Media briefs and TV ratings

Working Dog does it again: The Ten
Network’s experiment with unscripted ensemble TV comedy, Thank God You’re Here,
has rapidly emerged as the new hit show of 2006, surpassing Ten’s other
experiment in The Biggest Loser, Seven’s Where Are They Now and new US shows Prison Break and Commander in Chief. Last
night TGYH averaged 1.744 million viewers at 7.30pm – a turn on of almost 400,000 from The
Biggest Loser at 7pm, a sign of the new program’s appeal to viewers after just its
third program. Over
those three programs it’s averaged just over 1.5 million viewers. Nine is
missing from that list of hit new shows – its most successful new shows have been Missing Persons
Unit and Hotel Babylon:
both are averaging just over one million viewers. That goes a long way
to explaining the tough time Nine is having in the ratings battle and
the revenue pressures that it’s under as a result. The longer these new
shows (and existing ones) keep delivering viewers to Ten and Seven, the
harder 2007 is going to be for Eddie McGuire and the folk at Nine. TV
producers are now wondering whether sitcoms, especially live or live to
tape sitcoms, might make a comeback next year following the success of Thank God You’re Here. It’s
essentially an ensemble comedy program broken up into various skits with a
commentary from Tom Gleisner and hosted by Shane
Bourne. These skits could quite easily be expanded into a sitcom, but getting the
required comedy writing talent would be the key. Ten has
also been running The Ronny Johns Half Hour late on Sunday nights – it’s a less
polished ensemble comedy and attracts around 300,000-400,000
viewers. Seven
and Nine haven’t gone down the local sitcom route for some time:
perhaps TGYH‘s success means that venerable TV form’s time has come
again. – Glenn Dyer

The Hypothetical set to return to Sunday: Sunday
is the first day of the post-Easter official ratings period and from what the
networks have scheduled, the game is back on … well sort of. First up a bit of nostalgia on the Sunday program with
the return of Geoffrey Robertson and the Hypothetical. It’s
a pity the TV schedules in many papers haven’t highlighted the return
of the Hypothetical, viewers will have to be regulars
to find out that it’s on, though readers of The Bulletin
will have some idea – there’s an ad tie-in between the two PBL media
outlets. The program will probably air just after the news at 9am and
finish just after 10am, which will compete with the last half hour of
Seven’s Weekend Sunrise, which is the most
watched program on Sunday mornings. Also,
running the Hypothetical this way will give Sunday the time for a Laurie Oakes interview, another story, plus a film
review in the second hour, which has a higher audience after Sunrise finishes at
9.30am. – Glenn Dyer

And Backyard Blitz is back but Ten’s got a big surprise: The
more interesting return will be at 6.30pm on Sunday night when a bold as brass Nine
returns Backyard Blitz to its rightful timeslot, one which it had dominated
until the start of ratings in February when it was sent to 7.30pm on Friday
nights to allow the introduction of Clever. Clever stunned us with its average and derivative nature, being a rip
off of Mythbusters (SBS and pay-TV) and Brainiac on Ten and it was “rested”
by Nine after failing to attract an audience above the
1.1 million mark. Certainly it never matched Backyard Blitz‘s audience
levels, making the decision to move Backyard Blitz to Friday nights even harder to
understand. And Nine might battle on Sunday night: At 6.30pm Ten has a special episode of The Biggest Loser called The Biggest Surprise, with one
former contestant visited at home to be told they are back in the
game! That is
being used to warm up the audience for the two hour return of Big Brother at
7.30pm, which will also reveal a new twist… viewers will be able to vote out
contestants and vote to keep people in… what a
wonderful revenue driver for the company handling the calls: Ten, Southern Star,
Endemol and Southern Cross
Broadcasting. – Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV
ratings