2.58m: Underbelly sets new record
Underbelly's prequel breaks viewing records as the highest series launch since the introduction of People Meters, nabbing a huge 2.58m viewers.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
The premiere of Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities soared past 2.5m viewers last night, rewriting the record books in the process.
The first hour averaged 2.58m viewers, while the second hour kept up the pace at 2.41m. It won all demographic groups and peaked at 2.8m.
So You Think You Can Dance Australia and Desperate Housewives both hovered around the 1m mark while Good News Week struggled on 761,000.
Nine’s share for the evening was a huge 39.5% share.
Underbelly now becomes the highest rated Australian series launch since the introduction of OzTAM People Meters in 2001.
Kath & Kim’s premiere episode on Seven took 2.52m in 2007 while Always Greener premiered to 2m in 2001.
The highest figure achieved for any Packed to the Rafters episode is 2.06m.
The glory for Nine’s drama is sweet after it was denied a national audience for its 2008 premiere, following legal battles in Victoria.
Meanwhile News continues to draw Australians to their screens, compelled by scenes from the disastrous bushfires.
Seven News was first with 1.73m viewers, although in Melbourne Nine News took 557,000 viewers ahead of Seven’s 440,000 and TEN’s 432,000. ABC had 409,000.
Nine now has two nights under its belt in the first week of ratings with a sizeable lead (36.8%) over its rivals (Seven: 27.3%, TEN: 17.7%) . Seven is bound to narrow that lead with its Tuesday line-up.
53 Responses
watched GWN and Dexter and loved it…. recorded Underbelly and so far so good – of course will never live up to hype, but it’s a hell of a lot better than so much else that’s out there
well i am honored i guess. if i knew it was going to be published and read by thousands i would have put more thought into it but i stand by what i said.
TVtonight is probably the most positive blog out there there on this topic. There are articles with comments out there on the daily telegraph, ninemsn, couriermail ect. and it’s very rare to find a positive comment i wonder what made them pick my comment.
some examples: Captain of C’Town: “A load of fictitious rubbish and not very entertaining at that.” Carmen of Melbourne: “watching paint dry is more exciting” terry hill: “very ordinary”, Tanya of Camden: “He (newton) would be better off playing Humphrey B bear.” Pete of Melbournes underbelly: “peewee herman, i mean matt . . . whats up with that. he couldnt intimidate a fly” aka of sydney: “just a greedy grab for money and ratings” ect. ect. and thats just from the most recent few comments on the daily telegraph article “Underbelly comes out fighting”. there seem to be endless complaints about matt newtons acting.
so sorry if i’ve hurt any fans feelings but it could have been much worse.
Internet feedback reaches the SMH, including one quote from this site (go, Jerome): “not as good as the hype.”
Didnt watch it last night but recorded and just watched it. I haven’t seen UB1 so can’t compare but thought Matt Newton was the weakest actor of the cast. Plank and Wood come to mind. In fact the rest of the cast were fine except the Aussie guy who tried the Scottish accent. The story wasn’t that interesting and I got bored after 30mins and switched off. The tits and bums were un-necessary. They added nothing to the atmosphere. I’ll be watching Foxtel next week.
I’m with ali’s comment above; sick and tired of FTA TV at the moment. Foxtel or DVDs or the Internet are the only real options.
Meh.
It will loose 500,000 each week for the next couple of weeks as people realise it cannot live up to the hype (like the Australia flop).
Most will return to DH – a series that can sustain more than one season… and that doesn’t have Matthew Newton in it.
Be interesting to see how many stick with it next week. Loved the initial series, but this was very mediocre.
I only came across promotions on the radio and newspapers. I never saw the series and don’t plan to. Say that i’m missing out, but it doesn’t bother me.
Rubbish! 3000 people meters across Australia, don’t make me laugh
zambora… grow up!
I watched a dvd. sick of all FTA channels at the moment.
Kev, I don’t consider myself as a fanboy extremist & I enjoyed it. I thought it started slowly but built quite well. I think it will only get better & will be worth watching over the next few weeks. Not great, but very good.
I think you’ll find Ten’s 5pm-6.30 news actually beat Seven’s 6-7pm bulletin…. those figures are from the ‘bushfire special’ before 6pm on 7.
Watched Underbelly on basis of hype over First series and only seeing “heavily edited show here in Vic.
Must say was disappointed and the casting left a lot to be desired.
The good point – Billing was fabulous in his role as Trimbole.
Bad – Matt Newton as a menacing Kiwi drug kingpin – you are having a laugh !! Certainly not believable at all..
And the protrayal of the police was astounding – looks like they watched Bargearse & early eps of Cop Shop.
Sorry Nine, I won’t be back.
Matthew Newton did a great job I thought, it’s just all these naysayers trying to knock him down because he had a really bad year last year. I actually think this time it has a better premise, smarter crooks, etc. One part I didn’t really warm to was how they played out the Great Bookie Robbery, I think the miniseries with the same name did it justice. But all in all, I like the storytelling a lot better.
kev, I’m a DH fan so I watched DH for the first hour, but I tuned into the second so i can be the first commenter to personally recommend it to you. It is certainly one of the best dramas Australia has produced in my opinion (although obviously I can’t comment on the rest of the episodes) and I completely disagree with those who are bagging Matthew Newton’s performance – I thought he was great.
Pretty good for a show which was supposedly such a violation of community standards that ACMA had to step in and protect us all from out televisions.
I hope Ten will continue with Dexter too, seeing as there is great opportunity for growth over the next two weeks. When you think about the big picture it really wasn’t that bad.
meh, i watched DH then my recording of BSG and recorded UB. I was surprised to see these numbers i haven’t found anyone who watched it other than my folks.
I am so glad I watched DH last night instead of U2. It was good to watch something nice and happy rather than watch something violent, dark, filled with coarse language, nudity and sex.
well it seems i am in the minority that watched DH. i taped underbelly.
apart from fanboy extremists i’m yet to hear anyone that says it is worth watching, everyone seems to think that it revolved around excuses to show boobies and that matt newton wrecked it. so i might hold off.
The direction is still average. Invest in Steadicam.
Mmmm…I had been interested to watch having been a fan of UB1…but I really needed a laugh after the intensity of the Bushfire situation so I tuned into Good Ol’ Good News Week. Thankgod for Paul McDermott and his chargers. I’ll just wait for DVD for UB2
I heard some dork on ABC local radio the other day spouting on about how DespHWs would probably hold or beat underbelly. At the time I thought ‘you muppet’ you really haven’t gotta clue and he was meant to be a TV ratings/advertising expert.!!!!!
I think titties on show so early was not a good move in family viewing time, I kept my young daughters out of the way and banned them from watching cos I just did not trust 9 after the Ramsey c-word incident. I am glad I did.
It was great to see nudity on telly again at long last. I hope the networks get more of these actors to undress in the future. It is a positive step.
Meanwhile, I’ve just gone onto iTunes, and you can buy it for $2.99. W00t!
I really hope Channel 10 doesn’t react to the ratings by dropping Dexter. It rated quite low due to Underbelly, but maybe people were like me and forgot it was even on!