Soft Touch to Get Extra Screening
March 26, 2012 
6 Comments
TV3 will repeat Sunday’s premiere of Touch at 11.10pm on Saturday.
The new series from Heroes creator Tim Kring made a modest debut with slightly softer ratings than the previous week’s House in the same time slot.
It averaged 7.0% of TV3’s target audience, 25-54 year-olds (compared to House’s 7.8% the previous Sunday), 6.2% of 18-49 (versus House’s 6.6%) and 6.3% of household shoppers (vs 8.8%).
Ironically, this week’s House, in its later 9.30pm slot, averaged nearly the same number of HHS but was down 1-2 points in the older age demos.
TV2’s HD competition, the network premiere of Old Dogs, was only 1-2 points more popular in the 18-49 and 25-54 demos.
But it averaged almost twice as many HHS (as did TV One’s Packed to the Rafters); with TV2’s 18-39 target, the difference was only 1.7 points.
TV3 will try to broaden Touch’s sampling by re-running the pilot after Saturday’s network HD premiere of Public Enemies — or barely 24 hours ahead of Touch’s second episode (the previously scheduled HD repeat of The Last King of Scotland will air an hour later, at 12.10am).
The same strategy helped to build a Monday night audience for TV3’s Homeland after its disastrous ratings start.
Meanwhile, at 10.30pm Sunday’s other HD newcomer, TV One’s Enlightened, predictably averaged only 2.3% of 25-54 and 1.9% of 18-49 but clocked up an impressive 4.5% of HHS (the final of Emma the previous week could muster only 1.4%).
However, the 25-54 and HHS viewership halved over the hour, which suggests that by next week star Laura Dern will have lost her touch.
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March 27, 2012 at 11:01 am
Did you see Touch, Philip? I loved it and I know the ratings will rise 🙂
I wasn’t as taken with it. I thought the HD quality outstanding but don’t think Kiefer Sutherland has the heft to carry such a drama and felt creator Tim Kring undermined his premise with too many contrivances, hollow characters and sentimental lapses. While I bailed midway, TV3 will be pleased Touch’s viewership built over the hour across all demos.
I love “Three Little Birds”, which was the song featured in the episode, I brought it on iTunes … where is the video for it? 🙂
We watched Touch but not too sure if I will keep watching it. I see in the US that the pilot was shown on January 25 but the series proper didn’t start until March 22 and only has four episodes listed. Will this be short lived?
Fox TV in the US ordered 13 episodes and sister production company 20 Century Fox TV is banking on it being a hit worldwide, hence rolling it out globally in more than 30 territories. Given the clout of Kring and Sutherland, it’s unlikely the show would be axed unless the ratings were truly dire in the US, and so far they’ve held up well amid largely positive reviews.
First ep was ok, nothing more, will wait for a couple of more eps. But I’m leaning towards Philip’s take on the show.