ABC’s Wednesday night season fails to worry commercial broadcasters
What has traditionally been the ABC’s strongest day of the week in the ratings – Wednesday night – saw the public service broadcaster fail to offer a major challenge to the commercial networks.
The ABC’s 20th Anniversary special of Absolutely Fabulous was the broadcaster’s highest-rating non-news show of the night, pulling in 654,000 in the 8pm time slot – almost half the regular audience of last year’s hit series Gruen Planet.
Adam Hills on Gordon St Tonight drew 587,000 for the ABC, while its premiere of Outland, a comedy about a gay science fiction club, took 324,000 and placed well out of the top 20.
The return of At the Movies at 10pm took 271,000. ABC News was broadcaster’s strongest show, rating with 891,000.
Elsewhere, My Kitchen Rules again won the night – but was down on Tuesday’s nights showing of 1.66m, with 1.45m.
With the competition over between The Biggest Loser and Excess Baggage, Loser scoffed 717,000 while Excess nibbled with 503,000.
Would be mainly due to QI not airing.
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“With the competition over between The Biggest Loser and Excess Baggage, Loser scoffed 717,000 while Excess nibbled with 503,000.”
I GET IT. BECAUSE FAT PEOPLE EAT. HURRR DURRR HURRR.
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Not surprising to see the ABC score such low ratings. They brought in a gay oriented lineup and everybody else switched off in droves. This sort of thing only provides ammunition for the “Gay BC” haters in The Australian and certain web forums.
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Q: Which is the best TV show Adam Hills on Gordon St Tonight or Outland?
A: Both are total crap.
Let’s face it… The ABC can’t make TV that people like.
What was there last hit show????
P.S. Fat people getting thin is just as bad TV… Thank god for Foxtel
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Hi Harry,
Well there is that Wednesday stalwart of Gruen which won at the AACTAs the other night…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
I’m not gay but I loved Outland, thought it was really funny and clever. I hope it’s given a good go and not written off as being for a ‘gay’ audience.
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Outland was trending on twitter last night and has really positive word-of-mouth – a lot of people saying they’d never heard of it before, so poor advertising could also be to blame. Will be interesting to see what it does next week.
For comparison, Laid in that same slot last year averaged around 450+ (after a one-off 600+ opening night) so they’re at least in sight of that.
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I don’t think most people were aware they were starting up with new shows. I’ve largely switched off television over summer. I new they were on but didn’t bother, figured I’d catch up on iview. I’m not overly interested in Gordon St even though I like Hills and have seen a couple of his live shows. He comes across on camera as strangely self congratulating where as on stage he always just seemed like a nice guy. I’ve heard the tapings are akin to a hostage situation and go for hours. Maybe that’s reflected in the show.
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