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1.68m launches new TV hit, Australian Ninja Warrior.

Ratings: Nine's gleaming athletes have wiped the floor, launching as the biggest non-sports audience of the year.

Australian TV has a new hit.

Australian Ninja Warrior pulled a massive 1.68m viewers last night, landing as the biggest non-sports audience of the year.

Its biggest crowd was in Sydney with 591,000 viewers then Melbourne at 483,000. The show also topped all 3 demos.

Nines launch thumped the finale of House Rules with 1.14m for the winner announced and scraping over the line at 1.01m for the bulk of the show. MasterChef Australia wasn’t even on the mat at 625,000 in the middle of that crossfire.

Nine won Sunday with a 35.9% share then Seven 29.2%, TEN 13.6%, ABC 13.1% and SBS 8.2%.

Following Australian Ninja Warrior for Nine was Nine News (1.24m) and 60 Minutes (865,000).

Seven News was best for Seven at 1.3m viewers then House Rules (1.14m / 1.01m) and Yummy Mummies (755,000 / 428,000).

MasterChef Australia had to settle for 625,00 viewers for TEN then Bull (326,000) and Modern Family (293,000 / 267,000). Family Feud was 202,000 and NCIS: New Orleans was 200,000.

ABC News (697,000), Grand Designs NZ (495,000), Poldark (433,000), Death in Paradise (314,000) comprised ABC’s night.

On SBS it was Tour de France (248,000), Treasures Decoded (219,000), SBS World News (207,000) and Great British Railway Journeys (134,000).

Bananas in Pyjamas topped multichannels with 197,000 viewers.

OzTAM Overnights: Sunday 9 July 2017

Updated.

53 Responses

  1. I loved Aussie Ninja Warrior but certainly doesn’t make up for the plugs every 5 minutes. The commentary was below average so I didn’t bother to even listen. Those Parkour Twins are unreal! I hope it gets another season.

  2. What! 755000 people watched Yummy Mummies! WIth the reviews being so terrible maybe they watched it to confirm the worst. Seems like some people are easily pleased.

  3. This idea in a less elaborate form was developed in the sixties for British TV, so everything old is new again. After seeing Arrow’s Stephen Amell showing his athletic strength on YouTube in the American version I thought the value of having an Australian version of the show would be too hard to resist.

    1. One is Rebecca Maddern (former Seven News veteran from Melbourne, now co-host of The Footy Show).

      The other is Ben Fordham (former Today Show & current Sydney radio talk-back host).

      And I take it you know Freddie Flintoff (former UK cricket great & former special commentator for Ten’s BBL).

  4. There seemed to be a lot of ad breaks in ANW last night… at least the bits I watched. The show seemed very repetitious. I’m perplexed by last night’s numbers. I can’t see them being sustained. The show made me think of Wipeout, which is actually fun to watch.

  5. Found Ninja Warriors quite boring overall.
    The handful of incredibly agile contestants that made it through the course were the only thing of interest. Great to see them triumph over all the posturing meatheads with big muscles.
    Agree that Freddy Flintoff has been ordinary so far but he hasn’t got much to work with.

  6. Ninja Warriors, not interested. No FTA for me after 7.30. Watched horror/sci-fi movie “The Mist” instead. Stephen King. When earthquakes/floods/trouble strikes, head for the shopping centre! What advertiser could want more?

  7. Core show of ANW was fine, but the commentary team was terrible. Even Flintoff, who did so well entertaining in the BBL comm box, sounded like a walking cliché soundboard.

    The amount of time wasted on backstory and “personality creation” was also awful, but completely to be expected given the success of it in other formats.

  8. I want really interested in watching Ninja Warrior. My husband was keen so watched it with him. Turned out I really enjoyed it. Something different. It does kind of remind me of the old “Gladiators” show and “It’s a knockout”.

  9. We enjoyed Ninja warrior in the ad-breaks from the House Rules final – it was great to see an Aussie version. But the female host was enough for me to want to change the channel.

  10. Good opening numbers for Ninja. People are looking for something different. We’ll see how the second and third eps fare.

    I would have given it a look but I’m committed to a different sport on SBS for the next couple of weeks.

  11. “biggest non-sports audience of the year”

    …looked like sport to me. Maybe technically classified as “sports entertainment”, but to me it’s definitely sport.

  12. I quite enjoyed the concept of Ninja Warrior, but I don’t think the hosting lineup was right. They needed either actual sports commentators or comedians. I don’t think Rebecca Maddern and Ben Fordham gelled, and Freddie Flintoff was pretty ordinary as sideline interviewer. But the action itself was quite captivating.

    1. Wondering if someone at 9 could remind the commentators they have microphones and it’s not necessary to yell, if they speak normally we can hear them just fine.

  13. I lasted all of 15 minutes with Ninja Warriors…not my thing and the commentators drove me crazy. Cannot believe that many watched Yummy Mummies…OMG

  14. We have watched MCA since it began missing the odd episode but we’ve grown tired of it & have missed the last week or more. Have caught up on taped shows or Netflix. Perhaps other viewers are a bit tired and tried other shows. We will tune back in close to the finale.

    Not interested in Ninja Warriors and cannot believe how many tuned in!! I guess 9 knew it would be popular but will that number stick?

    Enjoying Poldark on ABC, but figures seem lower this year?

    1. Poldark will continue to lose viewers because of the blatant deviation from the books in this Season. Some alterations to the storyline are to be expected in any adaptation, but the disrespect in changing the character’s personalities (especially Demelza) is really pushing the book fans away.

      1. Yes, have read that die-hard fans of the Poldark books aren’t happy about all the plot/character deviations.
        Not having read the books, I’m not concerned.
        Agree with Elizabeth that viewer numbers do seem to be slightly down this season.
        I’m still enjoying the current season – an overload of pretty faces and scenery which will always keep me watching. The Aunt Agatha and George Warleggan characters are absolute gems.
        The weekly “Guardian” Poldark episode recap and following viewer comments are also highly entertaining…a must read-after watching each ep.

          1. Really? That’s great.
            Will definitely have a look.
            Ross Poldark of course has the perfect face for magazine covers…

      2. I’ve been watching Poldark (haven’t watched last night’s ep yet) and thoroughly enjoy it. Mum just gave me her series of books to read, maybe I should hold off and read something else?

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