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Tough debut for Ben Elton

1.94m for Packed to the Rafters gives Seven reason to smile, while Ben Elton's debut of just 455,000 will have Nine execs worried.

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Tuesday night delivered good news for Seven, but bad news for Nine.

Packed to the Rafters returned to 1.94m viewers last night, streets ahead of NCIS on 1.05m and Top Gear‘s 939,000. The big figure also dwarfs Underbelly‘s debut on Monday night, indicating there are still big audiences there for the taking.

My Kitchen Rules also won its slot on an excellent 1.55m over The Big Bang Theory’s 922,000 and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation‘s 831,000. Foreign Correspondent had 531,000.

But it was Ben Elton Live from Planet Earth that is the real talking point of Tuesday.

At just 455,000 viewers its debut languished behind an episode of NCIS 1.15m (it went above its earlier episode) and Parenthood‘s 769,000. The figures indicate many viewers weren’t prepared to give the ambitious show a try, while those who did are expressing volatile opinions about its content in online forums and Twitter. Even taking a 9:30 timeslot into account, suddenly those figures for Hey Hey it’s Saturday don’t look too bad.

Seven took its third night of the week with a solid 34.7% network share over Nine’s 24.8% and TEN’s 23.0%.

Week 7

79 Responses

  1. LFPE for its first show didnt get the figures that Hey Hey got for its 1st and 2nd Reunion which peaked at 2.64 million viewers and not even for the shows that came later. For LFPE and for Channel 9 thats a big disappointment to have only 455,000 viewers ! just being honest.

  2. Karl Quinn in the SMH/Age today wrote: “I know because I was there in the audience at the Dockland Studios….. and I watched it again on telly when I got home.”

    Umm…so it was pre-recorded after all? Or did Karl tape it and watch it when he got home?

  3. Ben Elton is having an encore at 11pm tonight. Will be interesting to see how it rates. Channel Nine must be regretting not starting new programming last week with NCIS and Parenthood (as well as most digital channels) both having screenings last week.

    In our household, we watched Parenthood, recorded Californication and plan to record Ben Elton tonight.

  4. Hardly a surprise. Elton hasn’t been funny since the 80’s and sketch comedy? I can’t remember when that was ever funny.
    @PD why do you think it’s so vital to keep this genre alive? Personally I can only think of about 2 sketch shows that were ever actually good.

  5. Ryaneco, I’m sure LFPE would take Hey Hey’s ratings especially since this is the first show and these sort of shows with the publicity and lead up it had don’t usually build an audience, but tend to drop off over the coming weeks. Just look at Hey Hey. Ch 9 “Home of Comedy”???? maybe they should just run back to back Two and a half Men followed by back to back CSI every night.

  6. I still have no idea why you would make this show Live. Record it live, sure, get the audience element in there, but live to air? It brought absolutely nothing to it. Maybe if there were more guests / interviews / or a musical number, more variety, live would be worthwhile. What I did like though was the revolving sets, that looked pretty schmick. Shame about the sketches themselves though…

  9. I liked it too…was just glad to see something live and ambitious on TV, that gives comedians a chance to shine. It wasn’t all side splitting but geez, we smash things so quickly here…the non funny bits didn’t bother me, and girl flat and stand up and pointing out our obession with fat chefs and all that, no its not the funniest thing you’ll see in 2011, but it was refreshing in our house to watch something live…

  12. I can picture now

    “hello Daryl, mate it’s Michael Healy .. We have a new slot that just opened up… How about Hey hey it’s Tuesday”

    The sun goes down on Elton

    That’s funnier than last night 🙂

  14. Wow. That’s all I can say about Ben Elton’s numbers.

    I wondered whether an Aussie audience would connect with such shrill, vulgar comedy and I guess we got our answer.

    While I hated most of Live On Planet Earth it is a shame because it means that Aussie Sketch Comedy will once again be declared dead and buried. One sketch show I don’t like is better than no sketch shows.

  18. I dont think channel 9 fully explained what the show was about in their promos. they were just promos for ben elton and not about any substance. i didnt watch it because i didnt know what kind of show it was

  19. I thought the first few minutes were ok. but then I was unsure what I was watching?!
    I felt like Ben Elton was switching between yelling at me and pleading with me to watch, neither appealing. I was washing the dishes by break 3.

    Also some of the skits were woeful which is to be expected for a new show. Actually the picture you chose David was the only skit I enjoyed.

  21. Hey Hey’s figures were still bad struggling hit above 700k which is shocking especially for the cost involved to Nine. I’m positive Live From Planet Earth is not costing Nine anywhere near as close what Hey Hey cost.

  22. I checked Ben Elton’s show out as I am a fan of live TV, and think 9 should be thanked in this regard.

    I didn’t think it was too great as before it all.. I thought it may have had a few more guests other than the Ruby Rose slot (though it was going to be something more in the format of Micallef Tonight which 9 did previously before sadly letting Micallef go), but after seeing it all I didn’t think it was all that bad. Girl Flat and the segment which interviews a guest were probably the highlights.

    Will check it out as long as it is still on as there’s nothing else on at that time I’m interested in.

  24. Doesn’t look good for LFPE. If it got that for it’s debut, I can’t imagine it will even crack 400,000 next week. Really wanted it to work, but it was pretty abysmal, to be honest.

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