Ninja Warrior final stage tops 3m national viewers
The grand final of Nine’s Ninja Warrior pulled 2.145m metro viewers in its final stage last night, making it the only entertainment show of the year to crack the 2m mark. And taking into account regional viewing too, the national number for the show was 3.087m.
During the show’s three week Sunday-to-Tuesday run it consistently topped the key advertising demographics of 16-39s, 18-49s, and 25-54s.
While there was no winner, contestant Fred Dorrington made it the furthest
Nine split the program into two different shows for ratings purposes , with the main grand final show averaging 2.038m metro viewers and a total of 2.921m viewers nationally.
However, the show also saw a social media backlash after none of the 21 finalists completed the full course.
So there's no winner ?? #NinjaWarrior what the ??
— Brendan Fevola (@BrendanFevola25) July 25, 2017
Is there actually a winner ??#NinjaWarrior
— Chadd Sayers (@Chaddsayers27) July 25, 2017
So who wins?? 🤔 What and ending.. 😑 #NinjaWarrior
— Jackson Hastings (@JackoHastings) July 25, 2017
Ninja Warrior GF = Massive Let down #NinjaWarrior
— Ted Helliar (@ted_helliar) July 25, 2017
Nine’s Ninja Warrior host, Rebecca Maddern responded:
It took 7 seasons in the US for a ninja warrior to be crowned. I thought the Aussies were exceptional! Bring on season 2 #NinjaWarriorAU
— Rebecca Maddern (@Rebecca7Maddern) July 25, 2017
Nine’s director of television, Michael Healy, said the reception of the show had been “phenomenal.”
“We are thrilled to see Australian audiences responding so strongly to a new format. The result is driven by appointment family viewing, and it demonstrates the power of free-to-air television to aggregate mass audiences.”
According to Nine, the metro audience average was 1.727m, higher than the average 1.409m viewers who tuned in to the Olympics last year.
Helen McCabe, Nine’s head of lifestyle said the Australian audience’s appetite for Ninja Warrior content has been “fascinating.”
“Across our digital lifestyle network we have seen different types of Ninja-related stories do well on different properties.
“For example, on 9Honey it has been the inspirational stories that have done well. On 9Coach, readers have wanted to know what level of physical training goes into to being an Australian Ninja Warrior, while on 9TheFix the top stories have really been driven by readers wanting to know how a celebrity like Justice Crew members Samson Smith and John Pearce did on the course.”
Nine’s chief sales officer, Michael Stephenson, said the show had delivered what Nine had promised – “solid audience growth for 2017 in the three key demographics that matter: audiences 25-54, 16-39 and Grocery Buyer with Child.”
Nine has said the prize of $100,000 while increase year on year, with $200,000 up for grabs next year. It will continue to increase until a contestant wins the show.
Ninja Warrior helped Nine to one of its most dominant audience shares of the year with a 36.6% share, well ahead of its closest competitor Seven, at 13.9%. ABC came in third, with a share of 10%, ahead of Ten’s 7.1% and SBS’ 4.2%.
Ten’s All Star Family Feud reached 355,000 metro viewers, while Seven’s 7.30pm offering, Mighty Cruise Ships had a metro audience of 369,000.
Other than the news, Seven’s most watched program of the night was Home and Away, with 713,000 metro viewers while Ten’s most popular show was The Project, with a metro audience of 540,000 at 7pm.
Seven’s Yummy Mummies rated a 281,000 metro audience.
Seven won on the news front, with 1.067m metro viewers, beating Nine’s 998,000.
