Fair and impartial reporting

By | April 1, 2011

Well, Endemol Joe has accused me of putting a negative spin on the ratings for Australian Million Dollar Drop of which he is insistant is an amazing massive hit.

Here at Bother’s Bar I like to pride myself on fair and impartial reportage, and so I would like to present to you, the viewers, the ratings for The Million Dollar Drop in graph form and then rather than extrapolate opinion let you: the reader decide. I have also recorded some other statistics to provide some context so that you: the reader can reach a fair and impartial conclusion. I will not be telling you what to think.

As it is important you: the reader can use this fair and impartial graph to reach your own conclusions, I think it is important to note some notes and methodology so you can make an informed opinion.

  • The dates here: Ep 1 Monday 21st March, Ep 2 Thursday 24th March, Ep 3 Monday 28th March, Ep 4 Thursday 31st March.
  • All viewing figures have come from fair and impartial TV blog TV Tonight.
  • There is an anomaly with Episode 2 – it didn’t air in Melbourne and in fact got a rating of 493,000. However, TV Tonight has somehow come up with a weighted average of 879,000 for the week across both episodes. Therefore we have used 825,000 as the figure for episode two extrapolating from the evidence given (the first episode on Monday got 933,000). This strikes me as being the fair and impartial thing to do.
  • I’ve also included the ratings for the shows that were previously in the timeslots the week before the first episode. On Monday this was Shit My Dad Says which earnt a rating of 790,000, and has been cancelled by the network. On Thursdays this is CSI which in the week before got 855,000.
  • In future weeks the show will be airing on Mondays only (before anyone jumps to conclusions, this was always going to be the plan).

So there we are, I hope you will be able to draw your own conclusions as to how much of a hit Million Dollar Drop is in Australia and I have not pushed you in any direction at all.

35 thoughts on “Fair and impartial reporting

  1. Brig Bother Post author

    I apologise if you are colour blind, and also that at the moment the options obscure the key.

    However if you want to follow:

    Top line: Top show in Australia that evening
    2nd line: Top Nine Show of the evening
    3rd line: Top show in the timeslot
    4th line: Million Dollar Drop’s ratings
    5th line: What the previous shows got the week before.

    Reply
  2. Joe

    As you can see from that graph, Million Dollar Drop’s ratings have started to go up following the good word of mouth. The ratings upsurge is extremely promising and the show has been popular with younger viewers. The graph also shows that episode 5 was very close to the top show in the slot, so it’s been a good start so far.

    Reply
    1. Setsunael

      As you can see from this graph, it stops at episode 4, not five. Typo, I guess 🙂

      Anyway… didn’t 1 VS 100 had better or similar ratings when it got canned some years ago in Australia ?

      Reply
      1. Travis P

        1 Vs 100 was getting around 1.2-1.4 million in the same timeslot back in 2007 but there was less competition back then. Namely less digital channels and they only had competition from Desperate Housewives (Channel Seven).

        Reply
    2. David B

      The key things to note are:

      a) It’s still below the slot average.
      b) Ep 3’s poor performance, and ep 4’s better performance, are both easily explained by the Top Show of the Evening line.
      c) One point on the graph isn’t enough to buck a trend… yet.

      Episode 1 had the best performance because it had the best ratings and the strongest competition. Since then it’s been downhill so far.

      Reply
    3. Des Elmes

      Bollocks.

      …I just felt like saying that word, that’s all. 😆 😉

      Reply
  3. Brekkie

    LOL – I’m of the same opinion Des.

    A shame – and don’t know why they went the American route. Watched the first episode and the pointlessness (if that’s a word) of the crowd heckling their opinion as contestants choose a category, and then the childish 10 second countdown, rather than being able to listen in to those last minute doubts, just make it a very difficult watch.

    Reply
  4. Brig Bother Post author

    570,000 for Million Dollar Drop on Monday. There’s another episode being parachuted in to Thursday although god knows why. i’ll wait until then to update the graph.

    Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        You don’t seem quite so confident there Joe. Why not come out and admit that the Emperor has no clothes?

        Reply
        1. Joe

          The show can’t be a success everywhere. It’s inevitable that in one country viewers won’t take to it like the rest of the world. Idol and X Factor have flopped in countries too, would you believe.

          Reply
          1. Brig Bother Post author

            I believe it so much I mentioned it already with regards to The Voice and why that isn’t going to do very well in the US.

            The point is, The Money Drop doesn’t play well in the mainstream – I note Fox are being very slow to put it on their Summer schedule, and when it was put on at 8pm over here it did very badly indeed.

          2. Brig Bother Post author

            Naturally of course the only reason we draw attention to the fact that it’s failed is because you told us it was going to be amassive hit. Otherwise we’d have just gone “meh” and moved on.

          3. Brekkie

            Hold on – a minute a go you’d said they’d go back up. Really Joe – you’re inability to grasp reality is on a par with Colonel Gaddaffi and Charlie Sheen of late and rather than a respected insider you’re just coming across as an idiotic Endemol puppet.

          4. Des Elmes

            Wow – that’s a pretty damning remark… 😯 😉

    1. Travis P

      Also that figure is slightly less to what Millionaire Hot Seat acheived at 5.30pm (a daytime show).

      Reply
  5. Joe

    Million Dollar Drop was the #1 show in Australia yesterday in its timeslot of 20:30-21:28 with 740,000 viewers. It was also Network Nine’s #1 show yesterday (excluding sports broadcasts).

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Provided you don’t count Grey’s Anatomy on at the same time, which got more.

      On Monday, The Million Dollar Drop looks set to get hammered against My Kitchen Rules. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?

      Reply
      1. Joe

        Between 20:30-21:28, the exact time that Million Dollar Drop was shown, it was the most watched show in its slot. Grey’s Anatomy was only ahead if you include the 21:28-21:30 period but according to official figures, you don’t.

        We shall see what happens on Monday but so far, the show hasn’t been the disaster that some people might like to think it has been. However it hasn’t been a “hit, sadly. Not yet anyway…

        Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          Well I am going by the TV Tonight report.

          It is still rating less than CSI repeats were getting in the slot on Thursdays, although the show plays better on Thursdays clearly (it still rates lower than what Two and a Half Men was getting and Nine were happy to cancel it), and on Monday it has been a disaster. I’m not updating the graph out of trying not to be antagonistic. As I have said, the show does well when there is little to no competition.

          Reply
  6. Brig Bother Post author

    615k on Monday, as predicted absolutely hammered by the cookery on Seven but up on last week but still far down on what came previous. The good news (for the show) is that Aussie ratings behemoth My Kitchen Rules finishes this week I believe, which clashes with MDD’s first half hour, the bad is that Conviction Kitchen is significantly up this week and may continue.

    My crash course in Aussie TV ratings suggests Easter doesn’t count as a ratings season and networks use it to burn things off, so.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Actually I’m wrong here, I had read earlier that MKR was going to run from 7:30 to 9:00 for its finals week but this is not actually the case, it was just an hour. Also Conviction Kitchen finished last night as well.

      Reply
      1. Travis P

        They’re doomed if it’s Masterchef, one the most watched Australian show in television history.

        I cannot get over how popular the show is over there since it airs SIX times a week.

        Reply
        1. Des Elmes

          You hear that Joe? 😉

          Doomed if it’s Masterchef…

          Doomed! Dooooooooooomed!! 😉

          Reply
          1. Travis P

            Same could be said for Secret Fortune this Saturday as Britain’s Got Talent will apply the same domination.

          2. sphil

            can i predict now some sort of “Million Dollar Drop has scored the best ever rating against Masterchef in the 2105-2110 time slot, and i can say that Endemol Australia are thrilled at how it is performing.” ?

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