This fast-tracking thing? There's something in it. You've just got to do it within hours rather than days. For the third episode, Ten's Under the Dome attracted 1.02 million viewers last night. The premiere drew in 1.17 million people while the second episode got 1.01 million viewers.
It's a tremendous result given that the network has not had great luck in maintaining strong audiences for its overseas content – Homeland's numbers dropped dramatically in the second season. But with Under the Dome, Ten changed tack to broadcast the show on the same day as the original US broadcast instead of days later, thereby countering some of the threat from illegal downloading.
Ten's traditional audience has skewed younger, so the within-hours fast tracking could pay off, as conventional wisdom has it that younger, tech-savvier audiences are more likely to pirate shows.
This approach also appears to be particularly effective with scripted drama content whose storylines rely on season-long arcs (with viewers keen to get at the next episode as soon as possible), rather than the dip-in-dip-out nature of comedies or procedural shows. Foxtel has invested in same day fast-tracking with its 'Express from the US' strategy on character-driven, premium content such as Game of Thrones, Mad Men and Girls.
In other ratings news, Nine's premiere of The Great Australian Bake Off commanded 1.11 million viewers while The Block was top dog with 1.44 million viewers.
On Seven, the return of Winners & Losers at 798,000 viewers was down on last year's 1.07 million. The Mole had 555,000 people tuned in.
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