Just 856,000 for first episode of The Renovators
Ten’s The Renovators delivered a hugely disappointing 856,000 for its launch episode, according to preliminary overnight metro ratings from OzTam.
This was despite inheriting an audience of 1.734m from Masterchef.
The Renovators, running from 8.30pm to 9.40pm, was 12th for the night, well behind rival home improvement show The Block, which rated 1.828m for Nine (with a peak of 2.376m) and won the night.
However, it wasn’t all good news for Nine either. Its telemovie Panic At Rock Island, from 8.30pm to 10.30pm, rated just 596,000, 18th for the night.
The winning 8.30pm show was Seven’s series return of Bones which rated 1.071m.
The Renovators – produced by Shine – is among the most expensive pieces of programming aired by Ten. The show is stripped across the daily schedule.
However, despite the low launch numbers, Ten’s programmers will point to the fact that the first series of Masterchef also started slowly.
A Ten spokesman said: “This is a solid start for an exceptionally well-made show and we expect the audience will build throughout the season. Last night, The Renovators achieved clear wins in Ten’s target demographics and once viewers get a taste for show, we’re confident they’ll be back for more.” Social media sentiment for the show was broadly positive.
Meanwhile, SBS scored one of its best audiences of the year with 704,000 tuning in for Aussie Cadel Evans’ victory lap in the Tour de France.
Cadel Evans (pic courtesy of afp.com)
Sunday’s Top 15 shows:
- The Block – Nine – 1.828m
- Masterchef – Ten – 1.734m
- Nine News – Nine – 1.668m
- Seven News – Seven – 1.528m
- Sunday Night – Seven – 1.284m
- 60 Minutes – Nine – 1.261m
- Midsomer Murders – ABC – 1.154m
- Sneak Peek: Australia’s Got Talent – Seven – 1.096m
- Bones – Seven – 1.071m
- Grand Designs- ABC – 1.040m
- Merlin – Ten – 0.872m
- The Renovators – Ten- 0.858m
- Great Migrations – Seven – 0.846m
- ABC News – ABC – 0.801m
- Castle – Seven – 0.797m
Sunday’s metro channel share:
Nine: 20.1%
Seven: 19.6%
Ten: 16.7%
ABC1: 13.2%
SBS1: 9.5%
GO!: 3.8%
One: 3.8%
Eleven: 3.2%
7mate: 2.4%
7Two: 2.4%
Gem: 2.3%
ABC2: 1.3%
SBS2: 0.7%
ABC News 24: 0.5%
ABC3: 0.3%
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Well they have been airing adverts for this new show for the last 3 weeks, constantly! You didn’t need to watch the first episode to know what it was going to contain.
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Have to say I was expecting so much more from the Renovators. Very dissapointing. All felt very same same – big spend, glossy, over the top setup for what? the Block has proved you dont need to spend big on production, nor be clever with ideas, nor edit a show well, nor cast particularly well to gat audience numbers – you just need to keep it real.
We need something quite different now – the masterchef model has run its course. All that shines is not gold!
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All I want to know is what were the other 22.3-million people doing while Cadel was winning yellow? Un-Australian not to be watching and cheering and shedding a tear with Cuddles.
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Wow…those numbers are diabolically bad.
The drop of 1 million-odd viewers from the lead-in is the really worrying thing.
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I did enjoy it although i thought it was a bit over produced and staged
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Perhaps they just need to go that little step extra to make The Renovators completely merge with Masterchef. Building houses out of food? Or build a kitchen? Or maybe even a cravat wardrobe?
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I liked the look of the show, but knowing it was going to be on 5-6 nights a week, we decided we just couldn’t committ to another 4-6 hours of TV a week.
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It was a stupid idea to put it on while the Block is still going and getting huge numbers- people who are interested in renovating have already invested their TV time into the Block. Plus the Block gets my vote becuase they don’t over-dramatise every single movement that the contestants make.
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I watched Reel Injun: The Hollywood Indian on ABC – far more fascinating on all counts!
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It’ll get there eventually – too much competition currently. Wait till Masterchef ends….
Participants are a little same as always. One of these, one of those, another of these and one completely off the wall etc etc. With Masterchef doing so well you’d think they would be able to assemble the best ingradients for a successful show ….. we’ll see. Give it another couple of weeks and it’ll pick up.
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Will be interesting to see if the consolidated ratings over the rest of the week does better> shows like this all compete for peak Sunday night viewers, but Peak now extends across Mon-Wed thanks to IQ / Digital channels and even online catch-up
Don’t underestimate the power of the water cooler conversation today – the sentiment in the twitter back channel was very positive.
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I couldn’t watch for the same reason mentioned by Hank. Having sold my 5-nights-a week soul to MasterChef, there’s no space left!
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WAY too similar to Masterchef. You couldn’t watch them both back to back as it would be like re-watching the exact same show. No surprise at all.
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@Reevesy
I doubt it will pick up much with consolidated ratings. The most time shifted programs are Drama’s. Even if you at abolute best added 10% to the numbers, and that being over generous, then it still under the Magic Million.
So far this is a disaster for 10.
I would also say Twitter wasnt positive. certainly not from what i read.
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Lower than Merlin! Need we say more!!
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What I find interesting is that you can NEVER guarantee a winner: whether it’s a TV show, a movie or an Ad.
Millions spent on research and yet creativity remains a lottery.
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@Ben
What do you mean? When Masterchef builds to an obvious ad-break crescendo they have a big flaming stove element to maintain suspense whereas Renovators has a hammer flying through to make a big yellow ‘R’. How different do you want them to be?
@RobN
Awesome idea. Reminded me of a great episode of the Dylan Moran comedy Black Books. The particular episode you reminded me of was where Bernard realises that selling food keeps customers in his store longer and so goes to increasing lengths in the kitchen. The best bit is where he tells Manny to make the soup into a tower as all fancy restaurants do that. So Renovators, a soup tower for cookie cutter contestants to grimace in please!
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@snorefest
Good point, plus the majority of ads are FFed by timeshifters, so consolidated ratings are useless to anyone apart from the in-programme advertisers. Oh, and networks wanting to pump up their numbers.
Timeshifting today is what re-runs were years ago, such is the speed of evrything.
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Thank god for Grand Designs and Midsomer Murders, both new seasons and new Inspector Barnaby…thanks ABC for me not having to put up with drivel.
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What happened to Panic at Rock Island?
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Chuckster – viewers looked at it and panicked, of course. That’s what it was designed to do, wasn’t it?
Wait.
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Does anyone know why AdNews is reporting an average audience of 933,000?
http://www.adnews.com.au/adnew.....rate-start
Which number is it?
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Hi Anon,
I’ll check later, but my first guess is this: Our story was written at about 9am, based on preliminary overnight metro ratings which are derived from the timeslot a show was due to be aired in. Later in the day it will have been revised for the actual airtime (if memory serves, I think I noticed Masterchef overrunning.) So both numbers may be right. There will also be a different number including regional viewing. And in a week’s time, yet another number including time shifted viewing. Take your pick…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Thanks Tim.
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