I’ve updated the GO guide with this latest change.

UPDATED: An amendment issued today has over-ruled Myth Busters with an episode of 50-1 for 9.30pm Tue Jan 4. no idea if – or when Myth Busters will air now.

[Original text: Myth Busters comes to Nine.

Filling Survivor’s timeslot from Tue Jan 4, Myth Busters bursts onto Nine with a two hour super sized special. Right after another super sized episode of Top Gear (enough super sizing already - its not good for your health!).

It airs at 9.30, Tue Jan 4, 2011.]

Two days later, the final Warnie goes to air. It too follows Top Gear. The final Warnie airs at 8.40pm Thur Jan 6, 2011. This is the 5^th and final, and, given ratings for the second episode, it is not likely to be renewed at all.

Speaking of cricket (sort of), the New Year’s test from Sydney – also the fifth and final of this season – airs on Nine from Mon Jan 3, until Fri Jan 7. It plays from 10am – 6pm over those five days.

All of Nine’s three channels are subject to some degree of last minute programming changes as they realise that all three of Seven’s channels are whipping them in the ratings so far in summer. Yes, it’s non-ratings but they still have to make money from advertising which pays by how well shows do.

Some of these changes include tonight Mon Dec 13. Printed guides may as well head straight for recycling!

Here is the summary.

Nine

From Tue Dec 21, Australia’s Funniest Home Videos Daily Edition replaces Two and a Half Men and the Middle as the weeknight 7pm strip on Nine.

From Mon Dec 13, Monday night movies on Nine are out. Instead, the Mentalist airs from 8.30pm, CSI at 9.30 and Embarrassing Bodies at 10.30pm. The Mentalist is now two nights a week on Nine plus one on GEM.

From Sun Dec 12 (I know – yesterday! – but does effect Sundays from now on), RBT replaces Motorway Patrol at 7pm, while Chase goes into double episodes from 9.30pm. Without a Trace disappears again.

From Wed Dec 15, Better With You is replaced with Customs. So much for giving new shows a go over summer? New episodes of CSI Miami move into 8.30pm, replacing Cold Case. New CSI: NY follows at 9.30, with a CSI: Miami repeat at 10.30. A bit of a mixed up CSI night here, but at least some new episodes.

From Thur Dec 16, Two extra episodes of Two and a Half Men become a regular fixture. They follow Warnie at 9.30 on Wed Dec 16, pushing the movie Ocean’s Eleven back to 10.30pm. On Thur Dec 23, they air from 8.30 (8.40 in QLD) and 8.40 on Thur Dec 30, after Top Gear.

That’s just about every night changed.

GO!

From Tue Dec 14, Community drops to 1 episode per week and moves to 9pm, with the movie Man About Town to follow at 9.30. Dec 21 there will be two episodes of Community, but from Tue Dec 28, onwards it is one only.

 On Thur Dec 16, Big Bangs are out in favour of a movie starting at 7.30pm. No news on subsequent Thursdays yet. More details at the GO Guide.

GEM

Mon Dec 13, 8.30pm The movie The Fugitive will air instead of Rizzoli & Isles which is now out of the schedule and Law and Order goes back to one episode per week – Tuesday nights 8.30pm only. As a result, Southland moves back to a 11.15 start and subsequent programming like Friends also moves back. Friends from 12.10am.

Amendments for subsequent Mondays on GEM are yet to be issued, but looks like movies on GEM in stead of Nine on Monday nights from now on.