Success and failure are relative

Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

The two new Aussie cop shows -- Channel Nine's The Strip and Channel Ten's Rush -- each attracted a million viewers in the mainland capitals last week, but one is considered an impending flop and the other a modest success. That's because Nine's program is showing at 8.30pm and Ten's at 9.30 pm, when most Australians are preparing for bed. If The Strip keeps losing viewers at its current rate, Nine will do a Canal Road on it (dump it to late night), although at this stage in the year, there's not much to replace it with. It's not as if Gordon Ramsay works as a programming bandaid any more.

Also last week, Nine's new sci fi thriller Fringe drew 934,000 viewers while Ten's teen soap 90210 drew 741,000, but again, Ten was happier. At least 90210 is reaching its target 16 to 39 audience (ranking 15 for the week with an age group that rarely watches TV, compared with 89 with all viewers, which lets Ten promote it as a cult favourite of the Clearasil crowd). Things can only get worse for Fringe, because this Wednesday it comes up against against the new season of House, which will further boost Ten's morale.

SBS did best with Top Gear (909,000) and South Park (412,000) while on Pay TV, the hotties included the finale of Project Runway Australia on Arena (229,000) and The Simpsons on Fox 8 (194,000).

Seven won the week with 28.8 per cent of the prime time audience, while Nine got 27.2, Ten 20.5, ABC 18.4 and SBS 5.2. But Seven's lucky streak vanished on Sunday, when Dancing With The Stars was beaten by both Australian Idol and a 60 Minutes episode about ballroom dancers. The prime time audience shares were Nine 25.6 per cent, Ten 24.7, Seven 22.9, ABC 21.4 and SBS 5.4.

What Australia watched, week ending September 20
1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Network 7 1,895,000
2 CITY HOMICIDE Network 7 1,857,000
3 FIND MY FAMILY Network 7 1,815,000
4 BORDER SECURITY Network 7 1,814,000
5 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Network 7 1,813,000
6 THE FORCE Network 7 1,733,000
7 60 MINUTES Network 9 1,686,000
8 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Network 9 1,637,000
9 SEVEN NEWS - SUN Network 7 1,490,000
10 SEVEN NEWS Network 7 1,485,000
11 MEDICAL EMERGENCY Network 7 1,426,000
12 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Network 9 1,376,000
13 TODAY TONIGHT Network 7 1,325,000
14 BONES - MON Network 7 1,298,000
15 CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT Network 7 1,287,000