Post by Inside Australian Idol on Nov 30, 2003 22:22:52 GMT 10
Winning the ratings war
By David Dale
December 1, 2003
There will always be an answer. That was the reassurance Australians sought from television this year, and the shows that offered it grabbed the biggest audiences.
Out in the world, Western governments were running an interminable war against an incomprehensible foe. Back home, we escaped into the promise of speedy resolutions and avoided anything that required a long attention span.
Ratings overviews released by networks yesterday showed TV 2003 endorsed these principles:
All crimes can be solved within two hours. Seeking to explain the success of the police dramas CSI, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and CSI Miami, Channel Ten's network program manager, Peter Andrews, said: "There are no barriers to entry. The viewer doesn't need to know the back story of the characters to follow the plot. You get the puzzle at the beginning, and by the end it's solved."
Talent will be rewarded, and cruelty punished. When the judges of Australian Idol were humiliating the contestants, the ratings slumped, and rose again only when the viewers became the judges of the final few.
You don't have to be smart to be popular, as long as your heart is pure. Big Brother suffered low ratings when it was cluttered with clever gimmicks. It picked up when viewers could appreciate the simplicity of Reggie Bird, the eventual winner.
Constant change is essential. The trend of 2003, says David Castran of research company Audience Development Australia, was viewers' reluctance to make commitments: "In the past, people would find a series they liked and be loyal to it. Now they want to dip in, watch briefly, then leave. We're seeing fatigue in older dramas. With shows like Blue Heelers and All Saints, 40 episodes a year is a big ask."
It takes only a few days to transform a rundown home into a saleable property. Explaining why Australians preferred the lifestyle shows Backyard Blitz, Room for Improvement and Location Location to locally made dramas, the social researcher Hugh Mackay said they were watching through rose-tinted lenses: "We love to see people gardening, cooking, decorating - all the trappings of normality . . . We just want to avoid anything that looks like gritty reality. We'll watch a representation of Australian life as long as it makes us feel better about ourselves."
It takes only a few hours to transform a dag into a cool person. Or, put another way . . .
Gay men are the court jesters of our age - wacky yet wise, bitchy yet kind, over the top yet tasteful. The stereotyping game began with Gav and Waz on The Block and continued with Carson Kressley and the Fab Five on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Kressley introduced us to the concept of "zhoozhing" (improving with small touches), and that seems to symbolise what Australians expected television to do to their lives this year.
What we loved to watch in 2003
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/30/1070127268305.html
By David Dale
December 1, 2003
There will always be an answer. That was the reassurance Australians sought from television this year, and the shows that offered it grabbed the biggest audiences.
Out in the world, Western governments were running an interminable war against an incomprehensible foe. Back home, we escaped into the promise of speedy resolutions and avoided anything that required a long attention span.
Ratings overviews released by networks yesterday showed TV 2003 endorsed these principles:
All crimes can be solved within two hours. Seeking to explain the success of the police dramas CSI, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and CSI Miami, Channel Ten's network program manager, Peter Andrews, said: "There are no barriers to entry. The viewer doesn't need to know the back story of the characters to follow the plot. You get the puzzle at the beginning, and by the end it's solved."
Talent will be rewarded, and cruelty punished. When the judges of Australian Idol were humiliating the contestants, the ratings slumped, and rose again only when the viewers became the judges of the final few.
You don't have to be smart to be popular, as long as your heart is pure. Big Brother suffered low ratings when it was cluttered with clever gimmicks. It picked up when viewers could appreciate the simplicity of Reggie Bird, the eventual winner.
Constant change is essential. The trend of 2003, says David Castran of research company Audience Development Australia, was viewers' reluctance to make commitments: "In the past, people would find a series they liked and be loyal to it. Now they want to dip in, watch briefly, then leave. We're seeing fatigue in older dramas. With shows like Blue Heelers and All Saints, 40 episodes a year is a big ask."
It takes only a few days to transform a rundown home into a saleable property. Explaining why Australians preferred the lifestyle shows Backyard Blitz, Room for Improvement and Location Location to locally made dramas, the social researcher Hugh Mackay said they were watching through rose-tinted lenses: "We love to see people gardening, cooking, decorating - all the trappings of normality . . . We just want to avoid anything that looks like gritty reality. We'll watch a representation of Australian life as long as it makes us feel better about ourselves."
It takes only a few hours to transform a dag into a cool person. Or, put another way . . .
Gay men are the court jesters of our age - wacky yet wise, bitchy yet kind, over the top yet tasteful. The stereotyping game began with Gav and Waz on The Block and continued with Carson Kressley and the Fab Five on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Kressley introduced us to the concept of "zhoozhing" (improving with small touches), and that seems to symbolise what Australians expected television to do to their lives this year.
What we loved to watch in 2003
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/30/1070127268305.html