Good start for Rake
The ABC comedy Rake debuted with a peak audience of 938,000 and a 20 percent five-city share and a 302,000 audience in Melbourne alone.
“I am thrilled with the audience response to Rake and we are already in negotiations with the producers for a second series,” said ABC1 controller Brendan Dahill.
The executive said scheduling the show on Thursday was “risky” because the ABC had not aired a drama on that night for a long time.
“But I felt viewers wanted some fun later in the week and this wonderfully irreverent drama series fitted the bill perfectly,” he explained.
According to the public broadcaster, the time slot had an 11 percent share (or 479,000 viewers) last week, so Rake has almost doubled those figures. In a statement, the ABC said that women made up 53 percent of the audience, with men being 47 percent.
The docu-drama I Spry, which followed Rake last night, had a 17 percent five-city share, 545,000 audience.
