Headland makes a good start

Skilfully slotted in
after Home and Away at 7.30pm, Seven last night premiered its new, slightly older skewed soap Headland with some degree of success. Headland won the 7.30pm to 8.30pm timeslot, beating
the two new Frasier episodes and a new and repeat episode of The Simpsons on Ten, and
helped Seven to a win last night. Home
and Away averaged 1.413 million, and Headland 1.326
million for the hour, but there was a solid boost at the end as viewers switched
over to watch the first dance-off special of Dancing with the Stars.

It was
a far stronger start than Nine’s The Alice, which drew just over a million viewers on its first outing. The Alice lasted about ten episodes in prime time before being shut down and buried at 10.30pm on Mondays. By
positioning it between two strong programs Seven gave Headland a chance to be noticed, but Thursday
night will be a tougher test. The show is
due to move to three times a week as Seven seeks to
establish it ahead of the full ratings battle in 2006, which begins February 12.

Last night’s TV
ratings

The Winners Well, Dancing With The Stars may have finished last week but
the golden ratings linger longer than many in the TV industry thought.
Last night’s Dance-Off between Ada Nicodemou and Tom Williams, the winner of series two,
blitzed the ratings with an average audience from 8.30pm to 9.30pm of 1.848
million people. That, plus another good boost for All Saints at 9.30pm (1.342
million) and strong showings by Today Tonight (1.441 million), Home and Away
(1.413 million), Headland (1.326 million) and Seven News (1.324 million) saw Seven
end up with a convincing win on the night. Nine’s Temptation
with 1.354 million, was its best performer, boosted by the celebrity
family special (good for a week but not for an entire ratings season).
Ten’s best was the double episode of The Simpsons – the new episode attracted 1.142 million but was beaten by the repeat that followed (1.178 million). Viewers are
funny folk, aren’t they?
The Losers Again 13 programs with more than a
million viewers, so not that many poor performers. Ten’s Brainiac (765,000)
and Rove (752,000) were down in all people, but did well in the 16 to 39 age
group. Nine’s Tuesday night episode of The Closer (978,000)
was down on its Sunday night audience. The Apprentice is doing its usual trick of
fading: the audience is now under half a million at 457,000.
News & CA Mixed: Seven News was well beaten by Nine News nationally, despite a
strong win in Sydney and a huge one in Perth. But Today Tonight simply blitzed A Current Affair everywhere bar Melbourne. The ABC News (992,000)
was OK and The 7.30 Report eased a touch to 850,000.
The Stats Seven with 33.8% to Nine with 28.0%, Ten on 20.4%, the
ABC with 12.5% and SBS with 5.3%. Seven won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth but lost Brisbane.
Glenn Dyer’s
comments		 Tonight, two hours of
McLeod’s Daughters. Aren’t we lucky? Perhaps the girls and their emerging guys
should be at home watching The Parent Trap on Seven at 7.30pm. Or perhaps
watching the soccer on SBS. Seven realises the soccer will win, but Nine has to
run off that expensive first run two hour episode of McLeod’s. Ouch! Ten has a new episode of House from 8.30pm, but it won’t do
much good, especially if we are winning the soccer! SBS will disturb the night,
maybe win. Go the Green and Gold!