★★★★★ 0/5

No Wonderland for TEN as Seven wins Wednesday

Ratings: Wonderland slips outside the Top 20 in only its third week while Seven nabs its first night of the week.

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2014-08-28_1004Despite only leading in just one of its early evening timeslots, Seven won its first night of the week last night.

In part that’s probably due to Nine running another staggered schedule due to NRL commitments tonight.

There were improvements for ABC shows Utopia and Reality Check, but 7:30 is down with Chris Uhlmann in the host chair. TEN can take some comfort from The Bachelor but Wonderland has problems that are more deeply entrenched than housemates arguing over their next hook up.

Seven network won with 31.1% then Nine 28.7%, TEN 19.5%, ABC 15.9% and SBS 4.7%.

Seven News was 1.08m / 1.07m for Seven then Home and Away (881,000), The Force (875,000), Border Security (860,000), Criminal Minds (726,000 / 608,000) and Million Dollar Minute (541,000).

Nine News (1.11m / 1.07m) was best for Nine and The Block was 1.07m (a second episode aired in 2 cities at 450,000), then A Current Affair (1.01m) and Hot Seat (603,000). The movie Life as We Know It was 272,000.

The Bachelor has improved to 718,000 for TEN and The Project was 659,000 / 528,000. TEN Eyewitness News was 615,000 but Wonderland was outside the Top 20 in only its third week at 501,000. Two Extant episodes bombed at a dire 189,000 / 156,000.

ABC News (778,000) was best for ABC. Utopia (663,000) gained on week two, then 7:30 (592,000), QI (543,000 / 407,000), Reality Check also improved in its third week at 427,000. A Head First replay was 249,000.

Wild France debuted to 246,000 for SBS ONE then 24 Hours in Emergency (220,000), SBS World News (146,000) and Borgen (123,000).

GO!’s Big Bang Theory (334,000 / 325,000) bested multichannels.

Sunrise: 367,000
Today: 302,000
ABC News Breakfast: 80,000 / 41,000

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 27 August 2014

18 Responses

  1. Agree with the comments about Utopia & Reality Check. Reality Check needs a pannelist more critical of the genre. So far we have only met those involved in producing it and therefore supportive of it. Utopia is the same each week: Govt pushes for big announcement lacking detail, Sitch’s character pushes back, receptionist does something stupid. There are some neat lines but little substance.

  2. I must say I culled Wonderland from my viewing list. I enjoyed season one, and watched the first 2 eps of this year’s, but there was nothing driving me back to see the 3ed ep. The storyline where Broke Satchwell would be intersted in an unapealing work collegue, and that her extremely handsome boyfriend would be insecure was just tedious and not worth watching.

  4. They have tried to fix up a few things in Wonderland and make the characters a bit more interesting than just people who sit around in a block of flats agonising over everything in the 2nd block of S1. But there isn’t anything that is going to attract new viewers.

    Ballard is not bad but Reality Check doesn’t work. People either follow a talent show or they don’t and a few silly snippets (which is all they can show) aren’t interesting.

    The VFT made Utopia more interesting, but most of it is the same actors playing the same characters and delivering the same lines as in their previous shows.

    1. Reality Check could benefit from more disagreement by its panel (a la Todd / Russel). I thought the Amazing Race chat didn’t address that all the changes to the format were a cost saving measure, as an in-house production, and strays dangerously from the premise. But the Big Brother chat was good. Interesting to hear the insight into what was going on in the control room during Merlin’s protest. Still a defining moment which Fitzy accurately reflected and all hail Gretel Killeen. S2 of Reality Check should shift to TV Check to win more of the ABC audience.

  5. @ Gonzo – yeah, programms such as Puberty Blues and Offspring are so far up the ladder compared to dross like Wonderland that they’re in another stratosphere.

  6. @ David Knox

    Ten should fast track to the 2014 filmed episodes by doubling up over the next three weeks season 1 showing them at 8.30 and 9.30.

    Extant belongs at 10.30pm in any case on those numbers.

  7. I’m happy enough to get through the remaining 5 episodes of ‘Extant’, but I’m really hoping that CBS don’t give it the go-ahead for a 2nd season (which I don’t think has occurred yet).

    It rates between 5 & 6 million on a major network in the U.S. Is that usually enough to get it reinstated?

  9. Oops, we’re actually in agreement. Yes, Ten has produced plenty of good scripted over the years and IMO usually a little better than their competitors (the ratings vouch for that too when compared to the rest of their schedule ).

  10. @ Angela, I doubt it. I didn’t watch much of PB or Offspring, but I did catch an ep here or there and while both shows skewed a bit female for me, you couldn’t categorise them with Wonderland. Nor could you do the same with many of Ten’s other drama commissions like the Assange telemovie – and Secrets And Lies was even in another league.

    1. I’ll be looking to see Wonderland change gears when we get to the next batch filmed for 2014, which is about another 6 weeks off I think. These would have been created after some feedback for ep 1, whereas the others were in the pipeline before its premiere last year. Shows often find their voice in S2 when they see how the audience and networks has reacted.

  11. Wonderland is such an embarrassment and Ten would have to be embarrassed they tried to heavily promote such a sloppily, bad written, terribly executed drama.

  12. Agree with @Lizzie May about Wonderland.
    After its poor ratings last year Ten should have canned it after Season 1 and looked at producing somethng worthwhile.

    They can do it …look at Puberty Blues and Offspring.

  13. I found Utopia a bit of a let down last night. A bit samey. I’ll still watch it as I find it better than most Australian shows that are on at the moment.

  14. The first season of Wonderland already flopped last year. It obviously didn’t resonate with a large audience, and yet they decided to pursue a second season anyway and expected a different outcome?
    No one to blame but themselves really.

    And speaking of flops… I must be one of the few who is actually enjoying Extant.

  15. I find Wonderland is an alright drama – nothing special but it does the job.

    Last night the Project had me tearing up – Carrie’s story on brain cancer last night was worth the watch and very well done. I found it good that somebody was finally able to draw some attention to a cause worth investing in, such as brain cancer research.

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