Outrageous Fortune takes TradeMe traffic

High drama with <i>Outrageous Fortune</i>. Photo / Supplied

You know a TV show is a hit when it puts a dent in the traffic of the busiest New Zealand website.

Trade Me traffic is becoming a measure of the pulse of the nation.

The return of Outrageous Fortune for its sixth and final season on Tuesday night was so popular that the auction site's usage fell 16 per cent while it screened.

The site's spokesman, Paul Ford, said events such as Mahe Drysdale's bronze medal row and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindells' tilt for gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics also led to Trade Me numbers dropping as people watched the box instead of their computer.

Providing a strange insight into the sort of people using Trade Me, Ford said the US show Desperate Housewives also affected the site's traffic when it screened Monday nights at 8.30pm.

Outrageous Fortune was watched by 447,000 people, or 23.7 per cent of those in the 18 to 49 age bracket.

South Pacific Pictures chief executive John Barnett put the viewing figures down to the cliff hanger that left people desperate to know whether Cheryl West survived.

If they were watching the show, then "they're definitely not buying or selling a washing machine or buying a car."

AUT journalism lecturer Greg Treadwell said the Trade Me dip showed "old media striking back" as people turned their attention to the TV.