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2.08m as Rafters wraps the year

With more than 2m viewers watching the Rafters finale, Seven's tease with Winners and Losers worked a treat.

More than two million Australians tuned in for the season finale for Packed to the Rafters last night.

The show averaged 2.08m viewers as Ben Rafter began coming to terms with his tragedy, a birthday for baby Ruby and a proposal from family friend Carbo. It caps off another strong season by the sentimental show, still holding the title of the nation’s favourite drama series.

So it was a perfect place to promote Seven’s next drama offering, Winners and Losers.

The Sneak Peek of the 2011 drama pulled in 2.24m viewers, cheekily coded as a stand-alone title in the OzTAM system?). In effect the short trailer was like taking a snapshot of Rafters peak audience. But as a tactic for tempting an audience it worked a treat and what was shown certainly looks good. Seven’s in-house drama production is the envy of them all (didn’t the ABC once do this?).

Elsewhere last night Generation won its slot on 1.17m over Top Gear (974,000) and Iron Chef Australia (905,000).

NCIS was 1.15m for TEN. Richard Hammond’s Invisible Worlds Nine didn’t debut well with 656,000.

Parenthood (962,000) beat Good News Week (Ten 641,000). Survivor was 504,000.

The 7pm Project (787,000) is still yet to return to its pre-Commonwealth Games figures that hovered around 1m. Have viewers changed their voting habits or is it a victim of daylight saving?

It was beaten by Home And Away Seven (1.03m) and Two and a Half Men (946,000).

Seven slammed the night.

Week 47

Amended.

26 Responses

  1. “In-house refers to the production of some commodity or service, such as a television program, using a company’s own funds, staff, or resources.

    This is in contrast to production being outsourced (contracted out) to another company.”

    Bryan G, you have stated that Rush was a co-production just not admitted it. It used another companys money and everywhere it is listed as a co-production which means it was not in house.

    Janus/Phoenix still used Bill Hughes though and his productiuon company which means technically it was not in-house. See the definition.

    Great, you have inside knowledge, but that still doesn’t make you correct. I find it humourous that if a person does not like something than they are painted as aggressive. I was just trying to correct a person.

    No, I don’t agree as all those programmes I listed were co productions, not in house productions by the ABC.

    I have even added in house productions not previously mentioned, so I do not have an axe to grind. I just don’t think those productions are particularly noteworthy by a state broadcaster for being produced in house over a span of forty years. Most of those shows were produced over twenty years ago when the TV landscape was far more different.

    David, I hope I get a right of reply, but seeing as I’ve obviously offended you I’ll leave it in your hands and hope your professionalism prevails.

    1. After all those definitions, we practically return to the same point I made… that what the ABC did years ago in a different landscape is now where Seven is proving successful. I must concur with Bryan here that investment and pre-sale does not fundamentally shift an in-house production. But we shall have to agree to disagree.

      Only one comment offended me but you should take that up with me via Contact page if you wish to pursue.

  2. Can’t quite work out why (once again) previous poster “Mike” is being so apparantly aggresively negative about ABC-TV drama series and harping on about them not really being ABC produced dramas but “co-productions”. In nearly all the cases he has cited, a second party approached the ABC (or were approached by the ABC) because they had a project or a property of some sort.

    eg. “Seven Little Australians” based on the book by Ethel Turner (who died in the 1950s) was produced by ABC-TV in conjunction with her Family Trust – hence “co-produced by Ethel Turner Productions”.

    Phoenix and Janus (which I was involved with) were produced, in house by ABC-TV (overseen by ABC-TV Drama Heads Jill Robb and Sue Masters respectively) and Produced by Bill Hughes who hired his own services out from his own company Kuranya Pictures. The concepts for both these shows were brought to the ABC by creators Allison Niselle and Tony McDonald.

    I seem to recall that ABC-TV drama producer Oscar Whitbread helped to develop the gold-rush series “Rush” in 1974. It was a big hit in France who asked for another series. The ABC were not planning on doing any more but Antennae-Z offered to help finance a second series – and add in a new French character. This was a first for the ABC and headlines were made when they agreed to make a second series with some added Franch money. But it was still very much an ABC-TV series. Shot and produced here. As were many of Oscar Whitbread’s other classic Melbourne-based ABC-TV projects like “Lucinda Brayford”, “Power Without Glory”, “And The Big Men Fly”, “Outbreak Of Love”, “Truckies” et al.

    Greg Coote and Matt Carroll (who had a development deal with Roadshow at the time) approached ABC-TV about producing “Brides of Christ”, a property they had been developing. The ABC were also very keen on the same property. So they agreed to work together. So yes, it was very much a co-production. But I think Mike would have to agree (and this was the whole point of David’s original comment) that ABC-TV was, for many years, the shining beacon of in-house television drama production.

  3. Heartland was co produced by Northway Productions

    Naked: Stories of Men was produced by Jan Chapman Productions

    Some of them were good productions, but as the ABC has shown us, its better days are far behind them.

  4. David, you’re wrong on many of those.

    Janus/Phoenix was produced/co-produced? with Kuranya Pictures.

    Rush was co-produced with some French company (hence why the sidekick was French). Antennae-Z France, there you go.

    Brides of Christ was co produced by Roadshow Coote & Carroll Pty Ltd same as G.P.

    1915 was produced/co-produced by Lionheart television.

    Seven Little Australians co produced by Ethel Turner productions.

    David, I also don’t think Wildside was produced in house. I keep seeing Gannon Jenkins Television for the ABC. So chalk another up to co-production/outsource.

    However Grass Roots and Kath & Kim (1-2) were actually produced in house. It still isn’t a lot for over 40 years.

  5. More ABC-TV in house productions – the multi-award winning “Phoenix”; the multi-award winning “Scales of Justice; Geoffrey Rush in the newspaper drama series “Mercury”; Rachel Griffiths in the ASIO thriller “Secrets”; Bill Hunter in “The Keepers”; John Wood in “Truckies”; Helen Morse in “Marion”, “I Can Jump Puddles”; Simon Baker in “Naked: Stories of Men”; “Power Without Glory”; “Eggshells”; “Spring and Fall”; the 1970’s classics “Dynasty” and “Catspaw”; Cate Blanchett in both “Bordertown” and “Heartland”; Garry McDonald in “Fallen Angels” . . . the list just goes on and on. Some of it works, some it fails but nearly all of it is interesting and challenging and usually a bit “outside the square”. ABC-TV has always been at the leading edge of television, be it comedy, drama, light entertainment, childrens programming, etc.
    Let’s hope and pray it can continue to do so in the future!

  6. What a cynical bunch you are. The preview for Winners & Losers didn’t look as bad as people are making out to be. I thought it looked good. Maybe the preview wasn’t superbly brilliant but it certainly made me think it’s worth a look.

  7. David, I’m well aware of that but

    a) I was going for the quality argument, Wildside was the best of a bad bunch.

    b) Bellbird was a soap not a drama (even though they are probably lumped together by the ABC and the industry as a whole. Creatively/economically they are completely different and really shouldn’t be judged as the same. Bellbird for most of its run was only 15 minutes, hardly comparable)

    c) I’m not that old that I can remember all of ABCs productions. Some of us weren’t around to see the original airings of Bellbird.

    Sweet and Sour was another in house production, it only lasted one season (only 30 minutes run time as well), hardly enviable. Harvey McHugh not sure on.

    Anyway the point being, ABC hardly produced any dramas in house and the ones they did have been less successful than the ones co-produced, so it was a rare exception. Not exactly inspiring, enviable or even noteworthy. The ABC is not the BBC so they really can’t afford to produce a sustainable drama series. Hell they can’t even budget properly.

    1. Quality is a seperate argument sure. I was going for the quantity argument. ABC did a lot of in-house drama. 1915, Seven Little Australians, Rush, Embassy, Something in the Air, Janus, Correlli, Alvin Purple, Bellbird, Brides of Christ, Mother and Son….

  8. Even though 7PM suffered from being out of circulation for 2 weeks, and is still yet to get back to its pre-Games numbers, it is doing a lot better than this time last year when it was lucky to crack 700k (some nights even struggling to make 600k).

    DST isn’t helping it either.

  9. @Mike, Deb Cox and Andrew Knight (Artist Services) produced three series of SeaChange. Andrew Knight has also written for Rake and created, written or helped out with other Australian series.

  10. “Seven’s in-house drama production is the envy of them all (didn’t the ABC once do this?).”

    David, yes and no. When the ABC did produce in house (Wildside) it turned out to be a financial mess. The quality wasn’t all that good either.

    G.P, Head Start, Police Rescue, MDA were all co productions and much better shows with stronger writing and production levels.

    Not sure about Sea Change.

  11. Not to nit pick but her the W&L sneak peek was on after the PTTR credits and right before Parenthood started.

    I’ll have to see more of the new show before making up my mind, but I like the fact it’s not another cop show.

    BTW it’s a good thing Nine didn’t show new Top Gear AU and that “Invisible Worlds” only has 2 more parts.

  12. tvcentral says City Homicides next season has been extended from 6 eps to 8. i’d say it has been given an extra 2 episodes to finish off the series. that decision was probably made around the same time seven were securing a second new drama for next year.

  13. Yes it definitely looked silly and all done before but agreed @ Steven…least its not another cop show! Speaking of cops shows, on another news article on this site it was reported that seven hadn’t made a decision on City Homicide’s future yet.
    Well I know for a fact they filmed the last episode of the season on Friday and have already started dismantling sets and selling off all the cast waldrobe and clearing out of its Global studios in Melbourne base so its definitely not coming back.

  14. @Cam Surely the point is that the ABC should be making a lot more drama, not that they should be making another Rafters. (Although they could do a lot worse *cough* Bed Of Roses *cough*)

  15. “Seven’s in-house drama production is the envy of them all (didn’t the ABC once do this?).”

    I’d rather the ABC concentrated on real drama rather then populist Home and Away up late.

  16. 9, what are you thinking. You put a show that kids would like after an adult based show. Top Gear and Invisible Worlds should be swapped !

    Great finale for Rafters, I really like that show and the preview for Winners & Losers won me for next year !

    Please note I am a cop show free zone, lol…………

  17. I kind of disagree about Winners and Losers….I thought it looked very naff and just plain stupid. Knowing people who are working on the show and what its all about I think they could have marketed it a bit better to be honest.

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