Television

Can you repeat that?   Author: eNews staff and agencies | May 24, 2006, 13:39

Seen it all before? Who cares.

Don't mention repeats on TV at a party. If you do you get the usual collection of comments: 'disgrace', a waste of time' I never watch TV anyway, but not for repeats, 'insult to viewers' etc etc etc.

The same old litany of moans and groans: with good justification: repeats are a blight on all TV, commercial or public broadcasting but they, for the most part are necessary.

There's just too many hours of TV to fill and too little content that's new, fresh and appealing to viewers.

But I reckon a lot of the moaners and groaners are just full of it. They just sit there every night complaining about the repeated shows being broadcast and continue watching them.

This week is a good case in point.

Nine, and to a lesser extent Ten, are both showing repeats of good programs this week for different reasons and so far people have sat there and watched in large numbers. If they were really offended they would switch channels or turn off.

Nine showed three hours of repeats on Monday night and won the night's battle with Ten and Seven. Nine re-ran 20 to 1 at 7.30 and then two repeats of Cold Case from 8.30 pm. Tuesday night it showed a repeat of CSI at 8.30 pm and then a repeat of CSI New York. Ten shows a repeat of House and one of NCIS tonight for a different reason.

Last night 1.399 million people watched the CSI repeat, about 300,000 to 350,000 or so less than a fresh ep. would attract. CSI New York was watched by 1.158 million, about 100, 000 down on its normal audience for a new episode.

Monday night 20 to 1 was watched by 1.559 million, which is about what it normally is watched by when there's a new ep. Cold Case was watched by 1.331 million across the two hours,. It normally attracts 1.7 million on a new hour long ep. on Monday nights at 8.30 pm.

I rest my case. These can't all be new viewers: no the TV's on, a familiar program comes on and people watch: comfort and convenience against looking up the TV guide and using the remote. They don't have to get out of the chair!

No wonder obesity is a growing problem.

The networks use repeats to eke out a series (like Seven is doing with Lost and Prison Break and Desperate Housewives, and Nine is doing with the various CSIs and Ten is doing with House and NCIS and the Law and Order type programs).

There are 44 weeks of ratings usually each year and the networks want their 20, 22 or 26 program hit series from the US (rarely from Britain) to last as long as possible and bring ratings success. Likewise with our local dramas (usually one or maybe two per network, running around 40 weeks or the year and costing a bomb compared to the imported hits).

And the ABC is doing it with the likes of Kath and Kim and some of the UK programs and SBS as well with Mythbusters and Inspector Rex, both among the network's most popular programs.

This week the Nine Network though is being especially cynical, running three hours of repeats on Monday night and Two hours Tuesday night (20 to 1, CSI, Cold Case, CSI New York).

Why? Well Nine had the miners special on Sunday night that would have won the week anyway and Wednesday night its carrying the Rugby league State of Origin game from Sydney and NSW and Queensland markets: its an added bonus this week.

So Nine doesn't have to waste scarce resources like fresh episodes of CSI (although it would have won Nine Tuesday night!), Cold Case and 20 to 1 (are there any left anyway?). Ten Wednesday night is running a repeat of House and NCIS up against the League so as not to waste new episodes.

So that's the rationale behind the decision to run repeats: there are sound programming and business reasons.

And complaining is quite natural, especially if you've become involved with the series and want fresh episodes every week (go to Bit Torrent and break the law!)

But don't whinge and moan and write letters. Do something. The TV networks will ignore you're complaints. The only way to stop the practice is to turn off the TV.

But then that's not going to happen.

Why else do we have Pay TV (apart from sport and news) other than to watch repeats of programs we have already seen (MASH, Simpsons and soon Desperate Housewives and Lost)?

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