CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
ABC’s iconic panel-argument show Q&A has experienced a huge slump in ratings for 2021, according to the outdated method of surveying a sample size of 1000 Australians for extremely valuable commercial TV data.
Many in the Ultimo Kremlin are arguing that this can all be put down to the decision to shift Q+A from Monday to Thursday nights, despite early signs that the program’s new timeslot may not be resonating with viewers.
This first week’s episode of Q+A was watched by an average of 280,000 metropolitan viewers, a drop of nearly a third when compared to the 411,000 people who watched the Monday, February 17, 2020 episode.
This does not take into account that the days of Australia tuning in to watch free-to-air television by the minute is well and truly over, despite the blocked ears and eyes of almost everyone working in that industry.
With a government and public broadcaster that has no interest in promoting the free Iview app, there is now a generation of voting-age Australians entering the workforce who don’t actually know what the ABC is.
As for the rusted on core audiences that usually make up the vast majority of ABC viewers, it seems that even the most die-hard red-wine-swilling terrace house socialists have grown tired of hearing boomers argue about the same shit for twenty years.
Between the self-fellating neoliberal media progressives and the science-skeptic Murdoch shills who bury every valid point with accusations of political correctness, Australians appear to be growing tired of hearing Sydney and Melbourne Uni alumni tell us why their team is better.
Short of some blue-tick Twitter identities managing to nail a fairly pedestrian soundbite for their own social media content, there is very little achieved each time the programme goes to air.
After a 2019 Federal Australian election, 2019 bushfires, 2020 pandemic and 2020 US Election, it seems that its not just the kids tuning out – as a large portion of Australia are unable to even engage with a political and media class who cannot unanimously accept that hotter temperatures result in more natural disasters.
The fact that the occasional Christian fundamentalist is still given a platform to openly debate whether or not gay kids should be able to go to schools with crosses in them, is also not very inspiring or interesting to the average weeknight TV viewer.
Whispers currently swirling around Channel 9 studios to bring back the old 4-hour NRL footy show with a panel made up of Sterlo, Fatty, Matty, Chief and Mario has caused even greater concern for ABC producers – as even the most detached inner-city elites know that they know they wouldn’t stand a chance up against a genuinely multicultural weekly line up of working class sporting heroes talking about their missos and eating chillis.
MORE TO COME.
