Australian Idol Round-Up: Ratings Bonanza

While the traditionally high-rating stage of Australian Idol (i.e. the Final 12 weeks) hasn’t quite begun yet, it looks as though the old stayer of the reality/light entertainment/talent quest format is still a tidy ratings earner for Channel Ten, which will no doubt be a relief after the unmitigated tanking of Big Brother (somewhere, Channel Nine is wiping away its hysterical tears with the contracts drawn up to purchase that ailing axed franchise).

The show so far appears to be firing on both media fronts with data from the online researcher Hitwise showing Idol has jumped to the top ranking in online TV shows ahead of The World Game on SBS, Nine’s A Current Affair and Seven’s Home And Away.

Idol’s TV results have helped Ten no end in the ratings race, with audience tallies and Ten’s own figures showing Idol’s online user base is surging over last year’s figures. Ten’s digital manager, Damian Smith, told the Herald that Idol’s unique users had more than doubled to 100,000 in the show’s first two weeks and video viewing was up 65 per cent to 750,000.

Last year Idol generated 7.5 million video streams and the figure is now likely to top 10 million.

It’s a new media bonanza! I wonder if the Idol contracts/release forms still contain those entertaining clauses featuring phrases like “in all media now known or hereafter invented”, “in perpetuity” and “throughout the universe”? Any Top 100 crash-outs out there who care to share with us?