The 54th TV Week Logie Awards

Comedian Hamish Blake (pictured) was last night (Sunday) awarded the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television at the 54th annual TV Week Logie Awards.

There was also celebration for Blake and his comedy cohort Andy Lee with their program Hamish And Andy’s Gap Year also winning a Logie for Most Popular Light Entertainment Program.

Following the usual Red Carpet coverage, Gold Logie nominee Adam Hills was the first presenter on stage at Crown Palladium.  Although Hills stressed that he was not hosting the show last night, his opening monologue showed that perhaps he was someone who should have been.

Other presenters on the night included Chrissie Swan (pictured), Lincoln Lewis, Rodger Corser, Jacki Weaver, Alison Langdon, Hamish Macdonald, Alex Dimitriades, John Wood, Sigrid Thornton, Rove McManus, Kate Ritchie, Shane Jacobson, Tracy Grimshaw, Kerry O’Brien, Julia Morris, Manu Feildel, Denise Scott, Essie Davis, Stephen Curry, Don Hany, Georgie Parker, Lisa Wilkinson and Karl Stefanovic as well as Blake and Lee.

It was a long night, with Shaun Micallef appearing on screen after midnight to announce the winner of the Gold Logie – however controversy occurred behind the scenes, with the Herald Sun apparently reporting Blake’s victory online before it had been formally announced at the event itself and almost two hours before it appeared on air in the eastern states.

The newspaper said the mishap occurred during “live testing” of its iPad application and blamed the glitch on Google, claiming that the search engine had found the article before it had been published and hence perpetuated the headline online even after the Herald Sun had removed the article.  Media reports say Google has refuted the claim, stating that it can not access material that has not been published.

The Nine Network claimed six Logies on the night, including Underbelly: Razor star Chelsie Preston Crayford winning the Graham Kennedy Award for Outstanding New Talent, Nine News’ coverage of the Queensland floods winning Most Outstanding News Coverage and Nine’s coverage of the NRL State Of Origin III winning Most Outstanding Sports Coverage.

Seven’s Packed To The Rafters came away with two Logies – Most Popular Drama and Most Popular Actor (Hugh Sheridan) – prompting an unusual response from star Rebecca Gibney (pictured):  “For a show that’s in decline, we’re doing OK.”  Seven’s other dramas Winners And Losers and Home And Away also collected awards.

Network Ten’s Bondi Rescue won again for Most Popular Factual Series, and the network’s coverage of the 2011 AFL Grand Final won Most Popular Sports Program.  The network also ‘shared’ a Logie with ABC, with actress Asher Keddie winning the award for Most Popular Actress for her roles in Ten’s Offspring and ABC’s Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo.

ABC took away a number of awards, particularly among the industry-voted categories, for programs including The Slap, My Place, Spicks And Specks and Four Corners.  Adam Hills was awarded the Silver Logie for Most Popular Presenter, following a year that saw Spicks And Specks wind up after seven years and the debut of Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight.

SBS won the Logie for Most Outstanding Documentary Series for its widely-acclaimed series Go Back To Where You Came From.

There were musical performances from UK teen band One Direction, the legendary Tony Bennett, Flo Rida and The Voice judges Seal and Delta Goodrem.

As speculated in recent media reports, Ian ‘Molly Meldrum (pictured) was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall Of Fame, with tributes from John Paul Young, Red Symons, Delta Goodrem, Dannii Minogue and Michael Gudinski.  The segment had a fairly sombre tone about it, appearing more like an obituary rather than a celebration of Meldrum’s work, but nevertheless Meldrum is a worthy recipient of the honour and it was well overdue.  The former Countdown and Hey Hey It’s Saturday presenter is recovering from severe injuries sustained from a fall just before Christmas and was not able to attend the awards presentation.

Mick Molloy’s moving tribute to actor and former colleague Bill Hunter (pictured) led the list of those that have passed on in the last year – including Ian Turpie, Vince Lovegrove, Carl Bleazby, Godfrey Philipp, Jon Blake, David Fordham, Sean Flannery, Bob Davis, Michele Fawdon, Googie Withers, Paul Lockyer, Ian Carroll, John Bean, Gary Ticehurst, Rex Mossop and Harold Hopkins.

With the debut of The Voice and the four-hour Logies telecast, the Nine Network claimed a massive ratings victory, on a night where all three commercial networks rolled out the big guns to kick off the ratings after the Easter break. 

Nine led the field on 37.2 per cent, followed by Seven (18.4%), Ten (13.4%), ABC1 (10.1%), SBS One (4.0%), 7mate (2.9%), One (2.6%), GO! (2.5%), GEM (2.3%), Eleven (2.1%), 7TWO (2.0%), ABC2 (0.9%), ABC3 (0.7%), ABC News 24 (0.6%) and SBS Two (0.4%).

The Voice topped the chart with 2.1 million viewers (OzTAM, 5 cities), with the TV Week Logie Awards occupying second and fourth spots (1.8m for the Red Carpet, 1.379 for the awards presentation).  Seven’s series return of Dancing With The Stars scored 1.076 viewers and ranked sixth for the night, while Ten’s screening of the movie Avatar was well down the list on 553,000 viewers.

Public-voted categories:

TV WEEK GOLD LOGIE – Most Popular Personality
Hamish Blake

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Popular Actor
Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters, Channel Seven)

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Popular Actress
Asher Keddie (Offspring, Network Ten / Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1)

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Popular Presenter
Adam Hills (pictured) (Spicks And Specks, ABC1/Adam Hills In Gordon St Tonight, ABC1)

MOST POPULAR NEW MALE TALENT
Steve Peacocke (Home And Away)

MOST POPULAR NEW FEMALE TALENT
Melissa Bergland (Winners & Losers Channel Seven)

MOST POPULAR DRAMA SERIES
Packed To The Rafters (Channel Seven)

MOST POPULAR LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM
Hamish & Andy's Gap Year (Nine Network)

MOST POPULAR LIFESTYLE PROGRAM
Better Homes And Gardens (Channel Seven)

MOST POPULAR SPORTS PROGRAM
2011 AFL Grand Final (Network Ten)

MOST POPULAR REALITY PROGRAM
The Block (Nine Network)

MOST POPULAR FACTUAL PROGRAM
Bondi Rescue (Network Ten)

Industry-voted categories:

TV WEEK LOGIE AWARDS’ HALL OF FAME
Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Outstanding Drama Series, Miniseries or Telemovie
The Slap (ABC1)

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Outstanding Actor
Rob Carlton (pictured) (Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo, ABC1)

TV WEEK SILVER LOGIE — Most Outstanding Actress
Melissa George (The Slap, ABC1)

GRAHAM KENNEDY AWARD FOR MOST OUTSTANDING NEW TALENT
Chelsie Preston Crayford (Underbelly: Razor, Nine Network)

MOST OUTSTANDING NEWS COVERAGE
The Queensland Floods (Nine News, Nine Network)

MOST OUTSTANDING PUBLIC AFFAIRS REPORT
"A Bloody Business" (Four Corners/Sarah Ferguson, ABC1)

MOST OUTSTANDING LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM
Spicks And Specks (ABC1)

MOST OUTSTANDING SPORTS COVERAGE
State Of Origin III (Nine Network)

MOST OUTSTANDING CHILDREN'S PROGRAM
My Place (ABC3)

MOST OUTSTANDING FACTUAL PROGRAM
Go Back To Where You Came From (SBS) (pictured)

Source: TV Week, Herald Sun, The Australian

Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2012. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior
written consent of OzTAM.  Program performance and ranking information subject to change when not based on final program logs.

Ten’s ready to rise for Breakfast

Network Ten’s new breakfast news program, creatively titled Breakfast, is set to debut on Monday, 27 February at 6.00am.

Breakfast will be fronted by Andrew Rochford (The Block, The Project and recently breakfast co-host at Mix 106.5 in Sydney), Kathryn Robinson (Ten News), Magdalena Roze (The Weather Channel, Ten News) and outspoken New Zealand presenter Paul Henry, who was signed up for the new program for $NZ1 million by Ten’s interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch.

Even before Henry makes his Australian TV debut, his appointment to the network has already sparked divisive debate largely due to controversial comments made while host of TVNZ’s own Breakfast program which led to his resignation from the national broadcaster and subsequent million-dollar offer to cross the Tasman.  He will also continue to appear on New Zealand television with plans to host a weekly comedy show on commercial network TV3.

Ten’s head of news and current affairs, Anthony Flannery says Breakfast aims to be ‘must-see’ TV for Australians as they start their day:

“Breakfast is a tough, competitive environment and we can’t wait to get into the game. Already, the opposition is taking cheap pot shots – I couldn’t be happier that they’re taking us so seriously, so soon.”

“We plan to make Breakfast a must-watch part of Australia’s day. From fact to fun, it’s going to be a fresh start to the morning TV schedule.”

The new show will have a tough job ahead of itself, entering a market dominated by the long-running Today and Sunrise programs as well as alternatives ABC News Breakfast and Sky News’ First Edition and AM Agenda.

Ten’s new show will also be under pressure to deliver numbers to lead in to mid-morning show The Circle which currently suffers by not being handed a large audience from the preceding early morning children’s shows.  The Circle, despite winning a TV Week Logie last year for Most Popular Light Entertainment Program, is currently rating well behind Seven’s The Morning Show and Nine’s recently-launched Mornings.

Geoffrey Rush – our Australian of the Year

Oscar-winning actor Geoffrey Rush (pictured) was last night announced as our Australian of the Year in recognition of his contribution to the arts.

The 60-year-old, who this year celebrates 40 years in the industry, gained international fame in 1996 for his portrayal of pianist David Helfgott in the movie Shine which led to him winning the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Despite much of Rush’s acting work being in the theatre and on film, the Queensland-born actor has also worked in television.  He made his TV acting debut in the ABC mini-series Menotti in 1981.

He later appeared in Twisted Tales and played the lead role of newspaper editor Bill Wyatt in the 1996 series Mercury.

Rush also made a guest appearance in Kath And Kim in 2004.

Also on this Australia Day, a number of television identities were among the hundreds recognised in this year’s Australia Day honours list:

Maggie Beer – “For service to the tourism and hospitality industries as a cook, restaurateur and author, and to the promotion of Australian produce and cuisine.”  Beer was a co-presenter on the popular ABC series The Cook And The Chef for five years and has also been a regular guest on MasterChef Australia.

Jamie Durie – “For service to the community as an ambassador and supporter of a range of charitable and environmental organisations, and as a landscape designer.”  Durie came to national fame as the presenter of Backyard Blitz and The Block.  He has more recently appeared on the Seven Network’s The Outdoor Room and gained international fame when he caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey.

Gus Mercurio (posthumously) – “For service to boxing as an administrator and sports commentator, as a film, television and stage actor, and to the community.”  Mercurio appeared in numerous television series over his career, including period dramas Cash And Company, The Sullivans, Power Without Glory, Tandarra, Five Mile Creek and All The Rivers Run, and was a boxing commentator for 12 years.

Oscar Whitbread – “For service to the Australian film and television industry.”  Whitbread has been a television producer since the 1960s, working on ABC dramas including Bellbird, Marion, And The Big Men Fly, Power Without Glory, Rush, Catspaw, The Truckies, Outbreak Of Love and I Can Jump Puddles.  He later worked on The Flying Doctors, Ratbag Hero, Cluedo and Acropolis Now.

Source: ABC, Governor-General of Australia, IMDB, IMDB.

Another year gone… already…?

It doesn’t seem that long since we welcomed 2011!

Australian television reached a number of milestones this year: Ten years of digital TV; 40 years of Sesame Street on the ABC; Mal Walden celebrated 50 years in broadcasting and Tracy Grimshaw reached 30 years at Nine; Play School turned 45; Four Corners turned 50; TV turned 40 in Darwin; David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz celebrated 25 years together on television; and it was 50 years since the launch of regional stations GLV10, BCV8 and GMV6.

Ratings-wise, it was all about Seven, winning their fifth year in a row.  There was little they could do wrong, while at Network Ten there was not much that they could get right – even MasterChef took a battering – with Nine falling somewhere in between.

ABC’s Spicks And Specks made a dignified exit off the stage, while Ten’s Video Hits was pushed off the stage – after 24 years – in a bout of cost cutting.  ABC put the axe to Collectors, The New Inventors and Arts Nation.

Showbiz stalwarts Denise Drysdale and Kerri-Anne Kennerley signed off from their respective daytime programs.

Network Ten launched its new digital channel Eleven, and attempted to raise the bar in current affairs reporting with 6PM With George Negus (later 6.30).  It was a tumultuous year at a management level for Ten with the dismissal of CEO Grant Blackley and the appointment of interim CEO Lachlan Murdoch before James Warburton, a former Seven Network executive, takes over the role in January.  Under Murdoch’s watch, sports channel One HD was re-worked into a general entertainment and special interest channel, Ten News suffered a number of format changes, budget cuts and staff departures (including Deborah Knight and George Donikian), while Late News and 6.30 With George Negus were both axed.  Newspaper columnist and blogger Andrew Bolt was given his own show, and the network walked away from AFL after ten years.

Nine’s A Current Affair revisited some TV classics during the year, including Young Talent Time (pictured) and Big Brother (coincidentally both programs are to make a comeback in 2012).  ACA also took a trip to Wandin Valley to remember A Country Practice.  Meanwhile, Today Tonight took ‘70s sex symbol Abigail to task for no good reason.

There were cosmetic changes made to ABC1, ABC2 and ABC 4 Kids, and SBS appointed a new Managing Director.

Karl Stefanovic (pictured) won the TV Week Gold Logie, and veteran political journalist Laurie Oakes was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

After a quiet few years in drama, ABC made a stellar comeback this year with Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo and The Slap both receiving critical acclaim and good ratings.  The broadcaster also launched a new legal drama, Crownies.  SBS scored a hit with its reality-documentary series Go Back To Where You Came From, triggering a wave of social commentary on what has always been a controversial topic.

Regional Victoria and Regional Queensland made the final switch from analogue to digital television – while remote area networks Imparja and Southern Cross have only now switched on to digital transmission and Regional WA is now seeing the roll-out of the digital multi-channels from the commercial networks.

Millions watched the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton – it was an event that was hard to miss with saturation coverage on free-to-air and multiple pay-TV channels.

So what will 2012 bring?

Network Ten will hope for a better, more stable year with a new CEO and News Director on board.  Last year the network took a gamble with George Negus and more News bulletins.  This year Ten is taking a gamble with launching a new breakfast show up against Sunrise, Today and ABC News Breakfast – will this risk pay off?  And will the re-named and expanded The Project lead to improvement in Ten’s embattled 6.30 timeslot?

Also, will MasterChef be able to knock out the few dents it copped in its armour this year?  And how will Young Talent Time fare with its return after 23 years off our screens?  As Hey Hey It’s Saturday and more recently It’s A Knockout have shown, the nostalgia factor can bring high ratings but the novelty can wear off pretty quickly. 

Nine had something of a late-year resurgence this year with The Block winning ratings in its new 7.00pm timeslot and Celebrity Apprentice also bringing in strong figures.  The success of these will see Nine delve further into the reality genre in 2012 with another series of The Block, the return of Big Brother and an Australian version of singing contest The Voice.

In Aussie drama there will be more Neighbours, Home And Away, Packed To The Rafters, Offspring and Winners And Losers.  Nine will launch a new series, Tricky Business, and is set to present another instalment of the Underbelly franchise as well as its dramatisation of the Beaconsfield mine disaster of 2006.  Nine will also relive former owner Kerry Packer’s 1970s challenge to the cricket establishment with Howzat! – The Kerry Packer Story.  Ten will have a mini-series Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms as well as an updated adaptation of the book Puberty Blues.  The network is also to launch a new series, Reef Doctors, starring Lisa McCune.

Andrew Denton and Shaun Micallef are set to return to ABC with new programs – and there will be another series of Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight.

In sport, Seven becomes the sole free-to-air broadcaster of AFL for the first time since 2001, while sharing the rights with Foxtel – while Nine and Foxtel are off to London for the Olympic Games.  It will be Nine’s first coverage of the Summer Olympics since 1976.

2012 will mark 50 years of television in regional New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and in Canberra.  Analogue television will be switched off in regional New South Wales and the ACT.

The ground-breaking drama of the 1970s, Number 96 (pictured) will have its 40th anniversary commemorated with another DVD release of episodes – this time revisiting some of the few black-and-white episodes to still be in existence, as well the episodes surrounding the bomb-blast storyline of 1975.

And right here we will be continuing the theme of documenting the TV year of 20 years ago as reported in the pages of TV Week.

Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for the year ahead!

Seven wins ‘11

No surprises for anyone to read that the Seven Network has come out as the overall winner in the 2011 ratings battle – its fifth annual win in a row.

Seven ends the year (Weeks 7-48, excluding Easter, 6pm-12mn, 5 cities) with a 31.0% share, followed by Nine (26.3%), Ten (21.4%), ABC (15.9%) and SBS (5.4%).  For Seven it’s an increase from last year’s share of 28.7% while Nine, ABC and SBS recorded drops compared to 2010, and Ten rose only slightly from 21.2% as it launched its new channel Eleven this year and revamped former sports channel One.

Broken down to individual channels, Seven (23.0%) was ahead of Nine (19.5%), Ten (15.8%), ABC1 (12.4%), SBS One (4.6%), 7TWO (4.6%), GO! (4.0%), Eleven (3.5%), 7mate (3.4%), Gem (2.8%), ABC2 (2.3%), One (2.1%), SBS Two (0.8%), ABC News 24 (0.7%) and ABC3 (0.6%).  The growth in the multi-channel audiences has seen all primary channels recording a decline on 2010’s numbers.

7TWO overtook Nine’s GO! as the top-rated multi-channel, while Ten’s new youth-themed channel Eleven ends its first year in third spot.

It was a year where Seven could do little wrong, achieving a clean sweep of 40 overall prime-time wins out of 40 weeks, due to a strong early evening line-up of Seven News, Today Tonight and Home And Away and its reality portfolio – The Amazing Race: Australia, Dancing With The Stars (pictured), My Kitchen Rules, Australia’s Got Talent and a revamped The X Factor – all performing well giving the network a massive lead up to mid-evening.  Thursday nights got a boost with Beauty And The Geek, and the long-running Better Homes And Gardens gave Seven a boost on Fridays.

Seven also scored a massive hit on Sunday nights with British series Downton Abbey.

Drama series Packed To The Rafters was still a standout performer but didn’t rate quite as well as in 2010, having lost a number of key cast members in the last year, and with some risky scheduling by Seven that saw the series given a lengthy mid-season break and then winding up the 2011 series prematurely.  But the mid-season break for Rafters saw it replaced by the new series Winners And Losers, a strong ratings performer though not a match for Rafters.

In the morning battle, Sunrise is still dominant in the breakfast timeslot nationally but Nine’s Today is performing stronger in Sydney and Melbourne.  The Morning Show continues to rule the mid-morning timeslot, claiming victory over Nine’s Kerri-Anne (which was cancelled last week) and The Circle.

But not everything quite went Seven’s way.  The network’s new period drama Wild Boys, featuring Daniel MacPherson and former Rafters star Zoe Ventoura, got off to a strong start but failed to maintain an audience and will not return in 2012.  Game show Deal Or No Deal, once a dominant performer at 5.30pm, is fading against Hot Seat, and drama series City Homicide went out with a whimper.  And last week’s special Kyle And Jackie O’s Night With The Stars was presented with a lead-in of two million viewers (with the “winner announced” on The X Factor) but saw viewers switch off in droves.

New imported series No Ordinary Family, Detroit 187, Teen Wolf, Suits and Law And Order: LA all failed to click with viewers. 

For the Nine Network the year started confidently, with promises that the network would be the “home of comedy” in 2011.  It was soon apparent, however, that the only ones laughing were the other networks.  The supposed flagship of the new comedy line-up, Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth, was a spectacular dud, even leading to a public apology by Elton himself, and was axed after only three weeks.  New US shows $#*! My Dad Says and Mike And Molly also failed.

The once dominant US sitcom Two And A Half Men was on the decline on the back of the Charlie Sheen scandal and his subsequent sacking from the series, but The Big Bang Theory – ironically from the same producer as Men – became a strong performer, to the point where Nine has become somewhat over-reliant on its popularity, ended the ratings year with 14 episodes scheduled in prime-time over five nights.

The multi-million dollar deal which saw Hamish Blake and Andy Lee come across from the Ten Network saw their new series Hamish And Andy’s Gap Year start to a strong ratings result but overall popularity waned as the series progressed, although it rated well in younger demographics.

The Joy Of Sets with Tony Martin and Ed Kavalee promised a humourous and affectionate look at the various aspects of television, but viewers didn’t take to it at all with later episodes playing out in a late-night timeslot.

Nine’s first half of the year was also not helped by lack lustre performances by new Eddie McGuire vehicles Million Dollar Drop, Between The Lines and a revival of This Is Your Life.

Nine had some smiles, however, by strong ratings for the ongoing Underbelly franchise, with a series of telemovies and the 1920s-themed series Underbelly: Razor rating well. 

The TV Week Logie Awards rated well (1,323,000, over four hours) up against the series return of MasterChef Australia (1,569,000, 90 minutes), while the NRL State Of Origin series returned excellent figures with all three games well exceeding the 2 million viewer mark.

But while the first half of the year was not a great one for Nine, its second half was  somewhat better and can be largely attributed to adopting the reality genre in the stripped 7.00pm timeslot, starting with a new-look The Block which became a ratings hit.  Some strategic coding by Nine in the ratings system has seen The Block – The Winner Announced claim the #1 program of the year – all seven minutes of it.

(Such coding of programs, a tactic employed by all three commercial networks, have made a mess of the Top 20 list – as below – where individual episodes of series and specific segments of special events are singled out to give them higher or multiple positions in the rankings.)

Nine then used the 7.00pm timeslot for its late-year series Celebrity Apprentice, also returning strong results. The popularity in the reality genre for Nine will see it launch an Australian version of singing competition The Voice, and reviving Big Brother in 2012.

But while it was a year that Seven could do little wrong, for Network Ten it was a year where there was little they could get right.  The network’s heavy investment in expanding its news and current affairs portfolio saw 6PM With George Negus (later 6.30) fail to maintain any audience traction up against the tabloid opposition, although the network should at least be credited for attempting to lift the bar in the standard of prime-time current affairs reporting and giving the show a fair run before finally axing it in October.

The 6.30pm Ten Evening News failed to click with viewers and was axed after two months, and Ten’s subsequent extension of the 5.00pm bulletin to a 90-minute format saw its numbers drop considerably.  The mess of the network’s weekend newscasts, which saw the national 5.00pm newscast dropped and then re-instated and the 6.00pm state-based bulletins launched and then dropped in favour of an extended national news bulletin, has not done it any favours either. 

The 7PM Project has now been extended to an hour, and re-named The Project.  Its overall average has dropped as a result and it is to be seen if the expanded format can build on its numbers in 2012.

Ten’s reality giant MasterChef Australia was back for a third series this year.  Although the program continued to rate well, the mood of the audience was well down on previous years and the show’s finale – split into two shows to ‘force’ viewers to sample The Renovators sandwiched in between – rated well lower than the two previous season finals and its Junior MasterChef spin-off also failed to maintain a strong audience.

The new show The Renovators (pictured) promised to do for home makeovers what MasterChef did with cooking – crank the challenges, production values and the budget to the hilt, and to saturate the schedule.  The problem was that viewers didn’t take to The Renovators as they had come to adopt MasterChef, therefore dragging down Ten’s entire schedule.  It will also be no coincidence that Nine’s revamped The Block made its debut just prior to The Renovators and hence stole much of its thunder.

Ten’s drama slate has looked somewhat depleted this year, with Neighbours being moved across to Eleven.  Ten’s second series of Offspring was a strong performer and will be back next year, but action-packed police drama Rush again failed to gain a decent audience and will not appear in 2012.

Apart from MasterChef’s two-part finale, Ten’s only appearance in the year-end Top 20 was the AFL Grand Final, ending the network’s ten-year association with the league as the free-to-air rights next year go solely to Seven.

Ten’s re-working of comedy show Good News Week into Good News World was a critical and ratings disaster, while the new topical discussion show Can Of Worms got a modest audience response but was not helped by some erratic scheduling.  The second series of the Australian version of Undercover Boss also failed to rate with viewers.

The network did have better results with the return of The Biggest Loser and Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation.

Imported shows Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-O, The Defenders and Ringer have also returned poor results, while the big-budget series Terra Nova – filmed on location in Australia – started strongly but has failed to maintain viewers’ interest.

Over at ABC ratings are not of primary concern but the ABC1 channel has scored some critical and ratings hits during the year.  The two-part series Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo (pictured) was a ratings hit in April, while the eight-part adaptation of the book The Slap was widely acclaimed and received strong Thursday night figures for the broadcaster.

The long-running Spicks And Specks also rated well during the year with its final-ever episode last week scoring over 1.5 million viewers.  The Gruen Transfer and its spin-off Gruen Planet were also popular on Wednesday nights.

Highlights for SBS during the year included Cadel Evans’ victory in the Tour de France (704,000), followed by documentary series Go Back To Where You Came From (pictured), where six Australians were taken on a reverse journey of those taken by refugees that have landed at our shores.

In digital multi-channels, the most-watched broadcast was Day 9 of Wimbledon on 7TWO, attracting 737,000 viewers, followed by movies Transformers and 2012 on GO!.  Neighbours was a consistent performer for Eleven, often winning nightly digital channel rankings but its average over the year saw it ranked at the 10th most popular program on digital channels for the year.

But the biggest TV event of the year is one that fell outside of the official ratings survey.  The April wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, with coverage across four free-to-air networks and a number of pay-TV channels, was watched by millions but took place during the two-week ratings break taken around Easter so its numbers are not included in the year-end tally.

From today networks go into summer non-ratings mode, though viewing data is still collected and reported to networks over the non-ratings period.

The 2012 ratings year begins on 12 February and continues through to 1 December, with a two-week Easter break in April.

Seven wins 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

Free-To-Air Top 20 Programs (Rank, Title, Network, Duration, Audience (five cities)):

1 THE BLOCK -WINNER ANNOUNCED (Nine) 0:07:06 3,370,000
2 AUSTRALIA'S GOT TALENT-THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 0:10:06 2,980,000
3 UNDERBELLY: RAZOR -EP1 (Nine) 1:01:21 2,794,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Ten) 0:16:00 2,745,000
5 THE BLOCK -AUCTION (Nine) 0:45:50 2,736,000
6 THE 2011 MELBOURNE CUP CARNIVAL: MELBOURNE CUP-THE RACE (Seven) 0:06:05 2,667,000
7 TEN'S AFL FINALS 2011: GRAND FINAL COLLINGWOOD V GEELONG (Ten) 3:02:30 2,641,000
8 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 3RD - MATCH (Nine) 1:50:58 2,492,000
9 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - FINALE NIGHT (Ten) 1:01:34 2,402,000
10 UNDERBELLY: RAZOR -EP2 (Nine) 1:01:16 2,352,000
11 THE BLOCK -GRAND FINAL (Nine) 1:07:10 2,309,000
12 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 1ST - MATCH (Nine) 1:41:24 2,245,000
13 RUGBY LEAGUE GRAND FINAL (Nine) 1:51:01 2,172,000
14 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 2ND - MATCH (Nine) 1:44:00 2,165,000 
15 MY KITCHEN RULES-WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 0:10:00 2,127,000
16 THE X FACTOR - THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 7 0:08:00 2,026,000
17 THE 2011 MELBOURNE CUP CARNIVAL: MELBOURNE CUP-RACE PRESENTATIO (Seven) 0:33:27 1,967,000
18 AUSTRALIA'S GOT TALENT-TUE (Seven) 1:34:32 1,936,000
19 THE 2011 GRAND FINAL PRE GAME (Ten) 0:20:58 1,914,000
20 DOWNTON ABBEY (Seven) 1:11:48 1,906,000

Free-To-Air Digital Multi Channel Top 20 Programs (Rank, Title, Channel, Duration, Audience (five cities)):

1 WIMBLEDON 2011 - DAY 9 (7TWO) 1:37:11 737,000
2 TRANSFORMERS -EV (GO!) 3:00:14 486,000
3 2012 -EV (GO!) 3:14:57 441,000
4 AUST FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2011 - RACE (One)2:00:00 428,000
5 WIMBLEDON 2011 - DAY 7 (7TWO) 2:46:45 408,000
6 SURVIVOR: REDEMPTION ISLAND -EV TX1 (GO!) 0:58:00 371,000
7 HEARTBEAT-SAT (R) (7TWO) 1:07:09 350,000
8 JONATHAN CREEK (7TWO) 1:07:32 349,000
9 SURVIVOR: REDEMPTION ISLAND -EV (GO!) 1:36:15 344,000
10 NEIGHBOURS (Eleven) 0:30:35 343,000
11 M-FIRST BLOOD (7mate) 2:00:51 338,000
12 PAUL BLART: MALL COP -EV (GO!) 1:56:36 337,000
13 HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE -EV (GO!) 3:20:46 337,000
14 DOC MARTIN-EP.2 (7TWO) 1:02:01 335,000
15 HEARTBEAT (R) (7TWO) 1:06:18 330,000
16 HEARTBEAT-EP.2 (R) (7TWO) 1:05:31 325,000
17 THE VICAR OF DIBLEY-TUE (R) (7TWO) 0:49:38 322,000
18 HEARTBEAT-SAT EP.2 (R) (7TWO) 1:02:40 315,000
19 HEARTBEAT-WED (R) (7TWO) 1:08:04 314,000
20 DOC MARTIN (7TWO) 1:03:09 308,000

Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2011. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM.

Seven wins 2010

The Seven Network has won the ratings battle for the fourth consecutive year – but all three commercial networks will have something to smile about.

Seven won the ratings year (which concluded yesterday) with an overall audience share of 28.7 per cent (6pm-12mn, 5 cities), followed by Nine (27.7), Ten (21.2), ABC (16.9) and SBS (5.6).

As far as individuals channels go, Seven (24.6) won against Nine (23.5), Ten (19.7), ABC1 (14.5), SBS1 (5.0), GO! (3.8), 7TWO (3.5), 7mate (2.7), GEM (1.7), ABC2 (1.6), One (1.4), SBS2 (0.6) and ABC3 and ABC News 24 (both 0.5).

Topping Seven’s ratings list is Packed To The Rafters (pictured), Australia’s Got Talent, the AFL Grand Final (and the re-match), Such Is Life: The Troubled Times Of Ben Cousins, the Melbourne Cup and the men’s final of the Australian Open.

Seven News, Today Tonight, Sunrise, The Morning Show and Weekend Sunrise all outrated their Nine Network rivals.

My Kitchen Rules (pictured) returned strong ratings but failed to dampen any enthusiasm for the return of Ten’s Masterchef Australia. The X Factor, despite all the hype, promotion and expense, failed to hit any significant ratings highs but returned decent ratings with a last-minute increase as the series came to a climax.  Dancing With The Stars also returned solid ratings as it ran its tenth series and Beauty And The Geek drew big numbers for what is normally a lack lustre Thursday night.

But not everything went Seven’s way this year.  The White Room, The Bounce, Australia Versus and Beat The Star were all prime-time ratings flops.  Iron Chef failed to gain a significant hold on the audience.  Home And Away, which has just ended its 23rd year, was beaten by repeats of US sitcom Two And A Half Men on Nine, and the future of City Homicide appears uncertain.

The Nine Network (i.e. Nine, GO! and GEM) is claiming victory in the advertiser-friendly demographics of 18-49, 16-39 and 25-54 age groups, although Nine’s primary channel was beaten by Ten in 16-39 age group viewers.

Nine’s biggest hit of 2010 was drama series Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile.  Nine also scored well with the NRL State Of Origin and NRL Grand Final.  Reality show The Farmer Wants A Wife returned solid ratings, while The Block (pictured), however, perhaps fell short of expectations but still managed decent numbers. Hey Hey It’s Saturday, which aired on Wednesday nights before being reinstated to its traditional Saturday night spot, has struggled to maintain significant support outside of Melbourne and its future is yet to be decided.  Top Gear and its Australian version rated well.  Sydney-based police drama Cops LAC failed to click with viewers.

The TV Week Logie Awards scored slightly lower than last year though this time it had to contend with competition from Masterchef Australia.

Nine continues to draw heavily on Two And A Half Men to boost its numbers, not just on Nine but also on digital channel GO!  Eddie McGuire’s Millionaire Hot Seat is now paying dividends against Seven’s Deal Or No Deal.

For Network Ten, as well as the primary channel taking out the 16-39 age group, the biggest hit was once again Masterchef Australia.  Like last year the series broke new post-2001 ratings records with more than 4 million viewers tuning in to see the winner, Adam Liaw (pictured) announced.  The series spin-off Junior Masterchef started on a ratings high but despite the inevitable ratings drop that followed it still sat at the top end of the ratings ladder.

Apart from the Masterchef titles the top of Ten’s list of ratings performers were predominantly imported programs – Modern Family, NCIS, Glee and Undercover Boss – although Shaun Micallef’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation was a strong performer as was the Australian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the new factual series Keeping Up With The Joneses.  The special Hamish And Andy’s Caravan Of Courage: Great Britain And Ireland and the telemovie Hawke were also ratings hits. 

New drama series Offspring (starring Asher Keddie, pictured) returned good Sunday night figures, particularly with younger viewers, although the Thursday night series Rush has struggled to be consistent and has seen ratings fall.  Both shows have been renewed for 2011.

The elephant in Ten’s room this year, however, is the Commonwealth Games.  The 11-day competition, traditionally a ratings winner, failed to return any significant ratings results for Ten, although it did give a boost to sports channel One.  The effect of the Games, which took Ten’s entire prime-time schedule out of circulation for two weeks, has seen shows like The 7PM Project and Neighbours lose any sense of ratings momentum they might have had pre-Games and saw viewers flock to digital channels in search of other viewing options.  The 7PM Project has seen its numbers slowly claw back to somewhere near decent, but Neighbours continues to stumble and has hit hit new ratings lows this year but will live on next year on Ten’s new digital channel, 11.

ABC’s The Gruen Transfer was among its highest raters this year, and its election-themed spin-off, Gruen Nation, topped the national broadcaster’s ratings list this year.  Spicks And Specks and The Chaser’s Yes We Canberra were strong performers, along with imported shows Midsomer Murders, Doc Martin and New Tricks.  Drama series Rake, starring Richard Roxburgh, got off to a high-rating start but ratings quickly fell.  The network also had to get the axe out – a rare occasion – for its Wednesday night series, Strictly Speaking, which returned ratings that even had ABC hanging its head in shame.

SBS, which has lost the Top Gear franchise to Nine, saw ratings fall this year, though the network scored well with the FIFA World Cup, from South Africa, with the match between Ghana and Australia being watched by over 1.3 million viewers.

Networks now go into summer non-ratings mode until February, though viewing data is still collected and reported to networks over the non-ratings period.

Seven wins ‘09
It’s Seven in ‘08
Seven wins ‘07

MasterChef delivers a master win

When Network Ten announced in 2008 that it had purchased the MasterChef franchise to replace Big Brother as a major reality format, there were more than a few people that scoffed.  Who would want to watch a cooking competition in prime-time?  After all, the benchmark of cooking contests on Australian TV had been set with Ready Steady Cook – and it was well short of being a national phenomenon.

But Ten and the show’s producers, Fremantle Media, reworked MasterChef so that it bore little resemblance to its UK original.  When the show launched in Australia in April last year, it got off to a solid ratings start and as the series progressed it became a major player in the 7.00pm timeslot for Ten.  The show’s three judges, chefs George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan and food critic Matt Preston, went from being relative unknowns to instant celebrities – with Preston picking up a TV Week Logie for outstanding new talent earlier this year.

With the show’s popularity snowballing it was perhaps no real surprise that the season finale between Julie Goodwin and Poh Ling Yeow returned the highest ratings of any non-sporting telecast since OzTAM records began in 2001.  Winning the series led to Goodwin releasing a top-selling cookbook, Our Family Table, and appearing in a string of commercial endorsements as well as a regular segment on Today and a column in The Australian Women’s Weekly.  She has also about to launch a new show, Home Cooked, on the Nine Network.  Series runner-up Yeow also gained a high-profile role, hosting a weekly TV series, Poh’s Kitchen, on ABC1 and gaining a publishing deal with ABC Books.

So with the second series preparing to launch earlier this year, the rival Seven Network sought to rain on MasterChef’s parade and brought out their own cooking show – My Kitchen Rules, a so-called original format that was really just a mash-up of elements of MasterChef and a UK show, Come Dine With Me, added with the ‘State versus State’ component of its former My Restaurant Rules and pinching two celebrity chefs who had appeared as guests on MasterChef.

My Kitchen Rules never quite hit the same heights of MasterChef’s public support, but it didn’t do too badly, either, giving Seven some very good early evening ratings.  The problem is, though, that the show did little to spoil the public’s appetite for cooking shows and left them wanting more.

So when series two of MasterChef arrived earlier this year, it hit the ground running and immediately returned ratings that took some weeks to materialise in the first series. 

And, like the first series, the public’s fascination with all things MasterChef continued to grow as the series progressed, turning MasterChef into a confirmed $100 million product on the back of advertising, merchandise and cross-promotion activities.

Appearing six nights a week and hitting around two million viewers each night by the end of the series, Ten was looking at making history again with last weekend’s season finale.  So much had the show struck a chord with the general public that Sunday’s election debate between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had to be re-scheduled to avoid being unwatched up against the kitchen battle between South Australians Callum Hann and Adam Liaw.

And, sure enough, history was made again.  When Liaw (pictured) was announced as the second series winner, an average of 5.2 million viewers (across five cities and major regional markets) were watching – a number that surpassed last year’s season finale and again ranked it as the most watched non-sports program since 2001.  The program, spread over two hours, gave Ten an overall share of 41.8 per cent of the Sunday night audience – well ahead of Seven (19.0%) and Nine (15.7%) – a figure that could secure Ten the entire week regardless of whatever results it receives over the rest of the week.

The public’s connection to MasterChef has ignited its fascination and knowledge of food – like Nine’s earlier series The Block sparked a passion for home renovation – and has resonated well with children, who will recite recipes that they saw on the show, and who will no doubt provide the perfect ratings springboard for when Junior MasterChef starts later in the year.

The immense popularity of MasterChef has again seen the Seven Network taking up more food-related formats in a bid to undermine the MasterChef phenomenon, or at least try to cash in on some of the show’s success.  As well as producing a second series of My Kitchen Rules the network has bought the format rights to produce a local version of the Japanese show Iron Chef (seen here on SBS1) and is also reported to be planning a local adaptation of Canadian series Conviction Kitchen.

In the meantime, here’s hoping that with the extra kilos that we might stack on thanks to the inspiration from MasterChef, that another series of The Biggest Loser will be around in the new year to inspire us to lose them!

Source: News.com.au, TV Tonight