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Outland out as ABC struggles on Wednesday

Ratings: The final episode of Outland limped out of ABC1's Wednesday line-up, but at least the broadcaster was loyal to its audience.

The final episode of Outland limped out at 164,000 last night, after failing to connect with ABC’s Wednesday comedy audiences. But it’s worth pointing out that ABC stuck with the show when a commercial network would have moved on its numbers long ago.

Next week Agony Uncles takes its place.

The night was once again a win for Seven.

My Kitchen Rules pulled just under 1.7m viewers, followed by Seven News (1.23m), Today Tonight (1.05m), Please Marry My Boy (1.02m) and Home and Away (914,000).

Nine News (1.06m) led Nine’s evening then A Current Affair (1.00m), The Big Bang Theory (826,000 / 780,000 / 722,000), and Unforgettable (609,000).

The Biggest Loser (853,000) is regularly the strongest show for TEN. It was followed by TEN News (707,000), Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (609,000), The Good Wife (462,000), and The Project (460,000).

ABC News again won its slot with 995,000 followed by 7:30 (612,000), Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight (531,000) and Woodley (346,000). At the Movies was 192,000.

Arctic with Bruce Parry (306,000) and Empire (265,000) gave SBS ONE a relatively good Wednesday.

Heartbeat topped multichannels with 302,000. Kitchen Cabinet was 186,000 for ABC2.

Sunrise: 373,000
Today: 281,000
ABC News Breakfast: 45,000 / 11,000
Breakfast: 44,000

Wednesday 14 March 2012

24 Responses

  1. @Darcey09, actually the ABC doesn’t *have* to produce shows that will attract an audience, that’s not in their charter 😉

    This said, if one of their original short run comedies doesn’t get a mass audience, so be it. That’s how most comedies should be, especially on the ABC and SBS. One or two “Kath and Kim”‘s a decade is enough.

  2. Outland reminded me of The Book Group – also a niche program that was never likely to attract large numbers – and also well written, performed and entertaining. Ratings are important to broadcasters (do viewers care?), but so is the unique offering and fostering of new programming.

  3. I’ll admit I wish the documentary on ABC2 on Wednesday was aired at 8.30pm as I would of watched it. I like Kitchen Cabinet where Annabel Crabb dines with pollies. Although the documentary would of caused a clash with At the Movies with the next show (i.e. Kitchen Cabinet ). However there was one anyway where At the Movies was scheduled to start earlier than 10pm and Kitchen Cabinet to end later or 9.57pm and 10.02pm. So people miss the first 5 minutes. The documentary itself wouldn’t of done that.

    I really wish when Woodley ends they put QI on Wednesday at 8pm. And maybe next year bring back The New Inventors without the celebrity judges.

    Lastly I miss Fringe. I really hope that GO! will put it on after Easter since March seems like it’s not going to be on. Unless they choose the end of the month maybe. With no audience preparation or ads as far as I know about.

  4. Three of the Outland episodes (particularly the Aliens homage) were brilliant; the others were more miss than hit. But that’s not a bad strike rate for a new sitcom. (Absolutely Fabulous, for all its acclaim, is more miss than hit across the entire series.) On the basis of those great episodes, I’d say they deserve a second series.

  5. Outland was different to what I was expecting (basically a rip-off of Big Bang Theory, but they’d acknowledge that at least Sheldon and Raj were gay).

    However, I really grew to enjoy it and the series seemed to improve with each and every episode. I’d happily watch a second series, as incredibly unlikely as that is to be made.

  6. @Andrew_83 Science Fiction is probably the most popular genre in TV/Film, its just sometimes people are hesitant to come-out as a Scifi fan, hence the metaphor for the show and similarities between the two demographics noted in your post.

    And to think all Science Fiction fans are geeks, is pretty immature. Guess I wont see you at the next con.

  7. I thought it was exactly the kind of thing the ABC should be making – never going to get picked up by a commercial network.Completely different to anything else on our screens at the moment. Really refreshing.

  8. I must admit, I forgot to watch any episode.

    In any case, just because it was about gay sci-fi geeks doesn’t mean it can only be watched by gay sci-fi geeks. Good on the ABC though. More Australian variety is what we need.

  9. We actually expected it to be a flop, but we gave it a chance and were hooked from episode one. Anyone who pigeon-holes it as a show merely about gay sci-fi fans simply hasn’t watched it. The scripts were tight and full of clever humour, the acting was superb and the production values high. It’s a crying shame we can’t have more of this kind of thing and less “reality” TV.

  10. Terrible numbers for TGW, which just got renewed for a 4th season. Although, not as bad as NCIS:LA and H50 were getting 2-3 weeks ago

    How many episodes of Please Marry My Boy are there? Please get that shit off the air

  11. Outland improved a lot over its short run. My recording failed last night, so I will have to catch it on ABC2 tonight. Well done to all involved for trying.

  12. I really have no idea who greenlit this one? I mean it’s a show about gay scifi geeks, could you get anymore specific in the demographic for the show?

    Having said that they comedy was good and so was the writing but it needs to be used in a show that the masses will relate to.

  13. I thought Outland was terrible. Not funny at all.

    I worried for MKR last night. Easter theme, special guests, the contestants were guessing people from the church or the Dalai Lama. Had that had happened i would have turned off. Glad it was just their families.
    Masterchef jumped the shark for me with their Dalai Lama episode, hopefully MKR doesn’t go down that path.

  14. I enjoyed this programme. It was quite funny and well made. It’s good to see the ABC supporting locally made products. I just don’t think that the ABC did enough to promote the programme – resulting in the low ratings. However, ratings are fickle things at the best of times, and the low numbers do not reflect on the quality of the writing, nor the high production values. I’d like to see this show developed further.

  15. I enjoyed Outland. My wife & I was been loyal to friends, as we know John Richards who wrote it.
    I thought it was brillant, you can never tell what the public like these days.

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