5pm – The 2013 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix
6.45pm – The 2013 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix – Extended Coverage
7.30pm – World’s Toughest Trucker
8:30 pm – (M) Speed
10.55pm – Fast Forward: Funniest Send-Ups
11.55pm – Law & Order: SVU (R) Continue reading »
Blue Bloods
6pm – Gator 911
6.30pm – Megastructures Breakdown (R)
7.30pm – World’s Toughest Trucker
8:30 pm – (M) League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
10.45pm – Law & Order: SVU (R)
11.45pm – Al Murrays Compete For The Meat (R) Continue reading »
Attracting a channel ratings share of over 4% last Monday, ONE’s highest general entertainment share to date, ONE’s Monday night comedy nights featuring Who’s Line is it Anyway followed by Jimeoin On Ice (Jan 23) and Carel Barron (Jan 30) continue for now.
In coming weeks, however, there are a number of show on ONE set to air season finales.
Team based reailty competition show Expedition Impossible has its season finale at 7.30pm Tuesday January 24.
Season finale of The Killing airs at 9.30 Wednesday January 25.
Ice Road Truckers ends on Sunday January 29, at 7.30pm.
The season finale of Blue Bloods will air on Monday January 30, at 10.00pm [UPDATED].
Returning to ONE, is a new series of Black Gold, which airs 7.30 Tuesday January 31.
Also returning to ONE is Psych – dumped from Monday nights a few weeks ago, the series whixh has been renewed for a 7th season in the US will now air at 7.30pm Wednesdays from February 1. It is followed by new Burn Notice which remains at 8.30pm Wednesdays.
Meanwhile, The Killing’s timeslot of 9.30pm Wednesdays will be movies from February 1.
Programming information subject to change, and correct as at January 19, 2012.
Burn Notice, ONE. 8.30pm
Finally new episodes for most markets. Brotherly Love. While Sam and Jesse travel to the Dominican Republic in search of the list, Michael must stay in Miami to help his brother find a drug dealer’s stolen car.
Blue Bloods, ONE, 9.30pm
Hall of Mirrors. When an undercover counter-terrorism agent is shot, Frank assigns Danny to the case because his son is the only officer he can trust given the victim’s involvement with infiltrating a sleeper cell.
The Secret Circle, FOX8, 7.35pm AEDT
Pilot. Cassie Blake’s world is turned upside down after her mother dies in a mysterious accident, forcing Cassie to move in with her loving grandmother Jane in the small town of Chance Harbor, Washington. While trying to adjust to her new life, Cassie is quickly befriended by Diana Meade, a sweet-natured classmate who offers to show her around and introduces her to mean girl Faye, her sidekick Melissa and Cassie’s next door neighbour Nick. Things get complicated when Cassie meets Adam, Diana’s boyfriend, with whom she feels an instant and powerful connection. Upon meeting one of her mother’s childhood friends, Dawn Chamberlain, who is also the school principal and Faye’s mother, Cassie begins to wonder why her mother never spoke of her home town. When strange and dangerous things begin to happen, Cassie’s new friends are forced to tell her their secret: They are all witches and her arrival will complete the Circle. However, the Circle has not been drawn together again by chance; Diana’s father, Charles Meade, has plans of his own for the group. Read our review here.
Four Corners, ABC1, 8.30pm
Trial and Error. Gordon Wood has served three years jail, but did he really kill former model Caroline Byrne by throwing her off a cliff in 1995? Quentin McDermott reports on one of Australia’s most controversial murder cases.
Skins, SBS ONE, 10.30pm
Rich. Metal-head Rich pairs up with Grace in a bid to discover how to chat up his ideal girl. To make it realistic, he teaches her the ways of metal music, but it does not prove easy. Eventually he compromises and allows Grace into his world, but it appears heartbreak is not far away.
Ten corrects the episode of new Modern Family they are airing this week (it was previously slated as the second episode of the third season, not the first), removes An Idiot Abroad and advises what the Friday movie will be.
On Tuesday at 7.30pm, the new episode of Modern Family has changed to “Dude Ranch. Previously, the network had the episode as “When Good Kids Go Bad” – the second episode of the third season. The new episode is still followed by a repeat at 8pm “Halloween”.
An Idiot Abroad Gone. Perhaps a lesson for Ten here. An Idiot Abroad originally aired on ONE, where it pulled better figures than it got on Ten last week. Considering the series had already aired twice on ONE, did Ten really think it would pull main channel ratings figures on Ten?
What comes out of this, is 1) close to 90% of all people in the five cities now have digital, most of them HD (remember ONE is an HD channel) – so those who would have wanted to see An Idiot Abroad already have. 2) What happened to not bouncing shows between the channels like Nine / GO! and GEM do? and 3) Ten had the perfect opportunity to fast track right into season 2: An Idiot Abroad Bucket List – which would easily have pulled figures 500,000+ – enough to keep it in a 9.30pm main channel timeslot.
Replacing an Idiot Abroad at 9.30pm Wednesdays, is – wait for it – NCIS repeats.
To Ten’s troubled Friday night, and the movie this week will be Catch Me if You Can at 9.30pm, with American Dreamz at the same time the following Friday (November 4).
Over to ONE, and next Monday October 31 sees new episodes of Burn Notice at 8.30pm, plus Blue Bloods at 9.30pm being given the chance to be played out.
Ten’s Friday night is one of the most unstable nights of programming in Australian free to air TV. It seems that no matter what they air on a Friday night, they simply don’t attract an audience, and the network is prone to react to the low figures by chopping and changing programming.
However, it is this very chopping and changing of programming that is to Ten’s detriment. You never know what you will get on Ten on Friday night, and, when they do try something new there, you never know if it will be on for anymore than a few weeks before they take the show off.
Friday nights on Ten in 2011 have featured new episodes of Law & Order, Blue Bloods, Burn Notice, repeats of Hawaii Five-O, Terra Nova encores and movies amongst others. The night has been so erratic, that nothing has lasted there for anymore than a few weeks.
The usual argument is that the network needs to respond to ratings, and that their core demographic is out on Friday nights. Sure – people do go out on a Friday night, but alot are also watching TV on Friday nights. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven dominates Friday night ratings, while digital channels like GO! and 7TWO reach large audience shares on Friday night.
So what should Ten do to gain audience on Friday nights? (and for that matter, Saturdays as well).
Well, firstly, commit to stability. Schedule the night, and let shows run their course without changing so often. As for movies? Ten simply don’t have enough titles to entice viewers without regular repeats. What ever they do, they need to accept that ratings will usually be lower on weekend nights, but if they program wisely, and don’t change the schedule every few weeks, the people are there for the taking. Maybe it is time to program weekend nights like weekdays, and air new programming?
The people are there – but they are not going to watch repeats of shows that have only recently aired or movies they have seen many times before. Encores should be left for the digital channels – one of my great disappointments with Terra Nova is not being able to see it in HD. Ten should have encored it on ONE in HD instead of the late night Friday night reply on Ten.
That aside, here is a list of ideas of what Ten could do on Friday nights to attract viewers. Some of these ideas are out there – but what do they have to lose in trying? These ideas could extend to Saturday as well, now that there will be no more AFL on Ten next year.
In no particular order…
1. Play out new shows and stick to it. No more repeats. The addition of the weekend nights give more timeslots available for new titles.
2. Animation night. Take the best of ELEVEN’s animation night and do it on Ten on Friday night – mostly for the benefit of those who don’t have digital and don’t see anything on ELEVEN.
3. Best of the digitals night – why stop at animation – play some of the shows that aired on ELEVEN and ONE during the week on Ten (and some of Ten’s on ONE in HD!). Shows like Supernatural, currently airing on ELEVEN on Monday nights, will find a wider audience on Ten. It could easily fit into a weekend timeslot on Ten.
4. Actually MAKE something for Friday night to air at say 8.30. A light comedy show? Light entertainment / variety? Reality elimination? If Pay TV can make shows exclusively for their own channels that reach a fraction of the audience of the free to air main channels, then surely making content for lower audiences could be a consideration for a network like Ten.
5. I have always wondered how Aussie scripted drama like RUSH would do on a Friday night with less competition from rival broadcasters? It couldn’t do any worse than on a Thursday night. Yes, I know, alot of the show’s fans are out, but you never know. It is last season for Rush anyway, but it is a good example.
6. Retro night. Programming from 90′s, 80′s or even 70′s? There is ALOT of content from the past we do not see now despite day time schedules of digital channels, most notably 7mate and ELEVEN, being filled with old TV shows. There is alot of Australian content from the past that never sees the light of day again (although I believe this has mostly to do with the expense of royalties when these shows air).
7. Do a deal with Foxtel and show some content usually only seen on Pay TV. Foxtel keep first to air rights, but Ten air later. Rove: LA for example would fit well on Ten. True Blood on a Friday night on Ten? Could get tricky with who owns what rights, but it is an idea.
8. Ask the viewers what they would like to see on Friday nights. Like radio stations do with listener surveys, why not try the same with TV? Listener surveys of the 1990′s in radio helped the Austerio network in particular gain traction and make its way to the number one music network in Australia.
What do you think? What would you like to see on Ten on Friday and Saturday nights. Do you even watch TV on those nights? Would you watch more free to air on the weekend if the content was there?
Feel free to comment and join the discussion.
9.30pm Friday, April 1 on Ten
Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) delves into his old life in the New York City nightclub scene after a doorman at one of the hottest clubs is shot dead. The investigation leads him to meet seductive nightclub owner Sabrina. whose flirtatious ways have Danny reminiscing about his younger. unmarried days.
Meanwhile. Frank (Tom Selleck) makes a decision about an ex-partner’s future. Will loyalty prevail or will he have to make a tough call?
9.30pm Friday, March 25 on Ten
When killer rapist Dick Reed is released from prison because of a DNA mishap in the lab. Erin’s only hope at re-convicting him lies in the hands of the only surviving victim. But when Reed’s attention turns to Erin. her life is on the line when a vicious game of hide and seek turns deadly.
8.30pm Wednesday, March 16 on Ten
After meeting with federalagents in a dark edge of Chinatown. Jamie (Will Estes) witnesses a crime in progress and his suspect is killed while in pursuit. While Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) tries to solve the case in order to clear his brother’s name and avoid him facing an InternalAffairs investigation. Frank (Tom Selleck) comes under fire for his son’s involvement.
Meanwhile Jamie and Sydney’s engagement comes to an end when Sydney accepts a job in London.
The problems with Ten programming continue.
In reaction to poor ratings, from next Wednesday March 9, Blue Bloods will move to Fridays at 9.30pm, which means that Law & Order is out on Friday nights from March 11.
In a move that absolutely smells of desperation, at 8.30 next Wednesday March 9 will be one hour of Modern Family – and yes – they are repeats.
Given that Modern Family repeats were dieing off in summer – what makes Ten think they will work at 8.30 on a Wednesday night?
Combined with the repeat of NCIS on Tuesday, that is now two prime time hours (Sun – Thur) with repeat content in only the fifth week of ratings. Not good.
Why not move Lie to Me to 8.30 and put Burn Notice on at 9.30? And the question remains why Ten don’t put new NCIS: LA on Tuesday night at 9.30, after new NCIS.
No word on where Law & Order will land.
Yes – ratings are not great for Ten, but changing the program every week will only make it worse. They – and Nine – are up against a very strong and incredibly stable line up from Seven and changing programs around every week – moving timeslots – adding doubles episodes randomly – thronging in random repeats of shows that normally do well – simply will not work in this environment.
The arrival of Warburton to Ten cannot come soon enough.
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