ABC losing the race?

When will the ABC’s ambitious series on the recreation of the Peking to Paris car race appear? Next month is now the
official line, but word around the Ultimo Centre this week,is that the series has troubles – so much
so that for some, the fate of the series has been just as big a story as
Sandra Levy’s defection to the Nine Network.

An ABC crew and publicist accompanied the “modern-day adventurers” in five century-old
vehicles as they re-lived the original race which took place in
1907. There’s talk around the ABC that much of the vision has been hard to edit into
a useable package. But it has
been done – there are now four one-hour programs instead of the original three: always a bad sign in TV.
Quantity doesn’t mean quality.

Some inside the ABC
say Sandra Levy has fled to the Nine Network before any problems with
the project emerge. But others were involved in the production and it would be
unfair to blame Levy for any problems.

Last night’s TV
ratings

The Winners The cricket on SBS: An average 988,000 people for the first
couple of hours, more than 800,000 for the lunch to tea session and more than
105,000 into the wee small hours of Friday morning. Seven News was the most
watched program, more than 180,000 ahead of Nine; a big result. Seven’s The Mole is still a bit weak with 1.123 million people at
7.30pm, just beaten by Nine’s Getaway (1.131 million). Nine’s Footy Shows did
just over a million viewers.
The Losers

Seven’s Las Vegas and Alias. Alias continues
to shed audience and is now in “why is it still on” territory with just
613,000 at 9.30pm. Las Vegas was watched by an average of 956,000 at 8.30pm,
easily beaten by Nine, the cricket on SBS and Ten’s Law and Order (SVU and Trial
By Jury). The weakness on Seven from 8.30pm was why it didn’t win the night
over Nine. Seven is feeling Lost on Thursday
nights.
News & CA Seven News again won nationally by a large margin and in
Sydney. Seven’s Today Tonight won over Nine’s A Current Affair nationally, but
that was due to the usual good win in Perth. The ABC news was down to 950,000,
undermined by the growing audience on SBS for the cricket. The 7.30 Report was
down to 890,00, sort of holding up.
The Stats Nine with 27.3% to Seven on 23.3%, SBS was third with 20.2%, Ten fourth
on 17.2% and the ABC last on 12.1%. Nine won all markets, bar Perth
where Seven was a narrow winner from SBS in second. Seven was second in
Melbourne (just) and in Brisbane, but SBS crept into second in Adelaide.
Glenn Dyer’s
comments		 As forecast, the first day of the fifth Ashes test
completely upset viewing patterns last night and will do so again tonight, even
though it will be up against the NRL on Nine in Sydney and Brisbane and the
Swans final on Ten everywhere live. SBS’s success with the
Ashes tests underlines the opportunity the ABC missed in not broadcasting the
matches. They had a chance but the board and Sandra Levy (then head of ABC TV) were reluctant to have sport in prime time on
the ABC. At times in the first session, SBS’s audience was over a million
viewers and it was running second to Nine. By 10.30pm it was easily the most
watched network.