"Exhausted" audience loves their yard

Last year Nine pulled the pin on Backyard Blitz telling producer Don Burke that it felt the genre had been “exhausted.”

Last night it aired the first of six episodes that were already in the can.

The show won its timeslot* as almost 1.3m viewers tuned in.

So much for a tired audience it seems.

In fact it had a higher pull than any episode of The Lost Tribes the show it replaced on Nine. Burke and host Jamie Durie will likely find this a bitter irony, both no longer part of the Nine Network.

A figure of 1.28m is very good these days, (National Nine News had the same average audience last week) and likely to see the show wind up in the week’s Top 20 programmes. While shows are being dropped all around us, any programme that finishes in the Top 20 should be considered precious to the number #2 network.

Meanwhile, Durie is developing Best Backyards for Seven and pursuing his luck with Oprah in the US.

* Where Are They Now was not broadcast in Adelaide. It pulled 1.22m.