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Upper Middle bonus for ABC comedies

Ratings: ABC's gamble with comedies on Thursday nights pays off, but the night goes to Nine.

7umboABC’s gamble with comedy on Thursday nights has paid off with strong debuts for both Upper Middle Bogan (927,000) and It’s a Date (877,000).

ABC1s’ Wednesday night line up is so full with comedy and politics that it was forced to slate its new shows on a night that has normally been given over to documentaries and the odd drama. But outside of Home and Away, the new comedy from Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope was the night’s top entertainment shows, with Peter Helliar’s close behind.

Nine network was 29.8% then Seven 25.4%, ABC 19.4%, TEN 18.7% and SBS 6.7%.

Nine News (1.16m) topped the night for Nine then A Current Affair (990,000), Big Brother (906,000) which also topped the demos, The Footy Show (831,000) and Hot Seat (615,000).

Seven News was also 1.16m for Seven then Today Tonight (963,000), Home and Away (937,000), Dynamo: Magician Impossible (920,000), Deal or No Deal (507,000), but its observational block Please Marry My Boy (452,000) and Formal Wars (352,000) underperformed.

Upper Middle Bogan (927,000) and It’s a Date (877,000) both outranked ABC News (860,000) for ABC1 then Catalyst (746,000), 7:30 (718,000), Would I Lie to You? (432,000), Country House Rescue (246,000) and Derek (239,000).

TEN could not rise above TEN News (636,000) with MasterChef at 614,000, The Project (582,000), Law and Order: SVU at 582,000 / 558,000 and The Simpsons at 345,000.

Vikings was 323,000 on SBS ONE then Heston’s Feasts (251,000), Food Factory: Supersized (229,000), Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong (189,000) and World News Australia (180,000).

The Big Bang Theory was first on multichannels with 344,000 / 331,000.

Seven News at 7: 124,000
Nine News at 7:00: 87,000

OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 15 August 2013

19 Responses

  1. I really liked Upper Middle Bogan…although the red heads are a bit OTT…..
    It’s a Date…I struggled with…I think because I am older and some of the concept was foreign to me….but am going to watch it again later to see if I get it better…
    I watched both on Iview later in the night.

  2. @ Billy C

    Not everyone has great internet. With the windy weather the internet here is iffy. Yet I’m supposed to look up bushfire warnings. When on bushfire day it’s windy. Stuff internet video viewing compared to that. But it’s not always possible for everyone although I don’t want it either. I’ll admit I last tried it in December 2009 it was utter hell to try and watch.

  3. I guess it’s congratulations and commiserations depending on which network. I’m glad SBS does alright on Thursday.

    Also a belated thank you to GEM for Person of Interest on Tuesday. I’ve been away. I have noticed the addition of “next” at the end. I’ll just warn again does television want people to watch the programming only to find out what is on or the ads? Because people will watch the ads to find out what is on if that’s the way to find out. So they can continue to watch television.

    My hint is I had access to video recorders since 1986. When there was no pop-ups, no watermarks, and no crap during the shows.

  4. Thanks it deserves more but iview is so good it’s not fair to compare ABC ratings to the commercial networks. There is no real incentive to watch it live.

  5. I didn’t mind Upper Middle Bogan, but thought It’s a Date was awful. I wanted to like it, as they filmed an episode in my street. I don’t think I bear to keep watching it until I see my street, but I will see next weeks because of Denise Scott.

  6. @Dr_Rudi – I agree with you about Very Small Business. I thought it was vastly better than The Librarians, and was disappointed that it didn’t get a second series. Gristmill were at their peak with VSB.

    It’s A Date suffered from “Obvious Joke Syndrome”. The whole point of comedy is to use misdirection to lead the audience to expect one thing, then subvert that expectation by showing something unexpected. A lap dance in a lap dancing club is not unexpected, is it? Someone getting sprayed with a sprinkler? Oh, be still my aching sides. And yet again a comedy resorts to bodily functions to get a cheap laugh.

    On the plus side, next week we get Denise Scott and Luke McGregor, two people whose presence is guaranteed to overcome lame jokes.

  7. I thought Bogan got off to a good start – although I seem to be in the minority here that thinks Librarians and Very Small Business were funny.

    As for Date – a handful of good lines – and the ‘married date’ was potentially a good idea – the show (like so many local productions) really needs a good script editor, and story consultant. Perhaps the director could have asked his brother.

  8. After 10 mins of UMB on ABC1 I had to swtich it off, it was terrible. Gave Date a go also, but that didnt last long either. Dissapointing new comedies in my opinion.

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