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Soft start for Jonah from Tonga

Ratings: Jonah premieres to less than half the puckin' numbers Ja'mie pulled for her 2013 launch.

Screen Shot 2014-05-08 at 10.24.21 am.jpgJonah from Tonga is copping it from all fronts today.

While being criticised by a member from the Tongan community for the way he has depicted Tongan culture, it seems the show itself got off to a soft start with viewers.

It premiered to just 414,000 viewers, much lower than Ja’mie‘s launch last year at 924,000 viewers. While Agony had lifted above its Spicks and Specks lead-in, Jonah could not.

No doubt ABC will look to the iview offering as indication that the core Chris Lilley audience had already seen the series, however while those numbers were good they were not record-breaking and they should have generated word of mouth rather than having the opposite effect. That said, there were for and against comments on social media, last night.

Nine network won its fourth night of the week with a share of 33.8% then Seven 27.8%, TEN 19.2%, ABC 14.5% and SBS 4.7%.

The Voice was #1 at 1.8m in preliminary figures for Nine then a late-starting Mom (1.3m), Nine News (1.25m / 1.16m), A Current Affair (1.00m), Hot Seat (693,000), The Big Bang Theory (622,000 / 549,000).

Seven News (1.22m / 1.08m) was best for Seven then House Rules (964,000), Home and Away (960,000), The Blacklist (737,000) and Million Dollar Minute (556,000). Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD was 322,000.

MasterChef Australia (787,000) topped TEN followed by The Project (684,000 / 457,000), TEN Eyewitness News (659,000), Puberty Blues (578,000). The Good Wife was 285,000.

ABC News (813,000) remains strongest for ABC1 then QI and 7:30 (both 593,000), Spicks and Specks (426,000), Jonah from Tonga (414,000), a final Agony of Modern Manners (324,000) ungenerously pushed back to make way for Chris Lilley. The Kumars was 167,000.

Walking Through History did well for SBS ONE at 310,000 then One Born Every Minute (175,000), SBS World News (145,000) and The Bridge (86,000).

7TWO’s Lewis hit the top of multichannels at 292,000.

Sunrise: 377,000
Today: 285,000
ABC News Breakfast: 69,000 / 42,000
Wake Up: 33,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 7 May 2014.

21 Responses

  1. Blacked face – no thanks.
    Laughed at many things – mostly British.
    Basil Fawlty thrashing has mini with a tree branch; The I.T. Crowd; Australia’s The Hollowmen.
    I don’t hang around schools “listening” to school children and neither do most people unless they’re paid to be there… I’m glad school children find this funny. Perhaps it should be on ABC 3.
    The ratings will define whether this is successful “funny”. Not for the moment given the lack of interest…

  2. @ryan – yes sad about Wake Up. I actually quite like it. It’s a pleasant and genuine alternative that’s largely ironed out the issues that all new TV shows have. There is genuine warmth between the two main hosts that’s fun to watch. This morning’s episode in particular was great when they surprised Natarsha by playing a clip of her dancing on the chair and table when she thought no one was filming. And of course they kept playing it over and over to great effect. Certainly an improvement over the abysmal “Breakfast” with that terrible host whose name I shall not speak!

  3. While the Agony shows are not my cup of tea I think for what they are they’re pretty well made. It’s a shame they got bumped to a later time slot for one week. They were obviously delivering a show people wanted to watch. Last week they rated more than Jonah with pretty much the same lead in without the press or massive advertising spend that Jonah has had. The ABC should let series run their course in the same time slot. Lilley’s special treatment isn’t justified.

  4. Chris Lilley is racist and not at all funny. I’m glad Australia is beginning to reject his (and I use the term very loosely) “comedies”.

  5. The Voice finished at the time my EPG had listed – 9:10pm. Having said that, I checked the EPG at 9:08pm, so it could have been updated any time before then. : )

  6. @Brutalitops
    Just checked the numbers for 2013 launch
    Launched on Sunday (2 June 2013) to 1.1m
    Monday 739k
    Tuesday 860k
    Wednesday (did not air – SOO on)
    Thursday 489k (Masterclass)

    From Sun to Thurs the week after it was (9-13 June)
    648k, 652k, 715k, 745k, 549k

    I believe MCA was competing against The Voice, The Block Sky High and House Rules on various nights.

  7. “I really enjoyed Jonah last night. As someone who works in a school all I can say is Lilley nailed it. There’s at least one ‘Jonah’ in every class-no matter what ethnicity.”

    Agree, @CM.
    Over the years of attending my sons’ school assemblies, sports days, etc, I have regularly observed one or two “Jonahs”and their attention seeking exploits.
    The bane of every high school teacher.

    Am enjoying the show as well – as you say, more reality TV than anything.

  8. I really enjoyed Jonah last night. As someone who works in a school all I can say is Lilley nailed it. There’s at least one ‘Jonah’ in every class-no matter what ethnicity. It may shock some and maybe some aren’t interested at all but to me it shows that Lilley is a keen observer of behaviour and can replicate that behaviour accurately to produce satire. At times I felt like I was watching reality TV. I think the reason that Lilley’s shows are so popular with kids is that he is holding up a mirror to their every day life. Very clever indeed.

  9. I iviewed the whole series and it was good. It does get better with each episode. I did find that every now again when Jonah smiles and with certain body movements,Jam’ee can be seen,not sure why but it’s a touch creepy!

  10. Jonah got what you’d expect if it was just another show. Slightly less than it’s lead in. The Voice ran over which would’t have helped. It could dip further once it is up against Offspring. What the Iview experiment will do is stop the fans talking about the show every week after it airs. Ja’mie was anticipated because it was a popular character returning after the disappointment of Angry Boys. That’s not going to happen twice. Lilley needs to swallow his pride and get someone else to write with him so his episodes have proper plots and story arcs. Not a whole series where nothing happens.

  11. It sad how high shows like Big Bang Theory and Mom rate. I guess people like being spoonfed their humour

    Impressive start for Masterchef. Was expecting around 500k. It has to be outperforming last year?

  12. Sadly, I was disappointed by the episode. Yes it was classic Jonah but for some reason, the comedy just didn’t work like it used to. It offered little that was genuinely new and it felt like the same joke was repeated time and time again. Hoping this changes in future episodes.

  13. The wait between Chris Lilley shows used to be agony.

    Now I don’t even notice when they on, never mind even bother to watch them.

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