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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.

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. I am a huge Ben Elton fan and have seen him live, notably with Rik Mayall, on several occasion. He might as well not have bothered with Live from Planet Earth. Utter garbage. Elton brilliant normally, crap comedians. Why would a hitherto comedic genius link himself to such unfunny banal alleged comedy? Fat Chef was an insult, as was the American sex therapist. Perth has fried the brains of Ben Elton, I feel — only sorry I missed Tim Minchin last night as he is brilliant. This was lavatorial sexist rubbish.

    Barbara from Bankworld was a total disappointment. Her interview with the illustrated Ruby Rose was boring, and the inane Rose giggled throughout. Not funny Ben! Also, who cares what orientation Ms Rose is, does it make her interesting?

    I won’t be viewing again — might tape Minchin as he would be the only beacon in this dreary show.

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