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Viewers'
true idol was a renovator's delight, By Peter Gotting,
Marketing Writer - 29th July 2003
(Credit:
The Sydney Morning Herald)
Australians
still enjoy watching wannabe popstars humiliate themselves
on television, but not as much as perving on four
couples as they try to out-renovate each other.
This
year's most successful regular program, The Block,
just got bigger, with 2.4 million viewers tuning in
to the Channel Nine reality show.
The
Block's block, a building in Bondi in which four couples
renovated four apartments, was open for inspection
on Saturday, giving hundreds of nosey Sydneysiders
a preview of the finished results.
Sunday
night's The Block even beat last Monday's Big Brother
finale, when 2.27 million viewers watched Regina win
its third series.
Channel
Ten's centrepiece program for the second half of the
year, Australian Idol, was watched by 1.65 million
viewers on Sunday night, winning its timeslot against
Channel Nine's 60 Minutes and Channel Seven's new
show, Deal or No Deal.
About
10,000 young people auditioned for Australian Idol,
a talent show which will secure at least one ambitious
singer a record contract with BMG.
But
media analysts said Ten would have hoped for a debut
audience closer to 2 million.
Ten
is hoping Idol will help it retain its dominance of
the under-40s audience. It earned more than 50 per
cent of the 16- to 39-year-old audience.
The
result was pleasing for McDonald's, Telstra, Nestle,
L'Oreal, Sakata and Sony, which paid more than $1
million each to sponsor the show.
Idol
was not quite as popular as Seven's similar Popstars
series in 2000, which attracted about 1.75 million
for its first episode.
But
media analysts said the best was yet to come.
"The
interesting bit [of Australian Idol] doesn't start
until a few shows in - when [the viewer] gets to vote,"
said John Sintras of Starcom Worldwide, a company
which advises advertisers such as Sony.
"The
whole talk value of the show is still to come - the
water cooler value."
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