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803,000 as House Rules fails launch test

Ratings: Seven's House Rules underperforms -even lower than Celebrity Splash and The Renovators launches.

2013-05-15_1006On this post-Budget day there are a lot of news headlines about awful set of numbers but none of them relate to the launch of Seven’s House Rules last night.

The show launched with just 803,000 viewers, which in Seven terms is cause for alarm. The show was soundly beaten by Nine’s renovation show The Block (1.3m).

But to put it into other contexts, Celebrity Splash launched to 1.31m. It was even lower than TEN’s Renovators launch in 2011 (939,000) and Excess Baggage on Nine (885,000). Seven’s decision to launch Celebrity Splash out of its My Kitchen Rules appears to have impacted on the network’s momentum. Seven will be hoping for a lift when it gets to its big house reveal episode. Whether that’s enough to lock in new viewers remains to be seen.

Meanwhile moving The Voice to 8pm has also seen its numbers drop to 1.6m, but within a larger plan of partnering with The Block, Nine easily won the night but Seven held onto second thanks to other shows such as Packed to the Rafters.

Nine’s share was 33.4% then Seven 25.8%, ABC 17.7%, TEN 16.6% and SBS 6.5%.

The Voice topped the night with 1.6m for Nine but it also ran 30 minutes over and evening numbers will need to be adjusted.  The Block was 1.3m, Nine News was 1.29m, ACA was 1.07m and Celebrity Apprentice Boardroom was 749,000.

Seven News (1.3m) was best for Seven then Today Tonight (1.09m), Packed to the Rafters (1.08m), Home and Away (891,000), House Rules (803,000), Deal or No Deal (567,000), Border Security: International (470,000) and Travel Unravelled (269,000).

ABC News was 899,000 for ABC1 followed by New Tricks (710,000), 7:30 (663,000), Budget 2013 (620,000), At the Movies (432,000) and Time Team (349,000).

TEN’s night was again under par with TEN News (695,000), NCIS (665,000), The Biggest Loser (627,000), The Project (503,000), NCIS: LA (485,000). The Simpsons was 388,000.

The Rove McManus episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was the highest this season at 583,000 for SBS ONE. Insight was 230,000, World News Australia was 179,000 and Dateline was 155,000.

Shaun the Sheep led multichannels with 337,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Tuesday 14 May 2013

66 Responses

  1. Oops, I meant “Mr & Mrs Murder”. Two hours of great viewing coming up, anyway. Just not on 7 tonight.
    Noted “All New Modern Family” was actually a 2011 multiple-repeat.

  2. Switched over to 7 at 8:00 or so during an ad break elsewhere. Ugh. Switched back to 7 again at 8:10 or so. The identical scene repeated – woman arrives in SVU, “where’s my door”, (cue bad acting). How to stretch an hour to 90 minutes – or however long it runs. Just repeat 50% of it. Oh well, only 10 more minutes ’til “The Good Wife”.

  3. House Rules was good viewing, but like so many have said, 7 dropped the ball by not launching it on the back of MKR. Hopefully they stick with it.

    The Voice’s runtime last night was ridiculous. The Celebrity Apprentice was advertised for a 9pm start, the EPG had The Voice ending at 9:17 yet it was still going at 9:30. I wouldn’t mind so much if The Voice was actually half-decent. I am in the minority of viewers who just don’t get the hype with this show. Cheap production, terrible editing and less-than-impressive talent. The X-Factor outshines it in all aspects.

  4. I didn’t house rules properly last night but I did watch parts. I don’t like watching renovating shows (though I did watch the block when it was once a week.) I doubt I will watch it every night maybe when there is nothing on. I guess when I saw the ad that said you will get to see a house fully renovated every week it sounded ok. You wouldn’t have to commit to a whole season just watching one week you would get something out of it.

    Haven’t watched the voice from last night yet. Find the elimination shows quite boring. Don’t know if I’ll bother. Disappointed Emma Pask is gone. Its crap when talent is lost and some mediocre performers from other teams get through.

  5. Not surprising since they chose to wait and wait and wait and wait and put it up against The Voice.
    As long as they show it on nights against The Voice, it will not get a good chance at getting the ratings.

  6. @The Moops – I may stand corrected, but I seem to remember the guy chairing Celebrity Apprentice arriving and paying out someone’s mortgage – a long time ago. Was pushing his old mortgage company before Yellow Brick Road. On Undercover Angels, Renovation Rescue, Domestic Blitz, or one of the many others. They all seem to blur into one.
    As usual, the picture selected above is perfect.

  7. Admittedly, House Rules and it’s ilk are not mind challenging entertainment but at the end of a long day some folk (myself included) like to relax with a bit of light entertainment that doesn.t include murder,forensics,kidnappings,flawed heroes with drug/relationship or mental problems.So what to do with the current overlap of reno/cooking/talent/celebrity shows? You put it all in one show-call it Changing Lives. Celebrity couples from the Renovators, the block and house rules all compete to build homes for people in need,(the charity element ala block). At mealtimes they could have a cook-off (ala my kitchen rules). The winner could win a new home and get a makeover to transform their lives. The possibilities are endless! So networks get to it!

  8. This show is DOA. Seven should learn from what Nine did to Excess Baggage.

    Kill it and kill it quickly before it does too much damage to your schedule.

  9. God those House rules figures are bad, prob get 700k tonight.
    On another note, ten has finally added more bl with next wed! Although it’s a bit annoying they show us in a promo who makes it past this sundays weigh in!!

  10. I have noticed on 7 Melbourne news they are having lots and lots of breaking news lately. The other night they had a breaking story and they went to a reporter who had filed the story earlier as it was a bright sunny day and it was dark outside. Has breaking news replaced First on Seven. Not sure if the others are doing this as I don’t watch them. Just getting sick of being treated as a dumb viewer.

  11. Really enjoyed Rove on SBS last night. This is real TV, not reality TV. I come across a lot of the promos for House Rules but just couldn’t get interested in another reality show. How many do they think we want to watch. Give us a break and do some real stuff like SBS did last night.

  12. David! a bit off topic, but I’ve wanted to know for a while, what’s the Late Night! battle ratings between:
    Craig Ferguson (Eleven)
    David Letterman (Ten) and
    Conan (GO!)

    Thanks David!!

  13. @ David Knox
    Oh Dear David you may have let your guard slip a little, fancy giving me such an opportunity, following your very first line of this item, and hope you will allow me to draw a similar comparison budget wise and Kochie’s (representing Network Seven) grilling of our PM in Canberra this morning, where he questioned her and asked how could they get their revenue predictions so wrong this year, and was it stupid of them to promise so much this year budget wise? ( his interviews have now even rated mention in today’s session of parliament question time )

    Following your first line budget comparisons, and after watching Kochie, prompted several thoughts to immediately came to mind, first being the old saying “People in Glass Houses shouldn’t Throw Stones” ( prediction wise??), and another being, was it stupid to “Promise So Much” ironically also in the similarity between the Hype of Endless Promos, as with most of Network Seven’s and Network 10’s “Hits and Misses” and leading to another saying of ” Was it Luck or Good Management” and finally “Are The Chickens now coming home to Roost” at Network seven??

  14. I don’t usually watch a lot of reality tv. But I did last night. Didn’t really like what I saw. Parts of other shows all worked into this one?!
    And the woman cracking open the piggy bank?!! Really???? And the constant ads for tomorrow’s show? I’ll give it a miss from now on!

  15. Yes will Networks ever learn. Golden rule of television never put a similar new show up against a popular established show. It rarely works. Excess Baggage vs The Biggest Loser, The Renovators vs The Block are prime examples. One of the reasons My Restaurant Rules and Masterchef worked well is because they are not up against each at different times of the year. Viewers have only so much time during the week and will stick with what they know instead of trying something new.

    How good is Celebrity Apprentice!! just loving all the bitchiness

    P.S Lovin’ you work David, your site is a must daily visit

  16. A disappointing result for Seven, but what should be more concerning to Nine is that HR beat The Block in Perth and HR also beat The Voice in perth! Although owned by WIN, this still regularly affects their national figures significantly. Wonder when they’ll actually do something about it.

  17. @DavidKnox I’m guessing you tipped the mortgage pay-off as the prize??? Can you also tip whats gonna happen to this show considering its got lower ratings that Celebrity Splash which has started missing shows….hmmm surely they wouldnt just take House Rules off our screens, that would be even more embarrasing than last nights numbers……

  18. @Jason, you’re right, it is disingenuous for Seven to claim that “it has never been done before”. Of course, renovating the interior of a house has been done plenty of times before – The Block and The Renovators immediately spring to mind. Perhaps they meant the reno being done by people other than the owners? Wrong again, Seven. About 10 years ago, Channel Nine had a show called Changing Rooms where people went into each others home and made over parts of the house. Like you, I think they must have been referring to the prize of the mortgage payout which they probably can claim is an TV first.

    @Secret Squirrel – LMAO!!

    If ratings don’t improve over coming weeks, Seven will have made the exact same error Ten made two years ago with The Renovators. Oh well, I guess they can always push it over to Seven Two or Mate.

  19. Promoted as “For the first time (“ever”) on Australian television. Apparently the “for the first time” bit is the winner’s mortgage is paid out.
    That’s never been done before? Guess Seven execs. haven’t been watching too much TV over the past decade. Done. Several times.
    But maybe I’m wrong. Like so many, I didn’t watch it.

  20. I have a feeling that a lot of viewers may have been put of watching anything on FTA last night knowing that all programs would be interrupted with budget updates.

  21. Quick Seven! Introduce some gate crashers who happen to be a couple of ethnically diverse yet bitchy girls. That’ll keep people glued to your crappy program.

    So which Seven program will be the next to tank? The Mole?

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