I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! premieres to 1.031m metro viewers
The seventh season of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! was the most-watched TV show last night, premiering to 1.031 million metro viewers (1.385 million nationally), topping each of the key advertising demographics, and delivering Ten 30.5% of network share.
This season is set in northern New South Wales instead of the usual South African terrain due to travel restrictions, and stars celebrities including former Bachelor contestant Abbie Chatfield, Ten TV personality Grant Denyer, and comedian Ash Williams.
The 2021 season’s contestants
Ten’s head of programming, Daniel Monaghan, said the network is “thrilled” with how the program performed on its first night.
“It was the number one program of the evening and dominated Ten’s key target market of under 50s. It also boasted the highest commercial share ever and was up 6% year-on-year,” he said.
The first episode was once again split into two parts for OzTam rating purposes: ‘Opening Night’, which pulled the above numbers (1.031 million metro viewers), and ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, which attracted 914,000 metro viewers and 1.237 million nationally.
Both segments performed notably better than the 2020 equivalents, but worse than 2019, 2018, and 2017.
Last year, the first episode drew 980,000 metro viewers for ‘Opening Night’ and 873,000 for ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. The year before, the premiere pulled 1.098 million and 1.014 million metro viewers for the respective segments, and in 2018, had 1.274 million for ‘Opening Night’, and 1.108 million for ‘Welcome to the Jungle’.
In 2017, the opening episode was up against the Australian Open men’s final, securing 1.103 million for ‘Opening Night’ and 963,000 for ‘Welcome to the Jungle’.
This year, the show started even earlier than in 2020, when it began on 5 January, and earlier than in 2019. However, unlike some previous years, the program is not competing against Nine’s Australian Open coverage, given the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on some live sports including tennis.
Ten’s national sales director, Lisa Squillace, added that the season “is off to a terrific start” and has “had an unprecedented take up of sponsorships on the show”.
She said: “Keep your eyes peeled because you will get to see over the next few weeks, just how innovatively and seamlessly we have integrated these brands into the narrative of the show.
“And, if things go right for our tired and hangry celebrities, these brands will provide that little bit of luxury they so desperately crave in the middle of the Aussie jungle.”
Seven News was the third highest-performing show of the evening last night based on metro viewers with 888,000 metro viewers, but was sandwiched between I’m a Celebrity’s ‘Opening Night’ and ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ segments on a national basis.
Nine News was just behind Seven on 852,000, followed by ABC News on 623,000, and 60 Minutes – which ran from 7pm to 8pm, overlapping with I’m a Celebrity – on 487,000.
The first session of the Big Bash match between Adelaide and the Sydney Sixers – which went up against Ten’s I’m a Celebrity – drew 399,000 metro viewers for Seven, dropping off to 325,000 for the second session (the innings break had 348,000 metro viewers). The Big Bash ran from 7pm to 11pm.
Contributing to its 30.5% network share, Ten had a 23.6% channel share last night, well ahead of both Nine (15.5% channel share and 25% network share) and Seven (16.4% channel share and 23.9% network share).
10 Bold, which had a number of NCIS episodes running from 7:30pm to 10:20pm, was the most-watched multi-channel of the night with a 4.6% share.
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Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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Big Bash
cricket
Daniel Monaghan
I'm a celebrity...get me out of here
Lisa Squillace
Nine
Seven
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