★★★★★ 0/5

2.23m: Underbelly kinghits the ratings

Channel Nine smashed the competition last night as a staggering 2.2m of us defy viewing trends and return to watching Australian stories on the small screen.

42
Leave a comment

Hold the phone, Australian television isn’t dead just yet.

It just got a major shot in the arm with a whopping 2.23m viewers watching the first hour of Underbelly last night. It is the biggest TV audience so far in the ratings year.

Nine’s third series blew the opposition out of the water, also netting 2.07m for the second hour.

Updated: The first hour peaked at 2.84m and Nine claims with regional viewers the two hours averaged 3.04m viewers.

The competition was left in Nine’s dust, with 1.17m for Bones and 831,000 for Castle on Seven. TEN’s Good Wife slumped to 809,000 and House took 568,000. The ABC’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles was a mere 419,000 and Dateline on SBS was 118,000.

Nine’s good fortune didn’t end there with 60 Minutes nudging 1.5m -although Domestic Blitz‘s 1.18m was beaten by Sunday Night on 1.3m. Seven’s best figure for the night was Seven News with 1.74m while TEN’s was Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation on 1.1m.

Meanwhile on GO! Top Gear took another big 379,000 -which is very likely a record for digital channels. The Big Bang Theory pulled another big 346,000. GO!’s 5.4% share was bigger than the entire combination of SBS ONE, ABC2, ABC3, ONE and SBS TWO. It more than doubled 7TWO’s 2.5%.

The result of both Nine and GO! saw the Nine Network carve up a staggering 40.6% share last night, thrashing Seven’s 27.7% and TEN’s 18.1%.

But the news is also a win for the industry and viewers.

It proves yet again that Australian viewers do want to see Aussie stories on their screens, and it comes at a crucial time when network executives and advertisers had feared the landscape may have permanently changed. There has been much debate over what number now defines a “hit series.” Ahead of marquee shows including The Pacific, Hey Hey it’s Saturday and MasterChef Australia a new benchmark has just been set.

Game on.

Week 16

42 Responses

  1. There is enough rubbish worth slamming on commercial tv so leave underbelly alone. It was a cracking first episode and if it wasn’t people would have tuned out at the half way. Yeah it was a bit like a music video on amphetamines, but it’s bloody ambitious and it should commended for that. I would take it any time over a repeat of law and order or terrible david caruso puns on on CSI

    Plus they need more exposition here, because the story is not nearly as well known as the first series, and I thought they did very well to get it all out in the first episode.

    The only thing I’m suspect on is the home and away actor, in that prostitute scene. His whole schtick was a bit painful.

  2. I hate how everyone is quick to dismiss local production…… when the same people dont even watch the programme and just bitch about things they nothing about. ‘Underbelly’ is now a name people trust for good drama….. whether or not it was better the first season or not. We are not Bogans for liking this programme. I live in Kings Cross, and am fascinated by the stories around me on a daily basis. That does not make me a Bogan. This season is like the rest of them….. employing local talent, and generating money for our entertainment industry. Well done underbelly cast and crew….. you deserve all the millions to watch your show….. and for those 800000 people who would rather watch Bones…. leave your opinions to yourself

  4. My one man crusade in refusing to watch anything on Nine fails yet again. Have given up after their fiasco regarding ‘Survivers’ on Sunday nights (the BBC series, not the baloney of morons on an island). I wonder if the BBC are aware of how much the station edited out of the show last week (mid-series, with no word on when the rest of the series will be shown). No wonder people pay for foxtel. At least you know a series will be shown in full at the same time everyweek, without chips for ads. Will wait for Underbelly on Foxtel, and hopefully Survivors (which should have been on the ABC anyway).

  5. Underbelly is by far one of 9’s most successful brands. However, last night I was really bored. The first UB was hook line and sinker telly. The 2nd started to drift and this one…I feel like I’m watching a rerun? Production values are high, actors hit their marks, but have the writers been on a holiday or do they just use the same scripts and [insert UB S3E01 character name] here?

    Last night I had the feeling of “Haven’t I seen and heard this all before” The crime kingpin with smouldering mediterranean looks who averts some life threatening situation to “win” us over, the leggy blonde/brunette chick or anti hero who winds up selling her soul when we all know she wants more, the cop with the rose coloured glasses who watches it all happen and wants to change the world. Add some drugs, some sex, oh and lets not forget the f word, which UB3 loves using in abundance. Maybe 9 think using it will make it cool among the kids?

    Superficially, it was all there. But was there anyone really worth watching?

    It just didn’t grab me like UB1. UB3 is cut from the same pattern and perhaps that’s where 9 fails, for me. It’s just going through the motions which for me is lazy telly.

  7. Note the Underbelly 3 premiere had less viewers than Underbelly 2 premiere last year (2.5 million for first episode and 2.4 million for second episode). Still, they are massive figures, and Ten took a big hit.
    Also, Nine said today that 3 million watched Underbelly 3 last night if regional viewers were added.

  8. It’s amazing how a show like this can attract so many veiwers on the basis that everone else is watching it.

    Masterchef had the same affect last year, as did Hey Hey. And I think BB may have had a smiliar rise aswell.

  9. definitely a better start than last year, but the acting. argh. it seems to get worse every year.

    now to see how it holds up. last year it lost almost a million throughout the season. i wonder if the week off for the logies will hurt it.

  10. It was better than any episode from the plodding second season, whether it remains that way we’ll just have to wait and see.

    Here’s hoping for more character development and less music montages.

  12. reply Mikeys – ha! spot on! I was thinking the same thing about the coles logo, and all of the other countless lazy period production and costume mistakes. Such a half arsed effort by Australian TV, yet again. You would think they could have so much fun with something like this, the attention to detail is always lacking in Australian production. Like taking the labels off VB bottles instead of spending time recreating the original one of the period, would have taken a designer 5 minutes to recreate that with a bit of knowledge and resources from the period, instead they where all too busy ripping off Snatch for editing techniques. I watched till the first commercial break then switched off, put on a DVD of Freaks & Geeks instead – now that’s how you do 80s production. The Golden Vile – Disappointing but not surprising.

  13. The first series of Underbelly got me hooked from the start. But the second, and now third, series just don’t really do anything for me. Maybe it’s because the first series was based on events so fresh in people’s minds whereas series 2 and 3 are just that bit further removed. I only lasted about an hour into the show last night.

  17. A disappointing debut for Underbelly 3 for me. I remember last series I couldn’t wait till next week to see what happens, this time around I really couldnt be fussed.

    The acting was poor and the story just didn’t excite as well as the previous series.

  18. While I’m not a fan of Underbelly anymore, I am excited by the idea of television being exciting again.

    I rarely watch FTA anymore since the introduction of DVD and internet in the last 10 years, but I’m excited for MasterChef and Hey Hey and looking forward to a couple of regular sit down and watch at a certain time TV.

    All opinions aside, this next week looks pretty exciting for the TV landscape in general and the Underbelly result is a good first step.

  22. Suckers get sucked in to anything. Does it really deserve 2.23m?? Will it keep those numbers or were people just checking it out? What i saw didn’t look that impressive.

    Honestly the first 2 series had terrible scripts, made the brilliant actors look like amateurs and was just an excuse to show tits and guns. But people believed the hype or felt they were missing out because it was “cool” to watch Underbelly

  23. Great to see Top gear doing well on 9 – a lot of people wouldn’t know it was on, last night’s episode was a ripper.

    7 needs to bring back Airways – that is always a sure fire winner, even repeats get big numbers.

Leave a Reply