Live from Planet Earth slips to 384,000
Curiosity over the comedy backlash wasn't enough to lift Ben Elton last night, while Neighbours is now outrating George Negus on TEN.
- Published by David Knox
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There were more problems for Nine on Tuesday night as Ben Elton Live from Planet Earth took another hit, dropping to a flat 384,000. Curiosity at all the backlash wasn’t enough to see the show lift from its 455,000 figure last week.
The show was soundly defeated by Parenthood on 729,000 and Lie to Me on 741,000. Elton wasn’t shying away from the criticism last night, pointedly referring to the claims the show had been too rude and constantly taking potshots at Twitter, which returned fire throughout the night.
Tuesday night went all Seven’s way, winning from 6pm right through to late night.
Packed to the Rafters was the night’s top show on 1.81m viewers, ahead of NCIS (1.13m) and Top Gear (792,000). Another strong night for My Kitchen Rules (1.43m) over Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (850,000) and The Big Bang Theory (958,000) plus Top Gear.
On TEN 6PM with George Negus (366,000) is now lower than Neighbours on ELEVEN (383,000), although its late night replay lifted from Monday, now at 302,000. There are worse problems for the 6:30 TEN Evening News (316,000).
On ABC1 Qi was 564,000, Foreign Correspondent 537,000 and Life At 5 461,000.
The Future Of Food on SBS ONE pulled 215,000.
Seven Network won the night, a long way ahead of the competition.
82 Responses
Watched some of Ben Elton Live from Planet Earth for the first time last night, Seriously poor stuff. I thought Elaine Front’s explanation that rugby players were rapists was a particularly wonderful piece of television.
i have just flipped pay TV after five years and looking at FTA’s current and upcoming offerings, i wish i hadn’t. So many digital channels = so much crap.
@David Knox
I know David – that was my point – I was trying to inject a little ironic levity.
Most folk on here are putting the boot into Ben Elton’s show or plugging HHIS.
Evidently it didn’t work for me:-(.
sorry.
Top Gear has seriously tanked this year compared to last.
Wonder why..
I switched over for five minutes and struggled with it.
For the brief time I watched, Ben Elton looked uncomfortable/low on confidence and didn’t really seem to have much belief in his material, and then had to try and explain that mining press conference sketch that got no laughs. It was almost like I could tell he was funny once upon a time but was trying too hard.
Not having seen much of him before, and only watching 5 minutes of it, that might just be my perception though.
In response to Top Gear dropping below a million , well below , i personally think the show is trash and has been milked for all its worth.
Its just as stupid as ever and if i want to know about cars i watch Drive It on TVS , hardly ann adds and more up to date , and no dim witted middle aged morons acting like stupid teenagers.
Dare I suggest that the only reason Eleven won’t put the Simpsons back on at 6pm is because of the potential shame for Ten if Simpsons/Neighbours were to start flogging their replacements?
Home of laughter! Swing the axe and bring back Hey Hey its Saturday, a show with a huge fan base wanting it back on..Its time channel nine sucked in its pride and listened to the public.
Sad to see that Live From Planet Earth does not have a future – I really enjoyed last night (with the exception of the Elaine Front interview) and thought the show had a good flow and intent.
I would hope that they are given another opportunity to improve and don’t suffer the Let Loose Live scenario of being cancelled after two episodes.
Ten must do something with the 6:00pm to 7:00pm slot – the Evening News figures in particular are woeful and there is no evidence that they are taking audience away from Nine or Seven.
@fan
For Pete’s sake, let ‘Hey Hey’ go already! It was canned for poor ratings, so that puts HHIS supporters (meaning you) in the minority, not @BH!
This thread is about bagging Ben Elton, can’t you satisfy yourself with that?
Actually Stevany, this thread is about last night’s ratings performers.
This show is DOA.
I will be very surprised if Nine don’t do some programing changes for next Tuesday, before the day is out. Get ready for some more Top Gear, 2.5 Men or BBT!
Also what has happened to the Top Gear million plus ratings, less than 800k is not good for new run ‘fast tracked’ episodes.
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road for Elton….
Can anyone find my brother a job..i think he’ll need a new one
“The Big Bang Theory (958,000) plus Top Gear … Top Gear (792,000)”
Q: How do you make a cult programme? A: Put a successful one on Channel Nein.
@Ron “Nine can axe Ben Elton and bring back Survivor next Tuesday just in time for the new season!”
That would have my household watching, for sure.
@Sharpy “The first season of Blackadder is terrible from start to finish”
Well, Elton did not write for the first season (that was written by Curtis and Atkinson – and IMHO rocked). Elton wrote for Seasons 2-4 which became increasingly repetitive.
@KFed “How about a few co-writers, Ben?”
Too true. The sound of one voice droning through monologues and the sketches was obvious. It lacks variety with only one writer.
Ben Elton is repeated tonight at 11:30pm on GO!
TEN please listen to me! I know you won’t, but it’s worth the effort of trying.
Why is it you are not seeing the Evening News taking an epic fail! It claerly doesn’t fit in at 6:30pm and as for the weekends it has nine taking the credit for 5pm and the actual evening news has Sports Tonight within it!
Why can’t you ditch the Evening News idea and focus on Negus. He’d be like an amazing supermarket at 6:30pm. His asiles would have better stories and more WHY? Perhaps Neighbours might win fans at 6pm on TEN? Negus viewers at 10:30pm might be ones who watch news at 6pm? It a guess, but the figures show. Infact I don’t understand why there’s a sudden drop off from 5pm news and a return of sorts at 7pm! Don’t they like Negus or do they just turn off! The Evening News, I can understand with it being a a can of condensed news.
Oh well lets see if TEN listen to this and any other complaints!
As for Ben Elton, don’t watch, never have, never will. He’s the real laughing stock, when he gets no one watching. Wait and see Ben Elton’s plug pulled!
LFPE comes off a bit like like Hey Hey, that is to say 1985 called and wants it’s gags back, the Julia Gillard stuff was terrible and that woman who is on who did the “lives bank world” ads really puts me off.
Not sure what it is with Ben Elton and his stand-up, perhaps he’s a better writer and other people deliver his material better, or maybe i am not blokey enough to like his stuff (maybe he’d do better on Channel 31’s Blokes World or the USA’s The Man Show).
So yeah, won’t be watching again if it continues, then again maybe I’m not the type of person the show is aimed at so this comment may be prejudiced against Elton.
Watched again, I liked the idea of a joke with the classification, but could have worked a little bit better. Some political satire is always great, didn’t catch the content so much was just laughing at Mcarthy’s Julia.His other character stinks.
Girl Flat, was well a bit flat, as suspected most of the gags were done in week one, a few from the Grammy’s, what’s for next week?
Two guest stand ups were a good idea as was a bit of musial content.
Still, be surprised to see it again.
BH…looks like there’s a lot of Hey Hey supporters out there, put’s you in a minority round these parts , doesn’t it 🙂
Look how the 15 minute breakdown numbers drop mumbrella.com.au/ben-eltons-live-from-planet-earth-dead-and-buried-39602
Ten must scrap thei woeful news hour and the 7pm project.
You said “Tuesday night went all Seven’s way, winning from 6pm right through to late night”. However, Lie to Me (Ten, 741k) beat ParentHood (Seven, 729k).
@JB, I also noticed the noisy guy in the crowd overegging his laughter at every silly punchline. He didn’t do Elton any favours.
Watched about 5 minutes of the ‘stand up’ to see what all the fuss was about.
It wasn’t offensive, just unfunny.
Put it on another night and the thing will have some small chance.
As it is, Tuesday nights are back to back programming for several demographics. It’s just not a strong enough show to supplant anything already on.
I hope so Ron. But would there be enough time to promote it? We know the promo guys love “Evil Russel”.
The good thing about last night’s poor ratings means the wowsers didn’t stick around to see Tim Minchin and aren’t out complaining this morning.
I agree with Ron, axe Ben Elton and bring back Survivor in it’s timeslot. Survivor has done alright on Tuesday night’s for Nine, not huge numbers, but still good for a reality show that’s 22 seasons in and nearly double what Ben Elton did.
ouch…