TV viewers deride Ten’s 20 To 01 lookalike The Spearman Experiment
The online reaction to Ten’s new hope The Spearman Experiment was mainly hostile last night, with many viewers deriding the show as a rip-off of Nine’s 20 To 01.
Ten had attempted to build intrigue around The Spearman Experiment with a series of mysterious trailers suggesting that its content had to be kept secret until the last moment.
However, the show – fronted by Magda Szubanski – bears a close resemblance to Nine’s reliable ratings warhorse 20 To 01 hosted by Bert Newton. The main difference appeared to be that the show was based around a list created from on an opinion survey, although the details of that were left vague.
Even former Ten presenter Mike Goldman – one of the Big Brother hosts – pointed out its similarities, tweeting: “Anyone like the spearman experiment? Like 20 to 1 sure!? But new and with different people!?
And comedian and TV writer Dan Ilic also waded in, tweeting: “OH MAN…by the sounds of it Spearman is worth missing.”
Media personality Mia Freedman also pointed to the resemblance to 20 To 01, although she was one of the few people in the blogosphere to have kind things to say about the show itself: “Anyone watching Spearman Experiment? How do you think it compares to 20to1? I like it. Same show but a wee bit fresher.”
The show failed to rate as well as 20 To 01, attracting only just above 1m viewers, according to preliminary ratings from OzTam. It failed to break into the top ten TV shows of the night.
Among the comments from viewers on Twitter:
- enzo_tedeschi: @danilic Hows about ‘Spearman Experiment = 20 to 1 on a different network’. They haven’t even tried to disguise it. Ugh.
- yoursavinggrace: yeah spearman is shit. I actually like magda but hosting shows like that aint doing her career any favours!!
- robotsdream: Spearman Experiment was atrocious! Where’s the axe?
- RickMeasham: Who on earth greenlighted Spearman Experiment? Did 20 to 1 rate so well for 9 it was worth a total carbon copy? What’s the point of diffrns?
- evkip: Did anyone watch the Spearman Experiment? How do you think in compares to 20 to 1? I think SAME!! SAME!!
- stezza666: @joshthomas87 Josh, Spearman was crap – you know it – we all know it. Next!
- stezza666: After the painful 7pm Report, they’ve decided to greenlight the horrendous SPEARMAN EXPERIMENT. Oh sweet goddess save me!
- liamjohnson: to me The Spearman Project was a rip off of 20 to 1, and Bert was transformed into Magda, they do look similar i guess.
- Mr_CamMarshall: Ch 10 ripped off 20 to 1 the only difference between that and The Spearman Experiment is the use of a different well-loved fat Australian
- andrewcrook: Am I missing something? Exactly which part of The Spearman Experiment is experimental? Oh, I see. They’re testing Magda being not funny.
- tsangtammy: channel10 you can axe the spearman experiment now. just bring back talkin bout your gen if youre really that desperate to bring down 20to1.
- tweet_renee: lol ‘the spearman experiment’ is just an obvious copy of ’20-1′ but with channel 10 celebs and worse graphics. why nikki osborne, why!?!?!
- vikkiprattles: Ten’s new show: Spearman factor, or whatever it is. It’s crap. And I wanted so much to like it.
- michellek_: How terrible was Erin Mcnought on Spearman experiment? PS what a copycat show!
- Binda13: Spearman Experiment ….stupid it’s not LIKE 20 to 1 it’s exactly the same!!! Get an original idea Channel 10. Both shows are shit!
- oliyoung: Channel Ten haven’t even tried to hide that this is a cheap 20-to-1 rip-off right?
- TreacyDW: This #spearman experiment bullshit is just 20 to 1 on another channel
- kas2810: to be honest spearman experiment – really is like 20-1. is there no copyright law against that ? haha
- yoursavinggrace: @mirrorballsuit there was so much hype for that bloody spearman experiment on tv, I was expecting AT THE VERY LEAST an original idea!!
- bexy81: I liked the spearman experiment, was a good watch
- chicken1979: not sure about the spearman experiment. magda could do better
- TuesdayAddams: I only needed to see 30 secs of The Spearman Experiment to know I never need to see it again.
- MattBatten: @Ch10, if you’re going to copy a Ch9 program, why choose that 20-to-1 gobshite? Someone should lose their job for greenlighting Spearman.
And users of the TV Tonight website were similarly critical.
Meanwhile Tuesday was dominated by Seven, with Packed To The Rafters winning the night.
- Seven: 33.4%
- Nine: 24.4%
- Ten: 21.3%
- ABC1: 12.3%
- SBS1 3.7%
- ABC2: 1.9%
- GO!: 1.8%
- ONE: 0.8%
- SBS2: 0.4%
Tuesday’s top ten TV shows:
- Packed to the Rafters Seven 1.9m
- Today Tonight Seven 1.6m
- Seven News Seven 1.5m
- Two and a Half Men – 7:00pm Nine 1.3m
- World Food Spectacular Seven 1.2m
- 20 to 1 Nine 1.2m
- Home and Away Seven 1.2m
- Nine News Nine 1.2m
- All Saints Seven 1.2m
- A Current Affair Nine 1.1m
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large. He returned to Mumbrella as Publisher in January 2025
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they tried to copy 20 to 01, but could only manage 15 to 01.
25% fail
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i wonder how many of these commentators on twitter are media wankers. i’ve never heard a normal person use the term ‘greenlight’ in a conversation.
Well 20 to 1 is just a copy of a zillion British shows. I don’t know why Magda does this sort of thing. Why doesn’t she write something or get a group of writers together and pitch something?
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Next thing on Channel 10’s list of programing is “Australia’s Most Awesome Couples”
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Same script… Different cast. I agree with Billy C. Why can’t these talented writters and comedians create something for Australian Audiences?
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Agreed – not even thinly disguised.
http://screamedia.blogspot.com.....us-15.html
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Seriously, I had to keep checking the logo at the bottom of the screen to make sure i wasn’t watching Channel 9!
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Its a real pity, given the success of Generation.
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“Even former Ten presenter Mike Goldman – one of the Big Brother hosts – pointed out its similarities, tweeting: “Anyone like the spearman experiment? Like 20 to 1 sure!? But new and with different people!”
but … um … wasn’t Goldman on the show himself?
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I watched it for two reasons…
1. To see what it was like as the adverts did not really give it much of an explanation of what it would be like/about. Now seeing it, it’s 20-1 minus 10! Will probably stick with ole Bert unless I don’t like that the 20’s topic is
2. Could not stand the 15 minutes of fame thing they had on 20-1…chk-chk boom, bum dance..etc – kill me now!
The last 24 hrs has been a busy time for Magda – Kyle’s verbal sludge, her appearance on the 7PM Project and then Spearman….
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Ooh a “sinsister plot thickens” – perhaps the whole Sandilands & Magda crap was purposefully engineering by some cocained fuelled PR wanker to add intrigue and drive viewers to this ridiculous program ???
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15 to one was pretty p1ss poor really. I hung around to see a few clips of Norman Gunston, but I found it galling that two of the winners on the night were the celeb/commentators. Is it a lack of humility, or a clumsy attempt to make them look important. Magda winning a spot was one thing, but Peter Helliar? Give us a break. I’m not from Melbourne so I’d never even heard of this footy character he was supposed to do. Eric Bana only made it so you could show footage of him now and marvel at the change. What was worse though, was the insistence that I’d somehow voted for these ridiculous results – “These are YOUR choices!”. I’d never even heard of the bloody show before, let alone been offered the chance to suggest winners. If so, I would have voted for Aunty Jack!
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“Well 20 to 1 is just a copy of a zillion British shows”. Yeah but we don’t see those British shows on free-to-air. Steal smart. 20 to 1 is easily accessible and it’s bewildering why Channel 10 thought a copy of it would be a great idea.
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It does make Network Ten seem silly trying to put a very similar show against 20-1 in the same timeslot.
After getting such consistant high ratings for Talkin’ ’bout your Generation, did they think the same could be done for Spearman? They may as well put the Simpsons in that timeslot and would do better!
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Well, I think you guys should shut up. I thought that the show was pretty good. I like 20-01 as well but the show is sort of muddled up with completely different time slots. I got so confused with the timing of 20-01 (e.g. 8:30 Thursday was changed into 8:30 Tuesday WTF???) and there were also so many different countdowns like 10-01, 50-01 and so on.
So stop complaining people and just get a life instead of complaining about a show. Don’t say that TEN should axe it because it you think it sucks, people still like it and I’m not leaving too early.
And what I like about this is that you can vote. Although they left the info on voting fade, just search around and don’t be lazy!!!
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I believe that the Spearman Experiment was a lot better than its competitor. Magda is awesome. It is more informative than the other show.. and voting by the Australian public — and showing which states the person got better results in!! That is genius in my books….
I LOVED IT!!!
BRING IT ON!!!
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AJ – State your case my darling but don’t be rude with the personal attacks. It shows your age xxx
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There is nothing wrong with a little competition. If ten feel that they can take on a well established 20 to 1 then let them try.
My only real critique was the fact that Magda was so obviously reading from a script and wasn’t able to ‘relax’ and be funny. There were definitely a couple of cringe-worthy moments.
As for the voting, maybe the fact that there was some controversy over the results will drive people to vote in order to represent better. I agree that they made it very unclear as to how the votes were collected in the first place but if they’re smart they’ll use the controversy from that to encourage people to take the time to vote next time.
I personally think it will flop but I don’t think there is any harm in trying in this case.
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Worst show ever, give the axe 10 thats embarrassing
Madgna cant get a decent job because she is not funny, she use to be the fat chick, now shes just bland, and get over the kyle shit u fat mess!
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Well it should only be axed if it delivers poor ratings. However it being on at the same time as 20 to 1 isn’t a very smart decision…actually, it’s a stupid decision. It’s like having the Footy Show on at the same time as Before the game.
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