Rants

With Wimbledon occupying late nights on Nine for the next two weeks, the network have chosen to air the AFL Footy Show on GO at 12 midnight for the next two weeks so that AFL fans in Sydney and Brisbane can still see the AFL Footy Show as it will not be on Nine during this time.

This week, the AFL Footy Show will air on GO at midnight Thursday night (June 24) and next week at midnight Wednesday night (June 30). The AFL Footy Show is on Wednesday night that week, thanks to an AFL game being held on the Thursday night (which will be aired live on Ten).

Because GO programming is national, the late night replays of the AFL Footy Show will play for all markets, including those in Victoria, SA and WA who would have been able to watch it on Nine earlier in the night. There is no plan at this stage to do the same with the NRL Footy Show – although – my thought on this would be to put it on at 2am instead of Home Shopping – so NRL fans outside of the NRL market at least have the option to record or watch it.

Midnight repeats on GO of ER and Gossip Girl for June 24 will not be on, and the same will happen the following week with the Wednesday night repeats.

Now would have been the best time for Nine to have either launched their third channel or start at least trialling for the third channel – which would have to be on Nine High Def. The third channel would have allowed greater flexibility with sporting commitments without impacting on GO, and, subject to anti-siphoning rules, could have meant that the nights where Wimbledon and cricket clash, both could have been aired on different channels.

The third channel would also mean the two Footy shows can air at the same time – with AFL on the main channel in AFL markets and NRL on a secondary channel, and visa versa in NRL markets. It would also mean they could do the same with other Football shows like Football Classified which is not seen at any time outside of the AFL market.

Still on AFL, the annual fund raising EJ Whitten Legends AFL Game will air live on Nine Melbourne from 7.30pm Tuesday July 6. In Adelaide and Perth, the game will screen from 9pm after Top gear, while Sydney and Brisbane (although not yet confirmed) should be able to see the game on Nine late night.

Again – here would be another opportunity to make use of digital channels to show the EJ Whitten Legends Game live into all markets. Maybe we’ll see this happen in 2011 – when possible changes to anti-siphoning laws should affect how sport is shown on free to air TV.

I cannot understand why anti-siphoning laws affect the ability to show sport on a free to air digital channel now in this day and age? We all have to have digital TV within the next few years anyway – by allowing sport to be shown on these channels will simply help the digital uptake. It is free to air afterall.

We don’t normally talk about DVD releases here, but the release of Underbelly: The Golden Mile on DVD the day after the final show airs prompts the question as to whether more money is made by Nine from Underbelly ratings or through DVD sales.

The Golden Mile is the third Underbelly series and the poorest rating so far overall. Like the previous two series, the DVD release comes the morning after the last show of the series has aired on channel Nine.

Last Sunday night, Underbelly: The Golden Mile was watched by little over 1.3 million – the lowest five city ratings ever for the show. During this episode, the DVD release was promoted. Typical of long weekend Sundays, the ratings were way down on usual, and many would have missed the episode.

Now we know the DVD of the series will be out June 28, the day after the June 27 finale, is there any point to watch the remaining two episodes on Nine? Especially if you missed the episode aired last Sunday – as the ratings show many did – why watch the other two and just wait for the DVD.

At least if you watch Underbelly on DVD, you’ll be watching commercial free, without pop up ads and without excessive deep throat promos reminding us how Nine has the best crime Sunday night in the history of television.

It will be interesting to see how the final two Underbelly’s rate with the DVD release imminent.

Surely it would be better – for both ratings and DVD sales – not to announce the DVD release date until the season on TV has finished? While having a fast DVD release is a good point, is there any other show that does this? I couldn’t think of any.

It’s the battle of the 5.30 game show this week, with both Seven’s Deal or No Deal and Nine’s Hot Seat spruiking contestants winning large sums of money.

On Seven, they have made it no secret that a contestant this week will walk away with the $200,000, having chosen the correct case and played the game to the end without making the deal to take the money to reveal that her case in fact has the $200,000 in it.

The story that the $200,000 goes off this week was reported on Today Tonight last Friday. The story revealed this lady ends up with three cases where one is the $200,000, another the $100,000 and the third the 50 cents. Today Tonight did not give away what was in the next case she chose to get down to two cases – saying you will have to watch the show.

It is pretty obvious to anyone who watches the show that the 50 cents would have been eliminated, leaving the two biggest money amounts on the board as the final two cases. Noone – unless perhaps criminally insane – would risk saying “no deal” if all you had on the board was 50 cents and $200,000. You would almost certainly take the $100,000 on offer.

In seeing some of Monday night’s deal episode – the contestant also had the $200,000 as one of her last cases. Having already seen the story of who actually wins the $200,000, it became obvious that the Monday night contestant would not walk away with the top prize. She in fact – after passing on a $66,000 deal – ended up leaving with $40,000.

Over on Nine, they have to go one better. Someone this week in Hot Seat will walk away with $250,000. The advertising also refers to a “six figure winner”. This comes after the Hot Seat “event” where contestants were fitted with heart monitors whilst answering questions on the show.

Both shows on Monday (May 31) night rated essentially the same with Deal only marginally over Hot Seat at 729,000 to 721,000 for the latter. Still airing at the same time, Ten News at Five rated over a million with an average of 1,024,000 for the hour. That is not to say though that the first half hour is 1,200,000 and the second half hour 800,000 for example as a lot of Ten news viewers tend to migrate to Seven and Nine at some stage in the 5.30 half hour.

Ratings figures 5 city OzTam.

The past week saw Seven win their first week of ratings over Nine since Easter. The win has for the most part been attributed to the huge share the network on Friday night by showing live AFL into Melbourne. Losses in previous weeks have been mostly due to Seven’s poor Thursday night performance where, since AFL show The Bounce was rested, the network has shown different programming in different markets.

In the NRL markets, the Matty Johns Show remains at 7.30pm while the AFL markets see UK comedy the Vicar of Dibley. At 8.30, the NRL markets get Criminal Minds repeats while the AFL markets were given another UK comedy – Benidorm – to try. These programs are then followed by double episodes of the Amazing Race with Flashforward wrapping up the night after 11.30pm.

With heavy competition from both Ten and Nine early Thursday night, Seven has struggled to get a grip on the night. Masterchef and Glee on Ten top their respective time slots while Getaway and Sea Patrol on Nine come second after Ten. While The Vicar of Dibley may do very well on a Saturday night when there are fewer options on free to air TV, it does not fit well into a competitive prime time weekday timeslot where you would expect a network to offer better programming than 15 year old British comedies.

While Seven should probably be applauded for trying something different like Benidorm at 8.45 after the Vicar, it is reasonably obvious that such a show will have a more niche audience, and is best suited to 7TWO where will rate probably as well as many of the other British comedies that channel offers. Benidorm will never do well on a main channel. As a result, it will no longer be on from Thursday June 10 and may come to 7TWO at a later date.

As for showing Criminal Minds repeats after Matty Johns in the NRL markets, just because the show rates well in other time slots, does not mean it will do well at 8.30 Thursday night after a football show. The figures have been woeful to say the least, with the combined ratings for the 8.30 timeslot in both markets on Seven no better than what they were for Cougar Town and How I Met Your Mother – both of which were axed when The Bounce was pulled. How I Met Your Mother can usually draw a million viewers but the show was victim to being paired with the less popular Cougar Town and simply lost in Thursday night especially considering that late running footy shows meant the start time could be anything up to 15 minutes late.

Then there is the Amazing Race. I am an Amazing Race fan, but cannot understand why Seven would want to rush through the series so quickly by putting double episodes on which end up finishing close to midnight. The Amazing Race concludes on June 10. All that has done is to reduce interest in the show as viewers have been lost with the late finishes. The ratings for the Amazing Race are the lowest they have ever been and Seven would have been better off playing them once per week at 8.30 with perhaps How I Met Your Mother and other comedies following from 9.30. A comedy Thursday night on Seven would offer an alternative to crime on Ten and footy on Nine and would lift the networks’ shares to a better position.

But what about 7.30pm Thursday? To me, the solution is simple. With AFL fans in Melbourne in particular screaming for live AFL coverage on Friday night, why not give them the live AFL and move Better Homes and Gardens to 7.30 Thursday night in AFL markets? That way, in NRL markets, you would have the Matty Johns Show on at 7.30pm Thursday with Better Homes and Gardens remaining on Friday nights – at the same time Nine shows live NRL. Meanwhile – Seven in AFL markets would have Better Homes and Gardens on Thursday nights at 7.30 and live AFL on the Friday nights from 7.30pm (although would still be delayed in Adelaide and Perth).

With Amazing Race finishing June 10, Seven will need to come up with a completely new Thursday line up form 8.30pm. Had they not have rushed through the series, Amazing Race at 8.30 followed by a comedy night as mentioned earlier might have been a good idea.

Which ever way Seven goes, expect a completely new Thursday night on Seven from June 17. As for June 10 in the AFL markets, Benidorm’s 8.45pm timeslot is still reaming as TBA for now.

We will update with programming details as they come to hand.

What happened to Ten last night? For only the second time this year that I am aware of, Ten did not offer a correct EPG for the night – the very night that their latest programming addition Modern Family was to premiere.

Unlike Nine and a lesser extent, Seven, Ten are the only network who you can rely on to offer a correct EPG. Having a correct EPG means that when you record shows, they start within a minute or less of the start of the recording, and end at the time they should. We are all used to the fact that Nine do not offer a correct EPG at all, while Seven only selectively offers a correct EPG – usually choosing not to on very competitive nights like Sundays.

Last night, the Ten EPG had Modern Family starting at 8.00pm, NCIS at 8.30 and NCIS: LA 9.30. In reality, Modern Family did not start until 8.06pm, NCIS 8.38, and NCIS: LA 9.38. Those who had set their PVRs to record the premiere of Modern Family based on the actual Ten EPG times would have missed out on the end if they did not set an overrun time at the end – and let’s face it – given that Ten do provide an accurate EPG, who would worry too much about programming an extra ten minutes for their recording?

It is no coincidence that Ten did not provide an accurate EPG last night – the night of the premiere of Modern Family – a show they have put considerable time and effort into promoting over the last three or so weeks. Clearly the decision must be strategic and have something to do with advertising or ratings – especially since Ten have an accurate EPG every other night. The only other night (that I know of) this year that their EPG was not correct was on the night of the finale of the Biggest Loser – further evidence that the move is ratings related.

We know Nine does this all the time – in fact – it is not uncommon for shows on Nine to run up to 13 minutes late on Sunday night and as many as 20 minutes late on Wednesday night after Hey Hey (and I have said enough elsewhere about Daryl’s waffle being the cause) – making it difficult to record off Nine without programming excessive overruns onto your PVR – thankfully Foxtel’s IQ has a “+20” button which automatically records an extra 20 minutes after the end of a show – which is used for any show recorded of channel Nine here at my place.

We know that Seven provide an accurate EPG on most nights, but not always. Why do the networks do this? Is it really to do with ratings as suggested here – because I don‘t see how it would make a difference. Or is it to maximise the number of ads in shows that run overtime. It would be nice for someone to come out and explain what the theory is behind not providing an accurate EPG as it can be a real problem in making sure viewers don’t miss out on what they want to watch.

What ever the reason, it is the viewer who loses out. No doubt one of the reasons is to try to impact on those changing channels in between shows, but – honestly – any network who thinks they can stop viewers from watching what they want by not telling them exactly what time shows start and finish are deluding themselves. The days of people staying on the one channel all night are long gone – gone with the days where TVs did not have remote controls.

Incorrect starting times, late running of TV shows and last minute schedule changes are the issues that attract the most complaints for free to air commercial TV.

Is Usher appearing on Hey Hey this week really a special event? Is having a heart monitor on contestants on Hot Seat a special event? Are double episodes of Underbelly a special event?

Well – according to Nine they are. It seems just about everything on Nine is portrayed as being a special event or must see television.

Even your basic episode of Top Gear – whether new or previously seen on SBS or BBC Knowledge is announced as an event or special episode on Nine. If a show is extended by way of an extra episode or is just longer than usual – then it too is a special event.

Do they have any idea that the over use of the word special detracts from the very meaning of the word? Isn’t special by definition a unique and interesting occurrence – surpassing what is usual, common or normal?

If something is special all the time – surpassing what is common or usual, or there are too many shows that are special, then what of the rest of the programming? Is that to say that everything on Nine is somehow not important – or specially challenged?

Surely Nine must realise that there are only so many programs that can be called a special event. As for Hey Hey – nothing against Usher – but if they had an international guest like Madonna (not that she’d ever do that sort of appearance) then it might be a special event.

Having guests like Usher on Hey Hey should actually be normal – at least that’s the way it was on that show in the 80’s and 90’s – international guests just about every week. Rove used to attract international guests to his show almost every week.

A double episode of a show is not a special event – it is merely a lack of programming creativity and a bid for ratings. The final episode of Survivor is not a special event – it is just the finale – and you’ll get three hours of it on Tuesday May 25.

The only special event on Nine that is worthy of the words “special event” is the State of Origin in 3D. While Fox Sports will air a 3D game two days earlier, Nine will still be the first to broadcast 3D free to air. Bring it on.

Last night’s (May 3) Masterchef included the sh word – not once, not twice, but a total of five times as the contestants vented their frustration in the pressure test.

The sh word or s-bomb is actually allowed in a program rated PG after 7.30pm, but is it really necessary to leave it in? Most children are still awake at 7.30pm, and there is no reason why Masterchef cannot be viewed as a family show. Many parents would agree that the s-bomb should not be used that early and that their children should not have to hear it on a top rating TV show at that time of the night.

The use of language in shows like Underbelly is understandable – look at the subject matter involved – you know that you are not going to sit down and watch the show with children, but with Masterchef it is a different story.

Given that I have just written two posts in a row about language on TV, I would like to point out that I have no problem with colourful language on TV but there is a time and a place for it. And the news and PG rated reality shows is not the place for them. Especially not at times when there are kids around.

I must agree with those willing to complain… Could someone in SBS please repurchase the rights to Top Gear. Channel Nine is useless. I am sick of the ads. The ads serve no purpose, but to annoy. I now simply record the show and fast forward through the meaningless ads. Nine was once a leading television station, but now I personally would rate them the least most likely to watch. Stop playing so many ads. I understand ads are your source of income, but your customer service is continuing to drop and I am at the point of uping my internet connection and simply downloading the programs to save putting up with all the additional rubbish you try to feed your audience via advertisements.. Oh whilst I am at it, Channel NINE do yourselves a favour and put out a customer satisfaction survey to see how poorly you rate with audiences. You might also want to try and be more consistent with your program planning!!!!

Goodluck because you need it !!

What else can go wrong for Hey Hey? Maybe Hey Hey it is Saturday is being cursed for being on a Wednesday?

First there was the failure of their new web site heyhey.tv in their first week back. Then Powderfinger pull out of the second episode last Wednesday. That was followed by the news of Susan Boyle cancelling her Australian visit thereby meaning she will not appear on both the Logies and Hey Hey. And now – after heavy promotion – Jackie MacDonald will not appear on Hey Hey (tonight, April 28) due to sickness.

In the first week, Hey Hey was watched by 1.5 million viewers. By the second week, it was down around 1.2 million – the biggest drop percentage wise of all the big shows that have premiered after Easter so far. Based on that trend, and the fact that people or acts advertised are not appearing, the ratings could fall further – perhaps down to a million this week.

Even time shifted figures for Hey Hey suggest that people who miss it on Wednesday are not watching the show later either. For its first week, only 32,000 recorded Hey Hey to watch later – amid speculation that many would record Hey Hey and watch it on Saturday night.

Why is this happening with guests cancelling? Is it simply a run of bad luck, or poor management? Are the people at Hey Hey not getting firm commitments from guests or do they simply lack the interest in the show? Jackie in particular has not interest in restarting a career but is happy to appear from time to time for her old mate “Dags” (Daryl for those unaware!).

Hey Hey is a live entertainment and variety show – so there is a certain expectation that things may not go to plan from time to time. But in this current television environment – and especially on a Wednesday night – where there are soooo many choices for the viewer, losing key acts or personalities that have been promoted could spell the end of the show prematurely as any person who has tuned in just to see the person advertised will quickly tune out.

Whereas – if the show was on Saturday night – it may well more easily survive these sorts of set backs as there are not as many options on TV on Saturday nights. The reason why I believe Hey Hey will NEVER return to Saturday nights is because the show’s huge Melbourne following would have to chose between Hey Hey or AFL. Then again, if Hey Hey went back to 6.30 Saturdays, with the Video show at 5pm say before the news, you could watch the AFL after 8.30.

It’s no secret that appearing on a reality TV show can be both daunting and very stressful for those who make it through the process of auditions.

In watching various reality shows over the years, I have seen contestants voluntarily drop out of the competition for a range of reasons.

Potential models on America’s Next Top Model for example have left because they cannot handle the stress. Last year, Australian Idol was rocked by the shock departure of Toby.

And now – in the new season of Masterchef, we have seen two contestants voluntarily leave – with the latest on Sunday night citing family reasons for her departure. The one that left last week, left during a team challenge that saw her partner Phillip complete both his own and her dish on his own. He went on to make the Top 24. Early in the top 50 eliminations, one girl had to be talked into staying to complete her challenge. She ended up eliminated in any case.

The question I have to raise is how fair is it to the thousands of other that apply for these shows for someone who has made it only to get up and leave of their own accord? Sure – there are legitimate reasons for a person to drop out of a reality competition show – such as an unforeseen family circumstance or health – as we saw in Biggest Loser where two contestants left due to health reasons – but to get up and leave because you can’t handle the pressure just seems unfair to those who did not make the final cut.

Surely these shows must have measures in place to psychologically analyse the suitability of their contestants to make it through the competition? In the case of Masterchef, just being able to cook well is not all you need to make it. You need to be able to handle the pressure of being away from home for up to three months if you do well, the pressure of the challenges, the pressure of receiving criticism as well as the pressure that other contestants may put on you. With so many people of different backgrounds brought together, there is always the chance of personality clashes somewhere along the line.

To me, seeing someone “give up” and leave a reality show of their own accord is simply unfair on both those contestants who did not quite make it as well as those in the final group who have had to perform challenges against those who have left. Had they not have been in the competition at all, the outcome could have been different.

Let’s hope that the Top 24 have been well chosen in the sense that the contestants will cook well and are all genuinely there to try and that none of them just give up.