1.13m for Rescue premiere
After a big promotion campaign, Nine's debut audience for Rescue: Special Ops won't have execs smiling just yet.
- Published by David Knox
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Nine’s shiny new drama Rescue: Special Ops attracted an audience of 1.13m last night, third in its timeslot.
The action drama starring Les Hill, Libby Tanner and Peter Phelps was beaten by The Devil Wears Prada on 1.23m and Bones‘ 1.19m.
For a big budget show with billboard promotions and good reviews, execs won’t be smiling just yet.
Seven’s Dancing with the Stars cleverly finished late, with its wedding march parody the final dance of the show. It took a cool 1.59m. Next Sunday Australian Idol will also run to an extended time. Rescue will also contend with GO! launching on the same night.
Nine didn’t have a great start to the week with the final Random Acts of Kindness taking 1.09m and 60 Minutes 1.19m.
Seven won the night with a 30.0% share, no doubt securing its position for the rest of the week.
37 Responses
I thought it was better than Rush & everybody seems to rave about that show. At least Ten stuck with Rush, will nice stick with this?
police rescue 10/10
rescue special ops 2/10
i loved police rescue and watched some of rescue it was terribile i wont be waching again i also agree that apart from not being as good as police rescue people dont trust 9 anymore so dont even bother watching anything new on 9
Just another crappy middle of the road cop show from Nine. Lame and predictable with extremely poor scripting and some of the clumsiest/worst dialogue heard for some time. Mostly very average performances bar Les Hill (surprisingly). Gigi Edgley was horrible and completely miscast. The girl is barely capable of lifting a twig, and you had her pull Les up a cliff face, single handed mind you, and stop a plane for tumbling off yet another cliff face by holding onto a rope.
Was/is any research done or do the writers think they know all and make it up? Nine, another cop show? I think you need to look beyond the lowest common denominator and find something more substantial, more intelligent and savvy.
I watched it and was, like other commenters, underwhelmed. It wasn’t truly terrible but there was nothing original about it and nothing about the format, characters or storyline that would compel me to tune in again. Basically it’s the kind of show I’d watch if I was home and there was nothing else on and I’d run out of people to talk to, books to read and housework to do.
Rob,
What a difference a station makes. Like you said the audience flocked to the ABC to see United States Of Tara, but abandoned Nine when they showed Rescue.
Flocking to the ABC resulted in 1.27million viewers.
Abandoning Nine resulted in 1.13million viewers.
… If only Rescue had debuted with 1.13 million on the ABC it would have been a “return to great Aussie drama”.
ABC broadcast a US made show with a somewhat original premise and get a huge audience, Nine rehash 80’s/90’s style aussie cop nonsense and it’s hardly watched from the get go. Kind of tells you that the public are looking for some quality from dramas without resorting to Harpers Island slasher tactices, or Gary Sweet reincarnations
Rush hardly set the world on fire.
With, what – 5 Australian dramas on TV – why would you go and copy the format of Rush. Viewers can smell a copycat.
Thought I’d give it a go but was unimpressed…..music overpowering the acting so so & when the 2 rescuers ‘lost’ the teenage boy they had just found my husband & I just looked at each other & laughed…..’Sea Patrol’ & “Rush’ all over again but with lovely scenery, we won’t be watching it again
This will definitely be moved to Monday if they keep getting these numbers. Sea Patrol is gone, so Rescue would be a perfect fit for “Action Monday” for Nine – reckon it’d do well in this slot.
I like what Jed said: “I really think the Channel Nine factor is having an effect. If this show was on Seven or Ten and on a different night, i might have given this a go. I don’t think the public trust Nine with anything they put on so people are just not bothering anymore even if it does get good reviews.”
It doesn’t matter what Nine launches it’s there commitment to their audience that has affected their programs. Invest on the audience – be patient!
@Kenny – I think the folks who were going to watch The Devil Wears Prada were probably never going to be tuning in to Rescue: Special Ops anyway. Channel 7 made sure that if there were any Dancing With The Stars viewers looking for an easy to watch procedural at 8:30pm they’d be watching Bones over Rescue.
I enjoyed the 1st episode, although I didn’t feel the “high” that the promo’s suggested. A fantastic aussie cast. I think the audience has lost respect for channel nine, knowing that these days they rarely finish what they’ve started so people just aren’t bothering! Personally i think had Rescue premiered on a different network we would have seen a diffferent result. I could be wrong. I do hope it attracts an audience and is around for some time to come.
@PD “all Channel 7’s fault”. I guess the 1.3m viewers who preferred TEN’s movie don’t have anything to do with it. Has Nine actually produced anything that has appealed to viewers since The Sullivans (a Crawford production) or Division 4 (a Crawford production) ?
I’m in agreement with other posts about actually watching any new shows on Ch Nine, but I gave this Aussie made drama the benefit of the doubt.. However at first viewing I was under impressed, the story was slow, grainy and some acting stilted.
I guess I was hoping for the Wow factor in the first episode, there certainly wasn’t any! Not that this factor is unusual with a new series.
Anyway, I will watch again next week and give it a go.
I loved Police Rescue but have no desire to see this. I expect news of encore screenings by the end of the day which still will not be enough to get me to sample it.
These numbers are all Channel 7’s fault. Who’s going to watch a brand new drama that they’ve missed the first ten minutes of?
I thought it was a fairly routine procedural but better than the first episodes of Sea Patrol, City Homicide, The Strip and Rush so I may actually tune in again next week. Les Hill was kind of forgettable but I thought Gigi Edgely was a real find and if the show manages to crawl out of this ratings hole it’ll be thanks to her.
“it was kind of like Police Rescue for dummies” 😆
I don’t know if this will last, maybe it needs a different night or will be put on GO! in a few weeks. At this rate they will need a 2nd GO! channel…
It is just another cop like show of which (I think) there is about 30 hours on the box each week, Yawn !
i watched the show (i was actually shocked that me tv still got nine-its been so long since there’s been anythin worth watching!) i didn’t think it was the worst show-however it wasnt compelling enogh to keep me from checking my facebook and tweeting about DWTS (which did stop me from seeing the first 10 mins-you’d think 9 would have seen that coming and pushed 70 minutes out to 75-80) probably will tune in again-but it would need to get a hell of a lot better to stop me from watching rove (the only 830 sunday show worth watchin since C-Ho left our screens) glad to see libby tanner back on our screens…
with figures like that rename the show rescue special oops!!!
Wrong night dummies (Nine programmers). Then again, Peter Phelps, Les Hill, yawn,
it’s just another misfire from 9’s drama department.
the premier is only a little bit above canal road (1..089m -and that was @ 9:30), and far behind the strip (1.45m on a thursday). i wonder if it will suffer the same fate?
I actually wanted to watch this show but completely forgot it was on 🙁 Any chance that Nine will have an encore screening on the pilot?
Next weeks number will be interesting, I for one won’t be bothering to tune in again – it was kind of like Police Rescue for dummies.
How many episodes did they make??? Surely this show Nine will stick with. I really think the Channel Nine factor is having an effect. If this show was on Seven or Ten and on a different night, i might have given this a go. I don’t think the public trust Nine with anything they put on so people are just not bothering anymore even if it does get good reviews.
well i guess we can already say it won’t be renued, i can’t see the numbers growing, 9 should start looking for their new drama for 2010 now.
the numbers are a very soft launch, but not at all a surprise to me. i did not feel any buzz whatsoever.
if this was any other network they would be appauled. high budget drama like this should be getting upwards of 1.7 especially for ep1. but even at 1.13 it is one of 9’s better rating shows.
i think it was wrong putting it on sunday, who is in the mood for a heavy action drama on a wind-down night. if they put it on wednesday it would have gotten a free ride with little competition.