3.2 /10 1 Votes3.2
Genre Nostalgia Original language(s) English No. of episodes 8 First episode date 8 September 2009 Network Network Ten | 3.2/10 TV No. of seasons 1 Running time 60 minutes Final episode date 30 October 2009 Number of seasons 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Similar Big Girl's Blouse, Fast Forward, The D‑Generation, Kath & Kim, Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Spearman Experiment was an Australian television series, hosted by Magda Szubanski that counts down Australian pop culture's most defining people and topics based on a public poll commented on by various Australian 'celebrities'. The series began development in May 2009, and was officially announced in early August 2009.
Contents
The show is named for Charles Spearman, who developed Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, the statistical technique used to survey the public to produce the show's rankings.
Format
The host and guest celebrities analyse, critique and celebrate Australia’s most popular topics interspersed with film clips. It has been compared to clip show 20 to 1 which currently airs on Channel 9. However, the Spearman Experiment only counts down the top 15, rather than the top 20. Channel Ten also advertises the fact that The Spearman Experiment's results are chosen by the public rather than television executives, as is the case with 20 to 1.
Episodes
Ratings
The Spearman Experiment drew 1.039 million viewers nationally for its premiere episode making it the 11th most viewed program of the day. The show's second week showed a massive decline in audience, with national ratings dropping to 699,000 viewers, coming fourth in its timeslot. In its third week ratings grew to 808,000, coming third in its timeslot. The fourth week, it dropped to 668,000 which made it the 17th most watched program that evening. On 16 October 2009, the show was moved to a Friday night timeslot of 7:30pm, to make way for new episodes of The Simpsons on Tuesday night.
Cancellation
The show was moved from its Friday night slot and replaced by The Simpsons after drawing only 540,000 viewers. The show was cancelled due to low ratings.