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Seven delays Little Big Shots against Ninja Warriors

Updated: Seven blinks and holds off its talented kids against the might of Nine's athletes.

Seven has held off launching Little Big Shots this Sunday against the might of Nine’s Australian Ninja Warriors.

The backflip comes despite Seven already running on-air promos for Little Big Shots for 7pm Sunday night.

But the Ninja Warriors has pulled massive numbers across two nights, as high as 1.68m viewers, swamping the family viewing audience.

The decision not to pit their new show against Nine’s athletes, is a rare move from Seven which has been running its own race this year and is out in front in the ratings race.

A new broadcast date is yet to be announced.

Updated: Sunday July 16 is now:
7pm Sunday Night
8pm Border Security
8:30pm Secrets Of Scotland Yard
9:30pm Police Under Fire
10:30pm Wimbledon – Men’s Final

14 Responses

  1. I was counting down the days until little big shots started. I would rather watch cute little kids strutting their stuff than a bunch of idiots running around a course. Put decent stuff on tv.

  2. Channel 7 lacks a duty of care towards informing the viewers (us), as we are the ones that gave them top rating. Instead, no announcements accept Little Big Shots is coming. So is Christmas!

  3. Although it is a big call by Seven to hold back such an already very heavily promoted show on this occasion I think it does make a lot of sense. Ninja is the biggest, most successful entertainment launch on any network for arguably a good few years. The core broad family appeal of the two shows is pretty similar so – particularly given Ninja has already got the jump and actually launched (very strongly) why would Seven risk a sub-par launch of its own big family entertainment show when it’s likely to be severely squashed by the current might of Ninja juggernaut? Commercially much more astute for Seven to hold back and wait for a better time to get more of the same time of family viewers.

    1. Oh of course, it makes a lot sense. It’s just surprising given Seven are the cocky ratings leaders who are never afraid of competition. They haven’t shied away from deliberately trying to split audiences in the past (Hot Plate & Restaurant Revolution come to mind), but maybe they’ve learnt a lesson because one (Seven’s RR) was a turkey & the other rated ok.

      1. AGT flopped in its last season and Little Big Shots hasnt been that big of a hit either in its original version in the UK nor the US version. I predict it to premiere around 900k before settling in the 700-800k range.

  4. I can’t believe people actually get paid to make dumb decisions like this. I get Warrior is rating tremendously well but who says Little Big Shots won’t do the same. Obviously Seven don’t think so.

  5. Yep – agree, shows complete lack of faith in the show. I understand they want it to do the best it can for the $ invested (hence on the highest rating night of the week), but this always seemed like a perfect 7pm Saturday family show. I’m really not sure anymore on ratings though – not after I was completely wrong on ANJ’s likely performance! Hopefully MC can claw back some audience? I suspect TEN were thinking they might have some relatively clear air for the final Masterchef eps.

  6. They’d want to replace it this week with something decent, or else they’re just handing the night to Nine. Recycled Sunday Night stories or a rerun of Border Security will just push ANW even higher!

  7. Wrong decision and shows a lack of faith in the product – I can’t stand the way Seven and Nine especially do this sort of thing. Why is Ninja getting 1.6 mil? Different and entertaining – not cooking, relationships or renovations. But with no competition it could get more and more.

    Little Big Shots is also something different and looks like good family entertainment so could also be that something different that resonates with viewers. It won’t get 1.6 mil but I don’t know anyone who expected ANW to do so either. So many comments in TV blogs predicted ANW to flop!

    What will Seven air instead? Sunday Night maybe? With a good story it might do ok – but otherwise they’re just handing it to Nine (and possibly an increase for Ten Mchef). I guess it is school holidays in some states and ANW is over soon enough.

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