Creatures of the light
Daytime is another country. They do things differently there. So let us make an anthropological journey to a land we might call The Sunshine State, except the name is already taken and anyway, the Daytimers shun the sun and stay inside to watch the box.
The citizens of Daytime are not like you and me. They are neglected by the gods they worship. The TV networks are preoccupied with prime time (6pm to 10.30pm -- click here for the latest prime time ratings). And when they're not obsessing about that, they fleetingly mention the feud between Bert and Andrew at 5.30, or the giggle contest between Kochie and Jessica at breakfast.
You'd think nobody watched between 9am and 4pm, but on average, nearly a million people a day in the mainland capitals tune in when the rest of us are working. Lets dispose of a few stereotypes about the Daytimers:
"They are suckers for soaps and sob stories." Days of Our Lives and The Young and The Restless attract up to 200,000 viewers each, but they don't win their timeslots. Nor does The Oprah Winfrey Show. What Daytimers love as they slice their lunch is a good movie -- or even a bad movie. That's why Channel Seven, which specialises in midday movies, has the biggest daytime audience share (31 per cent, while Nine has 27 per cent, Ten 25, ABC 15 and SBS 2.5). The most popular midday flicks on Seven this year have been Million Dollar Murder (364,000), Ghost In The Machine (363,000) and Second Nature (352,000). We'd be interested to hear what they are like.
After movies, Daytimers prefer food shows, which is why Fresh and Ready Steady Cook regularly attract more than 200,000. So, more daytime tears are shed over onions than over soaps. (Sadly, Daytimers don't seem to have an urge to laugh. This column's favourite midday program, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, attracts only 54,000.)
"Only retirees and dole bludgers watch during the day." You're less than half right. The audience analysts tell us that 20 per cent of viewers between 9 and 4 are women over 55; 15 per cent are women 25 to 39; 14 per cent are men over 55; 14 per cent are women 40 to 54; and 9 per cent are men 40 to 54 (the rest are a mix of toddlers, students, sickie takers and unemployed). So, in the jargon of the industry, day skews old and female, and the ads are pitched accordingly.
"Kerri-Anne Kennerley is Queen of the Day." Well, she easily beats the other shopping show, 9am with David and Kim (which gets 83,000 viewers to Kerri-Anne's 146,000). But she's often beaten by an icon as old as she is -- Play School, which has averaged 170,000 viewers this year. It would be more accurate to say the monarch of daytime was stern disciplinarian Judge Judy Sheindlin or bald shrink Dr Phil McGraw. Or, if your republican sentiments require Daytime to have an Australian head of state, you'd crown Melbourne chef Ian Hewitson, whose Huey's Cooking Adventures attracts more than 300,000.
And a final detail to reassure you about the good taste of the Daytimers -- regularly in their top ten, with 250,000 viewers, is Bob The Builder.
The most watched series between 9am and 4pm1 Huey's Cooking Adventures (10) 336,0002 Judge Judy (10) 322,0003 Dr Phil (9) 299,0004 My Wife and Kids (7) 251,0005 Bob The Builder pm (ABC) 247,0006 Postman Pat pm (ABC) 244,0007 The Oprah Winfrey Show (10) 239,0008 According to Jim (7) 234,0009 Ready Steady Cook (10) 233,00010 Fresh (9) 200,00011 8 Simple Rules (7) 186,00012 Days of Our Lives (9) 179,00013 The Days (7) 178,00014 The Young and the Restless (9) 177,00015 Moonlighting (7) 176,00016 The Fairies (7) 171,00017 Play School am (ABC) 170,00018 Entertainment Tonight (9) 165,00019 Play School pm (ABC) 163,00020 Mornings with Kerri-Anne (9) 146,000(OzTAM average audience so far this year in the mainland capitals)
[For purposes of comparison, the most watched program on subscription TV last week was a rugby league match between the Cowboys and the Panthers, which drew 175,000 viewers, and the most watched non-sporting program was an episode of That 70s Show with 79,000. So while Daytime may be a small country, it does have a bigger population than Paytime.]
The Tribal Mind by David Dale appears every Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin).
The citizens of Daytime are not like you and me. They are neglected by the gods they worship. The TV networks are preoccupied with prime time (6pm to 10.30pm -- click here for the latest prime time ratings). And when they're not obsessing about that, they fleetingly mention the feud between Bert and Andrew at 5.30, or the giggle contest between Kochie and Jessica at breakfast.
You'd think nobody watched between 9am and 4pm, but on average, nearly a million people a day in the mainland capitals tune in when the rest of us are working. Lets dispose of a few stereotypes about the Daytimers:
"They are suckers for soaps and sob stories." Days of Our Lives and The Young and The Restless attract up to 200,000 viewers each, but they don't win their timeslots. Nor does The Oprah Winfrey Show. What Daytimers love as they slice their lunch is a good movie -- or even a bad movie. That's why Channel Seven, which specialises in midday movies, has the biggest daytime audience share (31 per cent, while Nine has 27 per cent, Ten 25, ABC 15 and SBS 2.5). The most popular midday flicks on Seven this year have been Million Dollar Murder (364,000), Ghost In The Machine (363,000) and Second Nature (352,000). We'd be interested to hear what they are like.
After movies, Daytimers prefer food shows, which is why Fresh and Ready Steady Cook regularly attract more than 200,000. So, more daytime tears are shed over onions than over soaps. (Sadly, Daytimers don't seem to have an urge to laugh. This column's favourite midday program, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, attracts only 54,000.)
"Only retirees and dole bludgers watch during the day." You're less than half right. The audience analysts tell us that 20 per cent of viewers between 9 and 4 are women over 55; 15 per cent are women 25 to 39; 14 per cent are men over 55; 14 per cent are women 40 to 54; and 9 per cent are men 40 to 54 (the rest are a mix of toddlers, students, sickie takers and unemployed). So, in the jargon of the industry, day skews old and female, and the ads are pitched accordingly.
"Kerri-Anne Kennerley is Queen of the Day." Well, she easily beats the other shopping show, 9am with David and Kim (which gets 83,000 viewers to Kerri-Anne's 146,000). But she's often beaten by an icon as old as she is -- Play School, which has averaged 170,000 viewers this year. It would be more accurate to say the monarch of daytime was stern disciplinarian Judge Judy Sheindlin or bald shrink Dr Phil McGraw. Or, if your republican sentiments require Daytime to have an Australian head of state, you'd crown Melbourne chef Ian Hewitson, whose Huey's Cooking Adventures attracts more than 300,000.
And a final detail to reassure you about the good taste of the Daytimers -- regularly in their top ten, with 250,000 viewers, is Bob The Builder.
The most watched series between 9am and 4pm1 Huey's Cooking Adventures (10) 336,0002 Judge Judy (10) 322,0003 Dr Phil (9) 299,0004 My Wife and Kids (7) 251,0005 Bob The Builder pm (ABC) 247,0006 Postman Pat pm (ABC) 244,0007 The Oprah Winfrey Show (10) 239,0008 According to Jim (7) 234,0009 Ready Steady Cook (10) 233,00010 Fresh (9) 200,00011 8 Simple Rules (7) 186,00012 Days of Our Lives (9) 179,00013 The Days (7) 178,00014 The Young and the Restless (9) 177,00015 Moonlighting (7) 176,00016 The Fairies (7) 171,00017 Play School am (ABC) 170,00018 Entertainment Tonight (9) 165,00019 Play School pm (ABC) 163,00020 Mornings with Kerri-Anne (9) 146,000(OzTAM average audience so far this year in the mainland capitals)
[For purposes of comparison, the most watched program on subscription TV last week was a rugby league match between the Cowboys and the Panthers, which drew 175,000 viewers, and the most watched non-sporting program was an episode of That 70s Show with 79,000. So while Daytime may be a small country, it does have a bigger population than Paytime.]
The Tribal Mind by David Dale appears every Tuesday in The Sydney Morning Herald. Past columns can be found at www.smh.com.au/tribalmind. David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A miscellany of the new Australia (Allen and Unwin).
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