Undercover Boss -- programming for idiots

Don't they ever wonder why this new employee seems to be doing something and acting strangely, with a camera around them?

The Winners: Undercover Boss, the highly staged program on Ten, topped the demos.

What I want to know about this program is: have the workers in these companies been tested to see if they are brain dead? Has no one asked, “hey, what’s with the camera?”Americans are not smart people these days, it seems.

For example, the US transport authorities have noted that in 58 crashes involving Toyota cars that caused all the fuss earlier this year, the brakes were not used in 35 of them.

Don’t they ever wonder why this new employee seems to be doing something and acting strangely, with a camera around them?

Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.549 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.477 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.291 million
Undercover Boss (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.190 million
Two and a Half Men (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.153 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.134 million
Criminal Minds (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.080 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.050 million
Two and a Half Men (Nine) (7pm) (repeat) — 1.040 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.034 million

The Losers: Nine last night, strangely, well down on a week ago. For example, Hot in Cleveland last week averaged over 1.24 million, last night, 986,000.

News & CA: An interesting point here about ACA. It averaged 281,000 in Sydney last night, which is extremely low for a Monday. ACA has been tagging itself “The Voice of Sydney” now for several months. Sydney people seem to be not watching the program.

And ABC viewers know a poorly produced programs when they see it. The 7.30 Report is a high standard, no nonsense program when it comes to politics, so viewers watched last night. Australian Story ventured into the political with a story on Kevin Rudd’s nephew who is standing against Julia Gillard, viewers turned off. Viewers then turned off Four Corners which told us nothing we didn’t know about the election, and told it poorly and in a confused way. Then when Tony Abbott was on Q&A, without any reporter or producer cutting or editing what he said, answering questions live, viewers went back to the ABC.

There is a lesson there for all TV producers and that’s don’t get in the way of viewers when they want to see something, otherwise they will ignore your efforts.

Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.549 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.477 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.291 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.134 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.050 million
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm ) — 982,000
Ten News (Ten) (5pm) — 847,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 846,000
The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 832,000
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 772,000
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 651,000
Media Watch (ABC) (9.20pm) — 617,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 376,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 240,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 185,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 178,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 123,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven)( 7am) — 382,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 299,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Seven won with 28.9%, from Nine with 26.0%, Ten with 20.6%, the ABC, 17.9% and SBS, 6.6%. Ten won 16 to 39s and 18 to 49s. Seven leads the week on 30.1%, from Nine with 26.2%.
Main Channel: A win here for Seven on 25.1%, from Nine with 22.5%, Ten on 18.1%, ABC 1 on 15.5% and SBS ONE with 5.7%. Seven leads the week with 26.1%, from Nine on 22.2%.
Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 3.8%, from GO on 3.4%, ONE with 2.5%, ABC 2, 1.3%, SBS TWO, 0.9% and ABC 3 and News 24 on 0.5% each. That’s a total of 12.9%. ONE was boosted by the debut of the special on Jessica Watson which attracted 190,000 viewers at 7.30pm. GO leads the week with 4.0% from 7TWO on 3.9%. Adelaide was the best market with 17.6% total share for the FTA digital channels.
Pay TV: Seven won with a share of 24.0%, from Nine on 21.5%, Ten with 17.1%, Pay TV and its 100-plus channels, 14.9%, the ABC was next with 14.8% and then SBS on 5.5%. The 12 FTA channels had a total share of 85.1%, made up of 10.5% for the seven digitals and 74.6% for the five main channels.
Regional: And a solid win to Prime/7Qld with a share of 29.0%, from WIN/NBN on 26.8%, SC Ten on 21.2%, the ABC on 17.0% and SBS on 6.0%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels from WIN/NBN and SC Ten. GO and 7TWO shared the digitals with 3.2% each, one was third with 1.7%. WIN/NBN lead the week with 28.6% from Prime/7Qld on 28.5%.

Major Markets: It was a clean sweep to Seven, with Nine second and Ten everywhere except Sydney where the ABC beat Ten into third. In the main channels, Sydney saw the same finish, Seven from Nine and the ABC, and in the other metro markets, it was Seven from Nine and Ten. The digitals were a bit more messy, but 7TWO won Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. GO won Brisbane and Melbourne. ONE finished third everywhere thanks to the Jessica Watson doco. for the week so far, it’s Seven, Nine and Ten everywhere but Perth where its Seven, Ten and Nine.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: On Q&A, Tony Abbott attracted 846,000 viewers, 5000 more than Julia Gillard did the week before. Is that the election margin? Q&A was very popular in Sydney, 307,000 viewers, Melbourne was next with 247,000, in the other markets, it didn’t matter.

Four Corners, Australian Story and The 7.30 Report all had their best audiences in Sydney. It’s why the ABC finished third in that market last night and 4th elsewhere.

The political advertising kept on keeping on last night and is a disgrace. The TV Networks will get upwards of $30 million more for this offensive material, and not a penny will find its way into new programming. Viewers are owed a big apology from the parties, the leaders and the ad agencies who made the rubbishy ads.

TONIGHT: Packed to the Rafters on Seven. Foreign Correspondent on the ABC, the first part of a series called Baroque. Top Gear for the revheads on Nine. Modern Family and The 7pm Project on Ten. SBS has Insight at 7.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports