Aussie ratings: The word of mouth effect?

The latest on the ratings for Out of the Blue on Ten in Australia...

On Sunday 26th July, Episode 61 was watched by 235,000 viewers. It saw the murder mystery come to a dramatic climax as Bec appeared to be framed for the crime, suspicion grew among the characters and Daniel and Detective Wilson finally discovered who the real killer was...

On Sunday 2 August, Episode 62 was watched by 292,000 viewers. This installment saw the murderer confess to everything after being caught out, reveal some earth-shattering secrets, get chased by the police and fall off a cliff. Talk about a bad day!

On Sunday 9 August (yesterday), Episode 63 was watched by 354,000 viewers - an increase of 62,000 week-on-week and also the highest figure the show has had since it moved to Sundays back in January. The previous Sunday high was 339,000 on June 21.

Anyone who knows much about Aussie ratings will know that the figures Out of the Blue is getting mean it's still extremely far from being a hit. However, the fact that the show can pick up viewers by word of mouth alone like this does say something about its quality. Also, Neighbours often drops below 700,000 for some of its episodes and that has TV ads, magazine and newspaper promotion, a regular slot, 5 episodes a week and a history spanning more than 20 years. Plus, it doesn't have Ten programmers coming out to declare that they're only broadcasting the show because they have to.

Of course, it wouldn't be a surprise if the ratings fell again over the next few weeks as the crippling effect of no promotion and ridiculous scheduling takes effect again. But still, we can't help but wonder - how much better would Out of the Blue be doing if it was given a decent slot and treatment???