It’s a pitch black weekend for SBS 6: a day after Avastars’ TV cremation, there are now also doubts about the viability of Marble Mania. The show has started with sad figures.
It is evident that no one at SBS 6 dares to say to John de Mol that continuing to broadcast Avastars is an insult to the viewer. Yesterday, with the 117 thousand viewers (2 percent market share) for the fourth episode on Friday evening, one thing became clear: the viewer pushes John’s digital dolls directly into the incinerator.
Pulp television
A bitter pill, but John does not swallow it: after twenty years of preparations, his pride is apparently too great to admit his failure and take Avastars off the screen. But such horribly bad television naturally radiates on SBS 6 and as a channel you don’t want to be known as the stage of pulp television. Will the viewer now avoid the station even more?
In any case, the former television hit Marble Mania started the third season very poorly yesterday: only 576 thousand people (12 percent) watched the premiere episode. According to Tina Nijkamp, the former broadcaster boss of SBS 6, it is inevitable that presenter Winston Gerschtanowitz was completely shocked.
Lost magic?
The fact that Marble Mania is no longer a hit will give SBS 6 a lot of headaches. “Oh no, not yet another flop, they will think. Their Marble Mania has definitely lost the magic of viewing figures and only scores 9.9 percent market share in the commercial target group 20 to 54 years old. Ouch. It is only 100 thousand more than a repeat of Ik Hou van Holland.”
It is also the least watched episode of Marble Mania ever, writes Tina to her analysis channel. “The previous, second season started with 972 thousand viewers and the last episode then scored 600 thousand viewers, the lowest record to date. In the first season, all episodes scored above one million, the first even 1.4 million.”
Disaster year
Tina thinks John is very disappointed. “2023 has been a format disaster year for John so far. All family entertainment on SBS 6 has flopped. Fortunately, the guys from Today Inside are there to polish up the market share. And there was The Tribute: Battle of the Bands.”
The big winner on prime time yesterday was Beau van Erven Dorens with 1.3 million viewers (26 percent) for Weet Ik Veel. Immediately afterwards, Humberto attracted a nice 739 thousand viewers (19 percent) on Saturday.
NPO 1 grabbed 788 thousand (16 percent) and 937 thousand viewers (22 percent) with the combination of Freeks Saturday Night Safari and The Connection. According to Tina, Freek’s program is more suitable for Zapp. “This would have been fine at Waku Waku’s place prior to the Youth News.”
Viewing figures
The viewing figures of Saturday, March 18, 2023 (SKO):
Top 15 | Market shares (18-24h, 6+) |
|---|---|
| 01. Journal 20:00 (NPO1) 1,817,000 | 01. NPO1 / 22.8% |
| 02. I Don’t Know A Lot (RTL4) 1,261,000 | 02. RTL4 / 20.1% |
| 03. Studio Sport Eredivisie (NPO1) 958,000 | 03. SBS6 / 12.15 |
| 04. The Connection (NPO1) 937,000 | 04. NPO2 / 10.9% |
| 05. Journal 18:00 (NPO1) 929,000 | 05. RTL5 / 4.1% |
| 06. Half past seven news (RTL4) 879,000 | 06.ESPN / 3.6% |
| 07. EenVandaag (NPO1) 803,000 | 07. RTL8 / 3.6% |
| 08. Freeks Saturday Night Safari (NPO1) 788,000 | 08. NPO3 / 2.9% |
| 09. Box office (NPO2) 751,000 | 09. Vero / 2.6% |
| 10. Humberto on Saturday (RTL4) 739,000 | 10.NET5 / 1.9% |
| 11. Hidden Past (NPO2) 686,000 | 11. RTL7 / 1.3% |
| 12. Green Planet (NPO1) 584,000 | 12. Discov / 1.1% |
| 13. RTL Boulevard (RTL4) 581,000 | 13. BBC / 1.1% |
| 14. Marble Mania (SBS6) 576,000 | 14.TLC / 0.9% |
| 15. The Allrounder (SBS6) 572,000 | 15. Paramount / 0.6% |
Market shares per channel group (18-24h, 6+) | More viewing figures at: |
| 01. Public Broadcasting 36.6% |  |
| 02. RTL Netherlands 30.1% | |
| 03. Talpa TV 16.9% |
Programs that did not make the top 15 include Hart van Nederland (536 thousand), Shownieuws (441 thousand) and Nieuwsuur (425 thousand).