Ten’s glaring historic error

The Ten
Network is perhaps a little lucky that the audience for its Small Claims telemovie with Rebecca Gibney and Claudia Karvan was not
all that big last night. Only an
average of 753,000 people watched, but many would have missed one of the most
egregious mistakes in a news break for some time.

With
all the celebrations over the weekend of the 60th anniversary of the end of the
Second World War in the Pacific, you’d think a newsreader, producer, editor and
director would have been alert to such a simple error.

In
voice over pictures of a fly over in Canberra, the Ten
newsreader read that it was the 60th anniversary of the end of World War
One.

Is this a job for Max Uechtritz?

Ten’s Director of News and Public Affairs Kel Robards has
just resigned from the Network for personal reasons. His decision follows the move of
Sydney news editor, Jason Morrison, to 2GB to try and
make it in talkback radio. The way is now clear for former ABC news boss Max Uechtritz to
talk to Ten, after being fired by Nine CEO Sam Chisholm in the last week
of June.

The news also coincides with the stepped up efforts of Ten in the News
and Public Affairs areas. A panel style discussion program is being
piloted for Ten by Screentime and will have a more solid news
direction than its predecessor The Panel. There are
also suggestions that Ten is looking to boost its presence in reporting
from Asia, even to the extent of planting the flag somewhere to match
the reporting efforts of Seven and its reporter, Adrian Brown.

Last night’s TV
ratings

The Winners

 Nine last night, just, Seven last week. No outstanding
programs last night, a night that was dominated by the second last eviction from Big
Brother (nearly 1.5 million viewers) and the cricket on SBS, even though
the audience only averaged just over half a million people. Between 7.30pm and
9.30pm (the heart of prime time) the cricket audience ranged from 761,000 at
the start to a peak of 1.033 million from 8.30 to 8.45pm. That drew a lot of
viewers away from the other networks.
The Losers

Ten – despite the second last eviction from Big Brother,
its telemovie Small Claims bombed, watched by only 753,000 people on average,
despite the lead in audience provided by the Big Brother eviction of 1.494
million. Seven only had two top ten entries, the news and the movie, Sweet Home
Alabama.
News & CA

Wins last week to Seven News and
Today Tonight nationally and in the Sydney market. Nine News and A Current
Affair won Melbourne and Brisbane. Last night Nine won as usual with 1.889
million viewers, helped by the football lead-ins in Sydney, Melbourne and
Brisbane. 60 Minutes finished with a respectable 1.377 million people, beaten by
the BB eviction. ABC 7pm news finished with 1.2 million people and Sunday morning
saw Sunday record a small lift in its audience, back over the 300,000 mark to
316,000. Seven’s Weekend Sunrise edged higher to 268,000, My Business on Seven
was also higher with 175,000 people, while Business Sunday jumped sharply to
173,000 people. The ABC’s Insiders lost 31,000 viewers to finish with 144,000
while Inside Business rose slightly to 92,000. Meet The Press on Ten was lower
at 68,000 people. And Sports World on Seven beat Sunday on Nine convincingly
with 386,000 viewers from 9am to 11am
Sunday.
The Stats

Seven battled to draw last week with Nine at 27.6% each,
a fair recovery seeing the network started with a 19.5% share a week ago last
night. Last night Nine still won, but its share was not matched by the strength
of some of its programs, such as the News and Backyard Blitz. Nine won with a
27.4% share (30.9% a week earlier). Seven finished second with 22.7%, Ten was
weak on 19.6%, despite the second last eviction from BB. Without BB Ten’s share
would have crashed. SBS finished with 15.2%, thanks to the cricket and just in front of the ABC
on 15.1%.
Glenn Dyer’s
comments

The SBS broadcasting of the cricket again hurt Ten, Nine and
Seven last night. Nine’s fresh episodes of
CSI and CSI New York did well, but its share was down on the previous Sunday
evening when it flattened Seven and Ten. Nine has six programs in the top ten
most watched list and its winning share looks light on. Tonight it’s another test
for The Alice on Nine with the cricket again on SBS and the finale of
Big Brother. Seven will also be tested by the absence of Desperate Housewives.
Grey’s Anatomy will not give the same oomph to Seven’s figures tonight. Monday
night viewing from 8.30pm will be more “democratic” until the end of the
year.