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Rizolli & Isles
What would you do if you air a TV show that does not rate? Even on a digital channel?
Take it off – that’s what. This is exactly what happened to “What Would You Do” which aired on GEM last (Wednesday August 24) night at 8.30pm. It’ not a bad show, featuring hypothetical situations and investigating what normal passers-by will do to help the situation.
Made by US network ABC, What Would You Do usually airs well after midnight on Nine, but it seems no one cared for the show on GEM, or more likely not aware it was on, with the show not making top 100 digital shows.
The Closer, as a result, moves forward an hour to 8.30, with Rizolli & Isles following at 9.30pm. At 10.30pm, Law & Order airs – creating the situation where there is a Law & Order franchise airing on all three commercial networks at some stage during the week. The Closer was in the top 100 digital shows for last night with 90,000 viewers – more than the number that watched What Would You Do?
Missed the Block this week? Well, you can catch up on GEM on Sunday afternoon (July 3) from 2.30pm with all of this week’s episodes played back to back from 2.30pm.
Next week on GEM, the channel have swapped programming on Tuesday and Wednesday night. The movie Tightrope will now air at 9.40pm Tuesday July 5 instead of Wednesday, while The Closer, Rizolli & Isles and Friends will air on Wednesday night from 9.40pm instead of Tuesday.
Three times the GEM?
Maybe it is third time lucky for Rizolli & Isles? After the previous two times on GEM it was taken off after an episode or two – now the series is set to air from episode 2 at 11.30pm Tuesdays from Tuesday May 31.
Raising Hope Finale
Is on ELEVEN at 8.30pm, Tuesday May 24. The following week – Tuesday May 31, The Office moves to 8.30pm for a double episode, with Frasier at 9.00pm the week after June 7.
Some bad news for some of the first run content on GEM, with some last minute programming changes pushing Southland back half an hour from tonight (Mon Jan 31) and Hotel Babylon back half an hour as of Wednesday night (Feb 2).
Tonight (Mon Jan 31), an episode of Friends will air at 11.15 after the movie, with Southland now starting at 11.45pm. Same will happen next Monday (Feb 7) with Southland on at 11.40pm.
On Wednesday, Hotel Babylon gets the same treatment – being moved back to an 11pm start time, with Friends at 10.30pm. That also means that Conan is not on until midnight.
These changes come less than a week after new show Rizolli & Isles was bumped from Tuesday night.
I can understand tweaking of the schedule to help ratings, but making the change as of tonight? How can that possibly help ratings? It’s more likely to annoy fans of Southland who have to wait up another half an hour for their show. Then there will be some who turn off, thinking it is not on instead. Are they trying to kill it off?
Not even a digital channel is a safe place for a new show to be allowed a chance to air regularly … well at least not when it comes to the Nine network anyway.
Rizzoli & Isles – which returned to GEM last week on Tuesday (Jan 18) has been dumped from GEM’s schedule for the second time.
Instead, The Closer will air at 10.30pm Tuesdays, starting from the pilot this Tue Jan 25.
No idea what will happen to Rizzoli & Isles, or even if it will get a third chance.
Here’s a thought: If they (The Nine network) do not want to air shows like these in prime time, for fear of losing a few ratings points, then why not after midnight, when it no longer counts towards the ratings rat race? Why not even after 2am instead of having Home Shopping on three channels at once?
For the record, this was a new show I was going to give a go. When it first aired in December, I missed out due to an equipment failure. I then thought I could pick it up from the 2nd or 3rd episode, but it was taken off air. Then I saw it would be on Tue Jan 18. I recorded it to try again. Haven’t watched it yet – but what will be the point of watching it anyway, if the show is no longer airing?
Next week, and even more so the week after, we will suddenly be bombarded with so much first run content – season returns and new shows – that there will barley be time left to give new shows on digital channels a look in, let alone getting through all the new offerings on the main channels.
Who remembers the Golden Girls?
For a while, the Golden Girls was on Seven in the afternoons. Now another classic TV show jumps channels.
From Thursday February 3, the Golden Girls will be seen on GEM in double episodes from 8.30pm.
How Clean is Your House, that was on at that time, moves to Tue Feb 1 at 7.30pm, with an encore at 4pm Wed Feb 2.
That move bumps the Secret Millionaire out of the GEM schedule.
The Monday night movie for Mon Jan 31 is Jerry Maguire, screening from 8.30pm. Southland starts at 11.15.
The Sunday night movie is Legends of the Fall, Hoarders is on Tue Feb 1 at 8.30pm, followed by The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles, while romantic movie classic When Harry Met Sally is on Wed Feb 2.
On Saturday Feb 4, from 7.30, is a repeat episode of Getaway.
Maybe it is time that Nine rethink their multi channel strategy?
Looking at all the schedule make overs on Nine, GO and GEM, one can easily see that they are using movies to make up large chunks of their schedules – especially on the digital channels GO and GEM.
Perhaps it might be time for Nine to consider a new direction then?
Over the next few weeks, there are enough movies between the three channels to fill a single movie channel. It does seem that the Nine network have the rights to more movies than any other free to air network – so why not put it to good use?
Movies seem to bring in higher rating shares for digital channels. That is why we have seen GO and GEM have make overs that include at least two nights of weekday movies, and why all the channels play movies on the weekends.
Having said that, imagine how a single multi channel would do in ratings if it was 24/7 movies? The majority of movies are in HD anyway, so why not use the HD channel as a movie channel? Every poll we had run here at Throng suggested that a movie channel would have been a good format for a new digital channel.
So rather than having GO and GEM with no real identity at the moment, the movie channel solution would replace GEM as the HD channel, then all the other content that is not movies – the shows that double up on Nine as well, the repeats of older series, the first runs on digital channels – could then end up on the one channel rather than scattered over both.
You would then see the channel currently known as GO filled with shows pushed off GEM to make way for movies like The Mentalist and CSI – BUT – without the need to push through movies to get the higher ratings, this channel – I’ll call it GO-2011 – could also maintain regular nightly schedules that could include many of the first run shows on both channels that have been “rested” lately.
Shows like Fringe, Nikita, Community, Rizzoli & Isles, Chase, Better With You to name a few, could settle into regular timeslots and nights on GO-2011 rather than being moved about or dropped every time the Nine network pushes the ratings panic button.
You could get back to the idea of themed nights as well, and leave all the more popular repeat Nine content for the weekends or Nine itself. Nine itself could still offer movies on the weekends, but mostly for the benefit of those who still do not have digital TV. Certainly not ever again on a weeknight, as you’d want to keep those wanting weeknight movies on the movie channel.
In my opinion, the line where Nine stops and GO and GEM start have now become so blurred, the brands are losing identity. Replacing GEM with a 24/7 movie channel and re-launching GO as the place for all that hot new first run content without movies getting in the way could be a strategy that would help Nine increase its market share, while at the same time, keeping stability in programming.
Even the new movie channel could theme their movies. Whether it be seasonal, by the actor, genre – there are many possibilities.
Such a channel – given that movies often help lift digital channel shares – would, in theory, become the highest rating digital channel. It would also be a better use of the HD channel, even if it does still end up playing old movies to fill up time during the day.
There would, however, still be the issue of what happens to sport in HD – but, given Nine’s current stance on neglecting sport in HD, it does not seem it would be much of an issue for them at the moment.
With the digital channel landscape about to get another shake up when Eleven starts in January, it might be time to start moving away from having too many general entertainment channels and those that do not have a strong identity.
Looking at what Seven are doing, 7TWO – despite its name – has a clear and distinct direction which is paying off in ratings. 7mate is also maintaining a well defined strategy, that is not being shook up every time they have a bad night.
Maybe it is time for Nine to rethink. GO’s success as Australia’s number one multi channel will be in jeopardy if they do not stabilise their program or continue to rely too heavily on favourites like Top Gear and The Big Bang Theory.
One thing that Ten are good at these days, is maintaining a stable TV guide. They make the least changes of any of the big commercial three when it comes to their schedule – despite poor ratings. This philosophy should transpire over to Eleven. Ten will let the brand build with its own shows without doubling up on content also seen on Ten, as Ten, having a dig at GO mostly, have already stated.
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
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.
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