The Shebang - Audience and Ratings

Audience and Ratings

In the breakfast radio ratings for April 2007, The Shebang only managed a 5.3 percent share of the breakfast audience (tied with 2CH in eighth place) in the Nielsen ratings survey, a loss of 47,000 listeners since March. In the breakfast radio ratings for August 2007, The Shebang's ratings climbed 0.3 to 8.6 percent share of the breakfast audience in the Sydney market making the Shebang 7th overall and 4th in the FM market. In May 2008 - Triple M's breakfast show was not going down well, with co-hosts Marty Sheargold and Fifi Box both believed to have threatened to walk over the program's ratings dive. Sheargold reportedly clashed with new addition Paul Murray and Box after the show registered its worst result (down 1.5 percentage points to 5). The gloomy news was compounded after Triple M was beaten by easy listening station 2CH. "It's a train wreck in here today," a Confidential source claimed. "Everyone is blaming everyone." An Austereo spokeswoman denied "any drama" stating, "there's three of them and that's just how it is. No one's going anywhere."

A Daily Telegraph Article had suggested that former husband of Jackie O, "Ugly" Phil O'Niell may be taking over the Sydney breakfast slot. This would put him in direct competition with his former partner, in the same market, and in the same company as 2Day FM, as both networks are owned by Austereo. Currently Ugly Phil hosts nights on Triple M Sydney.

According to a Nielsen survey reported in the Sydney Morning Herald (7 May 2008), The Shebang audience share fell by 1.5 points to 5 percent. Another Nielsen Survey report had shown that, The Shebang had fallen another 0.5 points to 4.5 percent market share in the 6-9am time slot.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 29 October 2008 that Triple M Sydney and The Shebang had received the wooden spoon in the latest Nielsen Media survey. Separate to this co-host Marty Sheargold, who took leave four weeks ago for the birth of his first child had not returned and fill-in comedian co-hosts have been used, including Tony Moclair and Justin Hamilton.