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Spartans struggle in second outing

Ratings: Australian Spartan falls to 524,000 viewers. Mardi Gras boosts SBS. Nine wins Sunday.

Sunday was a tough night for Seven with its audience falling away after Seven News.

In its second outing Australian Spartan plummeted from 816,000 to 524,000 viewers, which won’t be enough to sustain such a prized slot.

Married at First Sight matched last Sunday’s figures, dominating the demos and the slot with 1.54m viewers. I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here averaged 580,000 but it grew to 633,000 when it booted Paul Burrell -both figures were down on last week.

Spartan‘s low audience meant Sunday Night returned soft at 488,000 -beaten by 60 Minutes at 795,000, down on last week.

Elsewhere SBS made a rare decision to split-code the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras at 243,000 / 206,000. Overall the event boosted their network share.

ABC News was strong while Howard’s End debuted with 569,000.

Nine won Sunday with 35.2% then Seven 25.9%, TEN 16.1%, ABC 15.4% and SBS 7.3%.

Married at First Sight was #1 for Nine with 1.54m viewers then Nine News (1.02m), 60 Minutes (795,000) and Born to Kill? (246,000).

Seven News (897,000) led for Seven followed by Australian Spartan (524,000), Sunday Night and (488,000). Crimes That Shook the World was just 196,000.

I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here drew 633,000 / 580,000 for TEN then NCIS (419,000) and The Sunday Project (365,000 / 261,000). SEAL Team was 224,000.

ABC News (738,000), Grand Designs (621,000) and Howard’s End (569,000) comprised ABC’s night. A Hard Quiz replay drew 204,000 and Last Tango in Halifax was just 179,000.

The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras averaged 243,000 / 206,000 for SBS then Eight Days That Made Rome (176,000) and SBS World News (145,000).

7mate’s movie White House Down topped multichannels with 232,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Sunday 4 March 2018.

41 Responses

  1. Trying to find something after The Project last night, accidentally pressed 50 (9HD). “So how was it after the sex started?” asked one of the ‘professionals’ to one of the ‘wives’. Ugh…and to think Disneyland used to occupy that timeslot.

    1. The damage being done to our youth is heart-breaking. Marriage is not sex, and casual sex is the fastest way to ruin their lives. Why does it seem that no one else is worried about this?

  2. See this is what i expected Ninja Warrior to do and thats tank. I have the same feelings towards both shows. I think they are both horrible. I guess Seven wasted a tonne of money here but then considering what is number one on tv at the moment, all they care about is trash tv. Its sad really. I thought we were better than that.

  3. I reckon the Australian Spartan ” me too ” train wreck has cost Seven the year. A long, long way to come back from here – especially with the previously undefeated Champion fighter MKR on the ropes as well , copping a pounding from the highly scripted divas, dopes and dramas of MAFS …
    More pain ahead me thinks.

    1. It’s 3 weeks in, regardless Seven’s year-to-date share is streets ahead of Nine due to the Winter Olympics, Comm Games will bump it up again and you’d expect MKR to be back in full schedule now, into House Rules.

      I’d be waiting at least 6 months, before making a statement like “I reckon they’ve lost the year” again :/

  4. You know a show is in trouble when Seven advertise it on radio & online post launch, as they did with Spartan over the weekend. It’s had no effect.

      1. In hindsight, there probably is no trend. I just seem to recall more advertising for their softer shows, like House Rules in the early days & now Spartan. However, yes, my point doesn’t really stand, because I’ve also heard MKR ads

  5. We watch Spartan the same way we watched Ninja… record and skip everything until the next ‘challenge’ starts, watch, and skip to the next when finished.

  6. What is the reason the Mardis Gras can’t be shown on the night live? It’s been live on the night in the past many times. It’s great we can see it online on the night, but would have thought it now be a perfect fit for Viceland.

      1. I don’t think it would be any more difficult than a live sports broadcast and its been done before. They would know the float order and be able to fill with stories of certain floats like they did on Sunday night and talk about them all as they come out. I did notice a 5-10 minute gap watching online where they showed nothing but audience, and also a number of odd camera moves. Also the moment Cher was there was peak in the number watching live on Facebook.

        I thought there was nothing wrong with what they showed online being able to be on broadcast TV, and it would only have needed commentary and some fillers to make i more like a TV show and not just a live feed.

  7. Didn’t think much of the Boadicea/Boudicca ep of ‘8 Days…’-no focus on what the Romans were doing in Britain at the time and way too much speculation about the lady in question, given the few facts known.

  8. not at all surprised in Spartan, commentators are dull, the ‘team’ concept mainly consists of 3 people doing the 1 challenge individually, occasionally climbing up one another, and they all have back stories, why does everyone have to overcome something, why not-hey im fit & this looks like fun, nothing makes me switch off faster than a back story. All in all Spartan is just boring…

  9. I caught up on the first episode of Spartan over the weekend and I was really disappointed that Seven had adjusted the U.S. format resulting in people being eliminated if they fail a stage (the same as Ninja Warrior does). That’s opposed to the original where they just keep trying until they succeed. But the rest of the family enjoyed it so I’ll unfortunately be catching up on episode 2 sometime this week…

  10. I cheered and clapped and groaned when watching Spartan. It was nice to see that all except 2 teams had a woman. I don’t know what else people could want in a novelty athletic competition.

  11. Surely there are grander plans for Lisa at ten? You don’t pay someone like that for them to host a show three days a week that struggles to get 500,000 viewers a lot of the time?

  12. Don’t understand why 7 dropped their biggest money spinner from sunday night for spartan. Must’ve cost them a lot of money.

    Nice to see I’m a celeb doing different things. Last nights car race was cool.

  13. Nice to see SBS being rewarded for getting behind the Mardi Gras. The Project continues to struggle… I thought Lisa would be more of a draw card. Australian Spartan deserved more, a well made show, but a victim of MAFS success.

  14. I’m amazed at Australia’s fascination with that trashy soap opera Married. I certainly won’t let my children watch it – sets a terrible example about how people show behave in relationships.

    1. Totally agree. We don’t watch it. Not that my kids have shown much interest anyway. My teenage daughter thinks it’s stupid and boring. But I reckon lots of teenagers would be drawn to the drama, just as adults are. IMO I t’s popularity is bit of an indictment on society in general these days. As is the need to include conflict and nastiness in all these reality shows. For the sake of ratings.

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