★★★★★ 0/5

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

  2. a lot of the aussie comedians i follow on twitter, as well as a retweet someone sent from Dave Hughes (lol) they are all saying people cant criticize the show and leave him alone it was the first time blah blah blah….

    if a show doesnt work, it doesnt, just becuase Ben Elton has been around doesnt make it any different than any other failing show.

    i saw 5 mins of it and cringed. was not fun.

  4. If the 2 kids (pictured in main story) with the Kylie Mole basics routine did that sketch live before the studio audience as it was telecast, then full marks to them.
    Their timing was absolutely superb.
    Sadly, as I said, Kylie Mole did it all before.
    And that was the only bit we saw before giving the rest of the show a miss.

  7. Real shame – I actually thought Elton himself came off quite well. His stand up was solid and he was (and is) a polished presenter. Paul McCarthy – an incredible impersonator (maybe the best all rounder in that area we’ve ever produced) was seriously underused. Genevieve Morris was working overtime with limited stuff. And Veronica Milsom (who I think was doing the Lady Gaga) bit was also trying hard.

    But the rest of the cast was noticeably poor, and the material was bad and all in one voice. An opportunity wasted.

  8. I can see it has potential, but this format might work better on the ABC, it reminded me of the old “Big Gig” in some ways.
    I’ll give it a chance and keep watching, they just need to tweak it.

    I think the main problem is viewers didn’t really know what to expect, and couldn’t adjust because they were maybe expecting something else entirely.

  12. Truly terrible and awful. THe ruby Rose segment was probably the best of the lot but the sketches were just terrible. Why they cast actors who screeched their lines of dialogue to an audience who was not laughing is just gross? Ben Elton was average but I’d much rather see Rove back or Hamish & Andy than watch him.

  13. Thanks Bass! I was just about to ask if anyone had the 15-minute breakdowns! Glad I hit F5 before commenting. Interesting to see that of the nearly 400,000 (on average) who stuck it out for 45 mins, more than a ¼ of them bailed when there was only 15 minutes more pain to go.

  14. Maybe people saw the horrendous network promo during Top Gear with a man in a gold bikini and wig and decided not to watch. I was never going to watch it, that promo validated my decision.

  16. I forgot it was on but watched the second half of it. It was ok. I miss the sketch shows of days gone by :-(. It had nothing on them. Except for Genevieve Morris of course. She’s brilliant!!!

  20. Being in Perth I got plenty of warning via twitter how bad this was and caught a few minutes of it. True it was. 9 Perth kept advertising it as “Perth’s own Ben Elton”

  21. I’m surprised TG didn’t do better, I know it ran almost 2 hours (too many ads!) but less than a missing and then Ben Elton Ouch! makes me wonder if they will show all 4 promised eps, won’t be surprised if they do a shuffle moving it back an hour in the coming weeks.

    But on a bright not great numbers for the Rafters and Parenthood holding its own against NCIS.

    But it must be a kick in th pants for Nine loosing to Seven by just under 10% and TEN coming a close 3rd. So much for their special TG event and big new live show.

    Maybe they should have shown the xMas special TG sooner, Glee learnt that Monday with low numbers for it’s Christmas show.

  22. Ben Elton Live from Planet Earth
    Taken from the Australian,.
    21:40:00-21:54:59
    632,637

    21:55:00-22:09:59
    421,128

    22:10:00-22:24:59
    398,196

    22:25:00-22:39:59
    296,049

    Ouch thats massive audience erosion, they really didn’t like what they saw

  24. it was awful 🙁 I felt so bad for Ben Elton – there is so much great comedic talent in Australia, a live show with Ben, a guest or two, some stand up comedians, maybe some Michael Veitch skits (he is gold!) could really work, but no more of those screeching females, the skits and the sitcom were so painful to watch – it was just awful – Genevieve Morris was brilliant, as always

  25. Sad to see such low ratings – I had high hopes for this and Australia desperately needs more comedy on television. I imagine however it will drop badly for week two and that will be the last we see of it – the exact same pattern as the wonderful Let Loose Live, still Australia’s best comedy program despite only living for two episodes.

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