★★★★★ 0/5

Comedy debut tops Drama return

Ratings: Utopia upstages the return of Wonderland, but it was Seven that took line honours.

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2014-08-14_0956Who says we don’t want a laugh?

ABC’s return to mid-week comedies helped the network to lift on its Wednesday performance with Utopia almost topping its night at 778,000 viewers.

There was plenty of love for the bureaucratic satire on social media as it upstaged TEN’s return of Wonderland in viewing numbers at 519,000.

But it was the Seven network that won the night with 30.5% then Nine 29.25, TEN 17.7%, ABC 17.5% and SBS 5.1%.

Seven News (1.08m / 987,000) led for Seven then Border Security (975,000), The Force (958,000), Home and Away (864,000), Criminal Minds (837,000 / 677,000) and Million Dollar Minute (515,000).

Nine News (1.17m / 1.07m) topped the night. Next for Nine were The Block (1.02m), ACA (987,000), Hot Seat (631,000). The Expendables 2 was 346,000. A second Block episode aired in 2 cities to 432,000.

The Project (705,000 / 514,000) had to cope with some technical issues early on, but managed to top TEN’s night. The Bachelor was 683,000 and TEN Eyewitness News was 642,000. Wonderland returned to 519,000, well down on the much-loved Offspring.

ABC News (792,000) just pipped a strong Utopia (778,000) on ABC then 7:30 (683,000), QI (681,000 / 445,000), Reality Check (559,000) and the last Head First (388,000).

Wild Arabia (281,000), 24 Hours in Emergency (249,000), SBS World News (140,000) and Borgen (113,000) were best for SBS ONE.

Big Bang was best on multichannels at 319,000.

Sunrise: 352,000
Today: 340,000
ABC News Breakfast: 91,000 / 48,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 13 August 2014

 

28 Responses

  1. So, fast-tracked Extant 213,000, Criminal Minds repeat 677,000.
    Score 1 for fast-tracking.

    Hopefully I don’t need to explain the concept of sarcasm to anyone.

  2. That’s a very disappointing result for Wonderland, considering its the premiere episode coming off the back of a heavy advertising campaign. Its airing on Ten’s strongest night/timeslot of the week and landed fourth in its slot.

  3. Thanks for the Extant numbers David, a number that sets a new low for Extant, and would surprise no-one in the world (after being jerked around the schedule), except for the geniuses at Ten programming who seem to struggle with the concept of retaining viewers, not losing the few that they had.

  8. Utopia seems promising, even if the first episode rarely rose above mildly amusing. The elements are all there. Time will tell.

    Reality Check seems only vaguely promising. The concept has potential, Ballard could be okay if he learns to relax and seem less desperate, but on the strength of the first instalment they need stronger panellists. Shaw is as odious as you’d expect a network executive to be, and a real turn-off.

    Wonderland looks awfully like the death throes of a once vibrant network. An utter waste of time and airspace, though not talent, since there seems to be none involved.

  9. Im sure people switched off from Wonderland, as there was wall to wall advertising from Ten that it was going to start at 830pm, and didn’t start till 843 … I know switched over to avoid that crap bachelor, and turned back to wonderalnd the moment it finished …..

  10. Not sure about Utopia – I suppose the huge build up of expectation invariably leads to disappointment but in the words of Mrs Krabappel “Pretty lame Milhouse.”
    Also had a look at Reality Check. Maybe I live under a rock (or am over 50) but I hadn’t heard of Tom Ballard. Seemed to be channeling Will Anderson’s Gruen humour but didn’t come up to scratch. However the 2 professional guests were great talent, leaving poor Julie Goodwin a little underwhelming. Liked the concept though.

  11. I could not get into “Wonderland” last time but after the Bachelor I found myself quite enjoying it.

    Loved Utopia and Reality Checks and there is a great double with “White Collar” and the excellent but not talked about “Crisis”, I thought ONE repeated Crisis sometime through the week but not sure which night, but does anyone know anything about Crisis.

  12. I liked Utopia, it reminded of The Games more than anything else they’ve done. I love ABC Wednesdays being back and timed perfectly to not compete with Offspring.

  13. Enjoyed Utopia and Working Dog are the best and brightest in the Aussie business. This kind of intelligent satire will never be a huge ratings hit, despite how well it did last night. But it is the kind of material the ABC is there to make and it should it be proud of it. If only Working Dog had produced the other debut show Reality Check (which will check out pretty fast) the show may have had some future.

    Wonderland on the other hand. A failing network renews a failed show. Ten had the chance to ditch it and instead produce 2 new short form dramas which had sequel potential. A viable series may have emerged. Such a strategy is pretty simple, competent TV executive stuff. Ten’s management needs to rethink or leave. Is nobody accountable there anymore, including the CEO?

  14. Oh, and definitely agree with the critical comments here about Wonderland.
    From what I’ve seen, a woeful show full of annoying, self absorbed, shallow people and a real letdown after the excellent Offspring.

    No wonder viewers turned off in droves.
    What were Channel 10 thinking, commissioning another season?

  15. Loved Utopia ! Quite a few of laugh out loud moments which is rare for me.
    Wasn’t a big fan of Hollowmen but this is much more to my liking.
    Picked the Pink Floyd ripoff for their logo as soon as I saw it – very entertaining.
    Also enjoyed Reality Check despite Tom Ballard.
    Fortunately he seemed a lot less annoying than usual.

  16. Twitter seemed mixed last night on Utopia. Still a decent effort ratings wise and I look forward to watching it on iview. They did a good job with publicity. We’ll see if it does a Chris Lilley and tanks once people watch it.

    Head First should have stayed on ABC2, been a hit there and helped define the channel’s tone and develop it’s audience. ABC2 needs more new programming it should be doing better than 2.5%

  17. I know we have enough reality shows on FTA, but with ‘The Recruit’ consistently rating 6 figures on Fox8, I wonder if it could have worked well on 7… Albeit in only 3 states (during prime-time).

  18. I generally love anything Working Dog do, but I wasn’t overly fussed by Utopia to be honest. I’ll stick with it though.

    Loved Reality Check. It will be interesting to see who they can get on the panel in future.

    I try to support Aussie drama where possible, but I just couldn’t get into Wonderland last year.

  19. Wonderland rates less than Offspring but churned out in blocks of 20+ eps with no stars, limited locations, lots of cheap sets and tax concessions it costs a lot less per episode to make.

    Ten will be relying on Neighbours (which now counts on 11) and Wonderland to met their local drama quota with Offspring unlikely to be renewed, Secrets and Lies tanking and Batavia’s funding collapsing again.

  20. My ABC reception has been playing up recently (since the storms last week) so i ended up just watching some crap. Big Bang repeats mostly.

    And then later in the evening I went to iview to watch Utopia and Reality check. and it got me thinking about how the online/timeshifted ratings sould be given more credit than they do. For me, surely it says more about a show that I specifically went and found it, than the random flicking we do while watching telly. There is heaps of crap that i end up watching on TV that I’d never seek out myself.

  21. It is interesting the ch 10 marketed Wonderland as Season two, yet it is still midway through season one…… Great to see Kate Raison back on our TVs tho!

  22. I thought Wonderland was a flop last year? I was very surprised when I saw they were bringing it back.

    It saddens me that almost 10 times as many people watch xenophobic Border Security with its endless recaps (you only need to watch the last 5 minutes of the entire show to see everything) than Borgen which is one of the best shows on TV.
    nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10891041

  25. With all its publicity, I wouldn’t say that Utopia had a strong debut & was easily beaten by Criminal Minds. Given its largely lukewarm response, it may well be even lower in weeks to come.

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