It’s been a heady start to the 2011 ratings year. We’re in Week 11, and of the last 30 nights Channel 7 have won 27 and the 7 Network has won all 4 weeks to date. If you’re at Ch7 – yay; any of the other networks – oh no.
The 7pm timeslot is a key follow-through – leading out of your 6:30pm NewsCaff slot into a show that will maintain the audience into the first show of the night at 7:30pm. It’s been filled with game shows, soap operas, cartoons, comedic panel shows and sitcoms, and for the moment Channel 7 own it with Home and Away. Through most of 2010 Channel 9 were challenging H&A for the 7pm timeslot with Two and a Half Men, but not in 2011. Comparable ratings have been way down. It hasn’t helped that two weeks into the ratings year he’s basically flipped out publicly, gone on every available medium to talk about how he’s “Winning”, and most recently been fired from the show. What. A. Shame. [/sarcasm]
In the midst of Sheen’s meltdown, Channel 9 Brisbane did something interesting. They dropped the show that has been a 7pm staple for them for over 12 months and in it’s place are showing (another Chuck Lorre production) Big Bang Theory. It’s only been running for a week at the 7pm timeslot, however it’s providing some interesting data…
While we’ve only one week to make a comparison with, it shows promise.
It’s also a bold statement by Channel 9 Brisbane around supporting the show that has continued to build the Sheen juggernaut/ego – “his behaviour is unacceptable, we will not broadcast that rubbish, instead here’s something we’d prefer to see”. There’s been no statement by Ch9 BNE as to their reasoning for the change… and no national change either, with all other markets sticking with TaaHM at 7pm.
Again only a week into this new BNE only programming change, it’s tough to pick a trend but BBT is making some in-roads…
The percentages show how much more audience H&A has compared to the Ch9 offering (in Week 8 it was TaaHM, Week 10 BBT). 3 of the 5 nights in Week 10 the margin was narrowing. In these days of programmer impatience, it’s a good sign that BBT is making a charge on H&A.
It’s way to early to call a victory or even to label the move as a success, but it is a sign that either: part of Ch9 are willing to make a stand with regard to programming based on the complete misbehaviour of a star of a show; or feeling the market’s shift away from a show (for whatever reason) to make a programming decision that is looking like it might pay off. Heaven forbid it becomes a trend nationally. Who knows what sort of craziness that would lead to… like an actual ratings race…