Iron Chef final sees audience fizzle
Seven’s final episode of Iron Chef delivered a miserable 768,000 on Tuesday night while the network’s Parenthood rated just 724,000.
Previously Seven has been winning Tuesdays thanks to Packed To The Rafters, which finished last week.
However, Nine failed to capitalise on Seven’s weaker schedule with Top Gear rating just 829,000, according to preliminary overnight ratings from OzTam.
Top show for the night was Ten’s Talkin Bout Your Generation, which rated 1.45m, while NCIS, also on Ten, was second with 1.31m.
Seriously, I could have (and did) predict that an antipodean mainstream whitewashed Iron Chef, lacking in its idiosyncratic features and context, would be a complete flop. I wonder how much the debacle cost Seven? I could have saved them that money. If only they’d pick up the phone. I’m only a phone call away. And I’d only ask for half the amount saved as a fee. Now that’s value.
Has anyone heard the radio advertisement by SBS for the original Iron Chef? It asks in a Japanse accent, “what does Japan do better than Australia?”, before rattling off a list including karaoke, karate – and Iron Chef!
I’m not doing it any justice (you just had to be there…). It’s clever, cheeky and encompasses what audiences have been saying perfectly – the completely foreign and wacky Iron Chef is entertaining BECAUSE it is wacky, not because of the cooking.
Last night was the first time I watched Iron Chef (albeit only for about 20 mins), and it wasn’t bad. I hated the judges though (I hate the judges on all of these types of programs). Would have been better if they were cooking for an average Aussie foodie, I reckon.
As for Your Generation, I don’t get it. It’s just as “weird” as ThankGod You’re Here and (to a lesser extent) Good News Week. The crowd laughs, but either I don’t get the joke… or it’s just not funny.