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Seven’s premiere a Winner for Australian drama

Seven's new drama Winners and Losers premiered to a big audience of 1.61m viewers, as the #1 show of the night.

Seven’s Winners and Losers premiered to a big audience of 1.61m viewers last night, topping the evening as the #1 show.

In TV numbers it was rather like winning the ratings lottery.

In its hometown audience of Melbourne the show enjoyed a massive 570,000 viewers, well ahead of 387,000 in Sydney and 269,000 in Brisbane.

The debut delivered on Seven’s extensive marketing campaign in which it reminded the audience it was created by Packed to the Rafters Bevan Lee. So far the signs indicate a vote of confidence in Australian drama and Seven’s internal drama slate under exec John Holmes, but episode two will arguably be a better indicator to see how many viewers return.

Seven’s premiere whacked the competition: NCIS (1.1m), Top Gear (771,000), How Earth Made Us (498,000) and Wonders of the Solar System (229,000).

Significantly, Winner and Losers even rose above its lead in, My Kitchen Rules (1.55m). Kitchen Rules also won its slot ahead of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (946,000), The Big Bang Theory (777,000 / 1.17m incl Two and a Half Men in Brisbane), 7:30 / Foreign Correspondent (613,000 / 562,000) and Insight (198,000).

Top Gear’s additional 30 minutes nothwithstanding, an NCIS repeat won its 9:30 slot on 709,000 over Parenthood (681,000), Qi (547,000) and Adults Only 20 to 1 (419,000).

Today (367,000) beat Sunrise (356,000).

Neighbours led the multichannel charge on 343,000 with Survivor‘s debut averaging 259,000 viewers across two episodes.

Seven now has two nights won this week with Nine on one.

Week 13

59 Responses

  1. Didn’t mind it,better than i first expected.The only downside i had were the parents not actors professionally but comedians.So they stood out a bit to me.Rafters is better though.Will i be watching yes it’s not a bad replacement for Rafters,but if it was to be axed down the track i don’t think i would miss it to much.But it appears it might just be a winner so that can only be a good thing

  2. I was Forced to watch this show (as I am with Packed to the Rafters – which nearly kills me) and I was surprised, I do not mind it. And, the Mrs absolutely loved it. I think Ch 7 have a winner here!

  3. Encores of Winners and Losers are as follows:

    Sat Mar 26, 11.15pm on Seven

    Mon Mar 28, 12.30pm on 7TWO

    Mon Mar 28, 11.00pm on Seven

    Tue Mar 29, 2.00pm on Seven.

  4. I watched Winners + Losers and in the 1st 15 minutes I didn’t think I would return for a second viewing. But as the episode progressed it got my attention and now I can say that I will be returning next week. I enjoyed it. The show is fresh, original and far more enjoyable than all those cop shows put together!!!

  5. @Karen

    Wasn’t expecting “state of the art, architecturally designed house or flat(s)”.

    But I was expecting them to look like ‘real’ houses, not fake sets on a stage. Honestly Neighbours and H&A have more realistic looking set design – and better production values overall.

    Better scripts too…

  6. At Pete B.
    W&L hasn’t had any replays yet.
    7TWO is replaying Mon 28/03 at 1230.
    Seven Tue 29/03 at 1400.

    At the same time on Mate there was Fam Guy and American Dad.
    7TWO had To The Manor Born.

    Is that how extra channels are run properly?

  7. I didn’t realise this was Australian. I’m afraid the aussie accents just turned me off. I can’t help thinking of Kath & Kim… the horror!!

    Pass.

  8. I missed it, so checked tv guide to see if it would be replayed on one of the other ch 7 channels. It was being shown on one of the other channels. At the same time !
    Would have been nice if it was shown an hour or a day later on the second channel. When will these guys learn how to use their extra channels properly.

  9. I thought it was ok…
    I’ll give this show a chance, you can’t judge an entire series based on the first episode.
    The script needs improving though.

  10. It’s not Rafters, thank God. The first ep had it’s natural teething problems, I think the premise of the show has possibilities, and the cast is likeable enough. It has scope to broaden, unlike Rafters which after the first Season, which I did watch, seems to of since them, going by ads and bits of viewing of it at times, does nothing but keeps spinning on itself over and over, Season after Season.

    W&L, I’ll certainly give the second ep a watching of next week.

  11. Great debut of a new drama. I loved it. I thought it might have been different but it had a bit of everything. I think it might hold 1.5m next week. A lot of people have been raving about it to me this morning which is always a good sign. Can’t wait for next week. Good work Seven.

  12. of course the ratings were high, people wanted to see what all the fuss that seven was making about it. next week will be the real test, interesting to see the ratings then to see who watches it again.

  13. I think I always imagined Virginia Gay to be older than she actually is because of the character she played in All Saints. She seemed so serious and responsible in that
    show. I don’t know how old she was supposed to be but I would have thought
    maybe her mid 30’s. Playing such a different role in W&L I thought she was great. Didn’t seem too old at all IMO.

  14. @ Marty, if you didn’t see the scene where they won the lottery, you couldn’t have been watching the whole show. The lotto storyline took up the last 10 minutes of the show.

  15. Obviously not everyones cup of tea, but for those who don’t like it, don’t watch it again, and don’t come back next week whining about it. I love it and although I don’t think it will rate as well as Rafters, it will pull 1 million + on a regular basis.

  16. Very happy with this first episode! I reckon its a big step for aussie tv! usually only american tv is that far-fetched and over the top! good move 🙂
    creatively, it was very different and enjoyable!

  17. Pete – LCD TV’s (or Plasmas) are all that are available these days. Plus they are quite affordable now. We have come a long way in 5-10 years since these were only available to the ones with too much disposable income

  18. It was pretty average – had several glaring story problems. And Where was the scene where we saw them win the lottery? That’s the scene we wanted to see – the scene that kicks off the Whole show and lets us live vicariously through them – and it was bizarre that it was missing.

    The build-up to the red-haired girls speech at the school was non-existant too. Suddenly it was just happening.

    I’m sure it’ll get better as it finds its feet. It felt like it was trying too hard and missing some really obvious moments.

  19. Would be really keen to hear from someone who saw the test pilot that was floating around last year and than saw last night’s episode and can tell us about any changes that were made.@ anthonyquin said one change but would love to hear if test viewers thoughts changed anything in the pilot we saw last night.

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