Show me the viewers: 541,000 tune in to watch Hobbs dispense money advice

VIEWER figures for RTÉs flagship money programme have surged 13% and broken the half-million mark for the first time, new figures show.

The second series of Show Me The Money, which is fronted by Consumers’ Association of Ireland finance spokesman Eddie Hobbs, began its second series earlier this month by drawing in 541,000 viewers, or 64,000 more than its first programme in January, 2004.

RTÉ said the programme grabbed a massive 41% share of the available audience and soundly beat the audience of 470,000 for British soap Eastenders, which aired immediately beforehand on RTÉ 1. Mr Hobbs said the viewer figures were extraordinary and comfortably ahead of the programme’s first series, which drew an average share of the available audience of between 33% and 36%. It was the station’s highest-rated factual programme in five of the eight weeks in which it aired last year, he said.

Mr Hobbs said the reasons behind the increase were a matter for speculation but the programme was of interest to a mass audience on topics that individuals felt uncomfortable discussing with friends or work colleagues.

“It’s helping people talk about something they wouldn’t have talked about before,” said Mr Hobbs.

Irish consumers were getting better at getting up to speed and arranging their finances in a sensible way, but there remained considerable scope for improvement.

“We should be more knowledgeable, but we’re not,” said Mr Hobbs. He put this down to the level of complexity of certain financial products and said few people had the spare time to examine products in detail.

Upcoming programmes will feature a case study showing how a couple dealt with a windfall inheritance of €250,000, and a slot following a woman who had separated from her husband and who restructures her finances to free up more time to spend with her children.

Mr Hobbs said the first programme, which featured a couple who took on more debt than they could deal with, identified a situation that would become more widespread in the coming years as the consequences of higher personal debt burdens became clearer.