Channel Nine will gauge the pulse of the nation every Tuesday with The Hundred with Andy Lee. 

Each week 100 everyday Aussies will Zoom into the studio from all over the country to give an insight into what the nation is really thinking.

Mediaweek spoke to host Andy Lee and EP Hayden Guppy about how the show came to be.

Bringing The Hundred to screens

Lee says the idea of The Hundred had been bubbling away for a while.

Lee: Screentime came to me a while back now, almost two years ago, and talked to me about a stats-based show, I like stats and data. Originally it was a bit more like 20 to 1, pre-recorded comedians making comments on stats. That’s kind of where I came in and we started making it into a studio-based format, and it grew from there. It’s been really fun.

Then we had the idea of a huge screen with a hundred Australians on it beaming in live from all around the country representing a cross-section of the community, and we could poll them live and find out what Australia is thinking and feeling about a range of habits.

Choosing The Hundred

Choosing a hundred people to represent a nation as diverse as Australia was no mean feat. Lee and Guppy are both very happy with the result.

Lee: As we started putting the call out, we had thousands and thousands of applicants to be on the show which was really exciting. And through that, there was a range of ages, cultural backgrounds, demographics, and regions.

It’s really nice when you see them all there and someone comes up on the screen and you find out they’re from a small town in Tasmania and the next person you go to is a miner up in the Northern Territory. It’s just great bouncing around the country and seeing how everybody’s acting.

Guppy: The nice thing about it is Ando’s broad fanbase. When we reached out through social channels, there was so much broadness and diversity that was coming back. We’ve got a lot of Zoom producers that are on the phone every day just chatting with people, and the excitement coming back from people wanting to be a part is great.

Working over Zoom

While most shows are using Zoom out of necessity, The Hundred uses it as a centrepiece. Even if the world wasn’t currently facing a pandemic, Lee and Guppy say they wouldn’t bring the hundred into a studio.

Lee: You learn so much about someone just from their background or from their lounge room. That’s what’s great about this, when people come on television normally, you see them on any game show, they dress up and put on their Sunday best, they get their hair and makeup done. It’s not really a representation of them in everyday life. We’ve found that how relaxed people are in their lounge room is just so great. I really do look at it as reverse Gogglebox, this is a bunch of TV presenters looking into people’s lounge rooms as opposed to vice versa. We had so many more surprises, very rarely do you have pets interrupting a studio chat.

Guppy: We’ve almost made it a feature. The fun when we start chatting on Zoom and they bring their pets into it – there’s other characters, there’s great pieces on the wall. It’s content for us but it’s also getting to know them in a way that I don’t think we really get to see in Australia. 

Asking Questions

Just because it’s the hundred being asked the questions, doesn’t mean that they’re the only ones shocked by what they find.

Lee: There are so many times where I get asked ‘oh do you give your own opinion?’. For me and the panelists playing, you naturally do give your answer because if you ask ‘how many people sleep nude in Australia?’ I’m going to think ‘oh, about 85%’, which clearly makes it sound like I sleep nude. Quite often I’ve been getting a shock that the majority of Australians do the opposite, so we’re learning a lot about ourselves at the same time. 

There’s a range of topics that people are on both sides of the fence on, but we’re kind of leaning against the fence with a beer chatting about it to each other as opposed to lobbing rocks over a taller fence. 

The Hundred Guests

Each week will see a rotating cast of comedians join the show as guests. Lee and Guppy say they bring more than just laughs to the show.

Lee: What’s been amazing about the guests is that they’re just bloody funny. What’s also awesome is that it’s been an opportunity for us to unearth some really great comedic talent as well as have famous faces that we already know. 

The person that’s going to be on with me every week is a Melbourne comedian named Mike Goldstein. He grew up in the US and moved here about 15 years ago, so it’s nice to have someone who’s a little bit of an outsider give their perspective on what Australia does and thinks. It generally turns into 103 people ganging up on Mike, which I also like, because Americans need a kick in the balls every now and again. 

Guppy: That’s the thing as well, finding performers that can complement each other in different ways. We have such a great range of comedians and we’ve really looked and worked really hard to make sure they have a really quite distinct style from each other because we want them to bring different things to the table. We want them all to feel differently, as Ando said earlier we’re looking into their lives as much as into our own.

Lee: When you’ve got a hundred people sharing their lives, you just can’t help but chime in with your life and what you’re doing. I feel like the show is as close to radio as I’ve ever felt on television. Hamish and I loved that, loved sharing our lives so thoroughly, and because you then get that same thing back from the listeners. We’re getting the same thing happening with The Hundred.

Looking Ahead

With The Hundred beginning this week, both Lee and Guppy are excited for people to see the show.

Lee: I just love creating something and it’s been so much fun the last 18 months. I just can’t wait for everyone to see it – hopefully, people enjoy it but also want to be on it. There are not too many shows you can watch and then be on it the very next week, ours is one of them. So if you feel like you want to be a part of The Hundred, people should just apply. 

Guppy: We are extremely lucky and don’t take a day for granted that we’re able to make this fun, silly show in Covid times. Precautions aside, procedures and policy aside, I think just having this really fun opportunity is great. Ando and I have made shows together for 15 years, so being able to have another lap around the sun as they say is great. 

Lee: And the other thing is that we hope it’s the biggest show in the world!

Guppy: We should have said that from the start!

RFDS co-creator and executive producer Imogen Banks (above) told the Mediaweek podcast she has been planning the new drama that launches this week on Seven and 7plus for close to five years.

Banks credits former Endemol Shine Australia CEO Mark Fennessy for originally talking to the Royal Flying Doctor Service about making the series. “He originally talked to me about it and asked if I was interested in doing something with them. Frankly I was nervous at the beginning because I certainly didn’t want to do a remake of The Flying Doctors.

“That is an iconic Australian television series and I was very nervous about interfering with that and doing something that looked like a remake.” That first series ran for over 200 episodes on Nine in the late 80s and early 90s.

Imogen Banks now operates her own production business Kindling Pictures. She is best known for her collaborations with John Edwards including Offspring. She also spent many years working for Endemol and later Endemol Shine Australia.

Banks told a Mediaweek RFDS podcast that she “fell in love” with the idea when the real RFDS took her out on a trip to Dubbo and Lightning Ridge. “I couldn’t believe how magnificent the interior of Australia was because I had not really been there. I was also impressed by just how compelling the stories I was being told were. I was really impressed just how much passion the people had about the work they were doing.”

Banks said she later went on a trip with the show’s co-creator and writer Ian Meadows to Broken Hill, which is where much of the show was filmed.

See also: RFDS on Seven: Everything you need to know

The show started pre-production in Sydney in February 2020 and then moved to Broken Hill in March, around the time that Covid-19 really started to impact Australia.

Banks: “We were just two weeks away from starting shooting and we had to close down. At the time the RFDS was high risk because they were transporting patients. They didn’t want to give it to us and we didn’t want to give it to them.

“We eventually started shooting in July about the time Victoria went into lockdown. We were very lucky to be at Broken Hill during that time and we were incredibly lucky that nothing went wrong. We had lots of Covid protocols in place and we were learning from all the other productions underway. We ended up using a lot of locals so we didn’t have to bring people into the region.”

In the first episode of the series there is no time wasted setting up how the lead character gets to Broken Hill. “The first episodes of anything can be so difficult,” said Banks.

“It’s really hard to rip through the information an audience needs to understand what is happening and why. We wanted to do that as quickly, as economically and as elegantly as possible. The first sequences of the first episode were probably written about 150 times. Ian Meadows was probably tearing his hair out, but I think he found a really beautiful way of telling her story without being too oblique about it.”

When asked about one of the cast who is only in the first episode, Banks said: “The casting was impacted by Covid in that some people originally cast weren’t able to do it. We were unbelievably lucky that person was available. [No spoliers!] It was sad that we were only able to work with them for a week.

“One thing that we kept finding during our research was how people in those communities were constantly facing life and death.”

The lead character is played by Emma Hamilton who is Dr Eliza Harold. Hamilton is not an actor that a lot of people may know much about. “We started to look at possibly having an English actor. But then we asked ‘Why?’ Emma is an Australian who has worked a lot in the UK and her name came up on a list and she tested for the role. Hearing her as someone from England seemed really natural and hearing her wouldn’t have been an obstruction to the drama. People watching wouldn’t have been asking, ‘Why is that lady speaking like that?’

“What we really loved about Emma was the sense of a complete complex woman.”

Listen to the complete Mediaweek podcast with Imogen Banks talking to Mediaweek’s Andrew Mercado and James Manning. Banks also talks about selecting the rest of the cast including Rob Collins and Stephen Peacocke.

Listen in your browser here or on the LiSTNR app or your favourite podcast platform.

See also: Banijay reveals take off for RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service with multiple global sales

With the launch of Paramount+ on August 11 this month in Australia, subscribers to streaming platforms are again be asked to give over their credit card number to increase their entertainment options.

Mediaweek has compiled this list of the major streaming options in the Australian market.

NEW Paramount+ $9

Paramount+ launches with a library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios including Showtime, BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, the Smithsonian Channel and Sony Pictures Television, in addition to its offering of local content.

Local dramas start with season two of the Australian drama, Five Bedrooms. Future local drama content will include Spreadsheet, Last King of The Cross and 6 Festivals.

See also: Paramount+: Beverley McGarvey & Jarrod Villani reveal streaming strategy

See also: How Paramount+ plans to make a big impression with its content on August 11

FREE Streaming platforms

All these free platforms need from their customers is usually an email address. They all offer live channels and big on-demand libraries. The upside is you don’t have to pay for any content. The downside is, you have to sit through pre-rolls, post-rolls and in-episode commercials and promos without the ability to fast forward through them.

iview

7plus

9Now

10play

SBS on demand

YouTube (500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute!)

Tubi

Ad-supported platform with many TV series and movies you possibly wouldn’t want to pay for. For more see here.

Kanopy

Documentaries, classic cinema and indie films are available for free via public and university libraries.

Streaming subscription services

(all prices monthly, prices rounded to nearest dollar)

Foxtel

Subscriptions start from $25 for Foxtel Now with 25 channels.

Foxtel Platinum Plus package is $139.

Other services within the Foxtel Group are Kayo and Binge (see below).

Fetch

Not ranked below in our Top 10 or packages as it’s more an aggregator than streamer. But Fetch is an economical way to get access to a lot of content. Comes bundled with some broadband plans, including Optus. Channel packages start at $6, or $20 if you want the Ultimate collection of 46 channels. Extra charges also for special interest channels. You get a big capacity hard drive in the set top box which allows you to stream and record FTA TV and many of the streaming platforms (separate subscriptions required).

Binge $10 – $18

Simply the best value of the paid platforms in Australia. Be a miracle if the price can remain at $10 for too long though. Much of the content available to Foxtel customers is also available here on this streaming platform. Binge content includes most of the Foxtel drama, some of the movies and much of the reality/lifestyle TV too.

There are also around 25 channels streaming live, but with virtually everything available on-demand, that is the best way to consume the content.

While $10 is great value, it only gets you a standard definition stream. HD (ith two streams allowed) is the basic quality many people would accept and that will cost you $14 monthly.

Netflix $11 – $20

The global big daddy of streaming platforms. There’s just so much content that by sheer volume alone you feel you need to subscribe. Quality ranges from “why did they think this was a good idea” to “must-see TV” in the true sense of the phrase. House of Cards was the series that gave the brand international traction and more recent successes have included The Crown, Bridgerton, Stranger Things, The Queen’s Gambit and Tiger King. Finding shows can be a challenge and some nights you feel you have spent as much time scrolling through the content as you have watching an episode. You need to spend $16 to get HD quality.

Stan $10 – $19

In a streaming world dominated by global players spending mega-millions on content, Stan stands out as a great Australian success story. HD option is $14 monthly. While some of the subscription levels have crept higher in price, Stan has maintained its basic plan of $10. With many major studios around the world now linked to streaming platforms, it is getting harder for Stan to secure the biggest TV shows. One key to future success will be local commissions. A big hit last summer was the Stan Original Bump, but there haven’t been too many production announcements so far in 2021.

Stan Sport $10

This is an add on only for an existing Stan subscriber. The portfolio of sport continues to grow and now includes all four Grand Slam tennis events (US Open is next at the end of August), Rugby Union domestic and international, and UEFA football starting this month

Kayo $25

The Foxtel Group’s live and on-demand sports platform has been a massive hit with over 1m subscribers. The sheer volume of sport available has been key to its success. The tech works brilliantly and many people who also have access to Foxtel’s Sports package also like to have the Kayo user experience. While the monthly fee of $25 represents great value, it is not too difficult to find deals to make that cost even smaller. Telstra or News Corp news brands are places to start looking for discounts.

Apple TV+ $8

Or “free” for 12 months if you are a recent owner of an Apple device or computer. The platform hasn’t had any “breakout hits” to make it an essential part of a home entertainment budget, although Ted Lasso is now the show most people know on the service.

Disney+ $12 ($120 annually)

Possibly the most overlooked of the major platforms in Australia. Those who are tempted to subscribe are often blown away by the volume of content available. A more recent addition was the Star brand that sits within Disney+. Star is home to the slightly more adult fare while the Disney+ specialty is family entertainment. The big entertainment brands you can enjoy on Disney+ include Disney, Pixar, Marvel, National Geographic and, of course, Star Wars.

Optus Sport $15 ($99 annually)

If not a qualifying Optus mobile or broadband customer, you will have to $15 monthly. The big drawcard is the Premier League which starts again in August. The platform has been home to the Men’s and Women’s Football World Cups in the past. Optus Sport recently lost rights to UEFA matches to Stan Sport. Best deal we have found is to use Optus as your NBN provider which can give you Fetch and Optus Sport for “free”.

Hayu $7

The place to go if you mainly care about reality TV. Forget it if you’ve had enough Kardashians or Real Housewives.

Amazon Prime Video $7

The Prime two-day free delivery from Amazon makes this a sweet deal. Big investments in Australian content are drawing more subscribers as are the marquee movie originals. And Jeremy Clarkson! Look out for deals – recently offered Echo Dot for just $10 for new members.

BritBox $9 (Annually $90)

Labelled “the ultimate collection of British telly” by partners BBC and ITV. The place to indulge your passion for either Vera or Line of Duty. New UK drama Professor T is an August exclusive.

Acorn TV $7 (Annually $70)

Another home to award-winning British TV. A recent original was series two of Ms Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.

YouTube Premium $15

Packaged with music subscription. For people who watch a lot of YouTube, going ad-free is probably as important as the original content. As many as 15m Australians watch YouTube content monthly.

Doc Play $8

Around 700 of the “world’s best” docos, ad-free and in HD.

Crunchyroll $8

Acquired by Sony’s Funimation this week with plans to merge the two platforms. Claims to be the world’s largest destination for anime and manga. Ad-funded plan is free with paid tiers starting at $8.

AnimeLab $8 (Annually $80)

In addition to the premium level, there is an ad-supported free option with limited selection and lower-res broadcast.

Shelter $8

An Australian streaming service offering the best in architecture, home and design. One tree is planted for every subscriber.

Coming Thursday: We rank the 10 best streaming services

Coming Friday: Seven monthly streaming packages – our recommendations to build your streaming library. From our $10 Budget Bargain to the $354 First Class Premium package.

The July Australian Podcast Ranker chart published today doesn’t show a lot of movement near the top. Two perennial top performers have consolidated their performance though.

Hamish & Andy have returned to the top of the Ranker with their LiSTNR podcast not long after they have resigned to SCA for two more years.

Edging higher to are Kyle and Jackie O with their KIIS breakfast show podcasts up from #4 to #3 month on month. The number of episodes the two podcasts release couldn’t be more different. Hamish & Andy had just four episodes published in July 2020. Kyle and Jackie O content was cut up for 110 separate podcast episodes.

The Ranker provides insight into the Top 100 Podcasts as well as the Top 10 Publishers in Australia from 1 July through 31 July, 2021, as measured by Triton’s Podcast Metrics measurement service.

Winning the race for the most podcasts released in the month of July is 1170 SEN’s Breakfast with Vossy program which had 382 separate podcasts released during the month.

Two new series appearing in the All-Australian Top 100 Ranker are Shameless presents: The Books that Changed My Life (SCA – LiSTNR) and The South Australia Briefing (SCA).

Total downloads of all shows by all participating publishers in the month of July is 48m. The biggest-ever month was 52.2m downloads in May 2021.

ARN/iHeartMedia had the most downloads with 11.07m or the month. SCSA had the most active podcasts with 420.

Participating publishers in the Australian Ranker include ARN/iHeartMedia, Audioboom, Babyology, Equity Mates, Kinderling Kids Radio, News Corp Australia, Nine, Nova, Podshape, Schwartz Media, Southern Cross Austereo, Sports Entertainment Network, Stitcher Media, TOFOP Productions, Wavelength Creative, West Australian Newspapers, and Wondery.

See also: Podcast Ranker June 2021: Those Two Girls highest Australian debut

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An average of 37%, or around $123.3 million in digital media advertising expenditure was wasted in the second quarter of 2021, according to the new quarterly Next&Co Digital Media Wastage Report.

Next&Co’s recently launched its Prometheus proprietary media auditing tool, which in an initial analysis found that almost a third, or $3 billion, in digital ad spend was wasted annually.

The 1 April to 30 June report audited 115 brands from the FMCG, finance, retail, health, insurance and education sectors – across ASX listed, multinational, national and SME companies. Media budgets for these companies ranged from $500,000 to $27 million.

Wastage in the insurance sector was largest at $69 million, although it is also the biggest spending sector. It was followed by health with $50.6 million wasted, education – $42 million, retail – $38 million, FMCG – $26 million and finance – $21 million.

Across digital media channels, the most digital ad spend was wasted on Facebook at $55 million, then Google at $48 million, LinkedIn at $11 million and Bing at $8 million.

The most common sources of waste were overbidding on things such as search terms, buying the wrong demographic and buying ineffective search terms.

Next&Co Co-founder, John Vlasakakis, said the wastage problem is getting worse for advertisers.

“The problem is a combination of internal marketing teams who do the work for their company and agencies on retainer simply not having the right capabilities in digital media to service clients. There always was a talent shortage of skilled performance marketers in Australia and COVID has probably amplified this,” he said.

“The answer is to get your media audited more frequently. Companies need to take the initiative and get an independent view of how well and efficient their current advertising expenditure is performing for them. Whether this audit is with us or someone else, brands need to keep internal teams and agencies on their toes a little more and if they are not improving performance under current spends, the time to switch agency partners is now.”

Prometheus has been used by more than 300 companies. It has the ability to tell advertisers exactly where and how their ad spend is being wasted on digital platforms and by how much.

Prometheus has inbuilt KPIs advertisers can select from, including leads, customer conversions, ROI, reach and they can choose their targets across each metric. The auditing tool then determines the exact wastage of their total annual digital spend in dollars and where that wastage is occurring campaign by campaign and on a creative level.

It provides a score out of 100 on the overall performance of each metric and the exact amount of media dollars wasted. The data is then individually audited for each type of advertising activity run within the tool and an individual score for each. 

The Next&Co Digital Media Wastage Reports will be released each quarter. 

Stan has announced that it has partnered with the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF) to bring exciting live action projects to the screen for young and family audiences across Australia.

The announcement comes with the call out for pitches of feature length, live action film, with a G or PG rating, for children and their families, or a tween/teen audience. Applications open on Wednesday, 11 August, with writers, creators and producers submitting their projects to https://actf.com.au/stan-initiative. Applications close Monday, 13 September.

Paul Fletcher MP, minister for communications, urban infrastructure, cities and the arts, said:  “The Morrison Government is pleased to see the ACTF partner with Stan to bring high quality new content to Australian children and their families to enjoy, as well as providing excellent opportunities for Australian writers, creators and producers.”

Cailah Scobie, chief content officer at Stan, said: “The partnership between ACTF and Stan is another strong signal of Stan’s investment and commitment to produce original  content for Australian audiences – and in this case our youngest audiences.  

“ACTF has supported high quality children’s content for nearly 40 years, and are leaders in their field, and we welcome this collaboration and working with the sector to bring these feature films to life.”

Jenny Buckland, Australian Children’s Television Foundation CEO, said: “The ACTF wants to support high quality Australian children’s content on all the platforms children engage with, and for a long time we have admired the original Australian content Stan has been commissioning for adult audiences. So we are absolutely thrilled that Stan is now stepping into the children’s space with this commitment to children’s films and looking forward to working with Stan in this partnership.”

Applications open on Wednesday 11 August and are due by Monday, 13 September. To read the full creative brief and apply, visit: https://actf.com.au/stan-initiative.

Stan has announced UK radio and television football presenter Max Rushden and former Socceroos captain and multi-Logie award-winning broadcast veteran Craig Foster will join its coverage of the UEFA Champions League, Conference League and Europa League.

Familiar to fans worldwide, Max Rushden will bring an incredible wealth of European football knowledge and experience from his various roles at the BBC and Sky Sports, and most recently his work at Talksport and as host of the Guardian’s Football Weekly, one of the biggest multi-award winning football podcasts in the world. 

Max Rushden said: “I am thrilled to be joining Stan to host their exciting new UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League coverage. From the early stages of our discussions, it was clear we were very aligned on how football should be covered – in a relaxed, intelligent, and hopefully entertaining way. We’re putting together a brilliant team of experts in Australia and around Europe, and I can’t wait to arrive with my Aussie wife, get hotel quarantine out of the way, and get stuck in for our first group stage matches.”

With over eighteen years of experience covering football, Craig Foster is one of Australia’s most beloved sports presenters having covered some of the biggest football tournaments around the world including World Cups, UEFA Champions League and the Premier League. Away from football, Foster is equally known for being a global advocate for human rights and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to multiculturalism, human rights, refugee support organisations, and football earlier this year.

Craig Foster said: “The UEFA Champions League is the benchmark football competition globally with the greatest players, tacticians, histories and club rivalries. Since the mid-1950s, when Real Madrid made their name as 5x Champions of Europe, through the various iterations to Chelsea’s second triumph last year, it’s the competition every club wants to be in, and every fan wants to experience. I’m delighted to be able to bring the world’s finest football to Australian audiences with Stan – the new home of the UEFA Champions League.”

Max Rushden and Craig Foster will be introduced in Stan’s Super Cup coverage on Thursday and will appear in studio for the UEFA Champions League group stage, with matches commencing Wednesday 15 September. Stan will reveal further talent announcements and broadcast details in the coming weeks.

Stan acting chief executive officer Martin Kugeler said: “We are delighted to announce Max Rushden and Craig Foster as our first commentary team signings for Stan’s UEFA club football coverage. Max and Craig will bring incredible expertise, knowledge, and passion for the world’s best club football to our broadcast. We look forward to welcoming them both into our Stan Sport family.”

Stan Sport’s exclusive UEFA coverage will begin with the 2021-22 UEFA Super Cup match between 2020-21 UEFA Champions League winners Chelsea and Villarreal, winners of the UEFA Europa League – kicking off this Thursday 12 August from 4:50am AEST.

Stan’s add-on sport package is available for $10 a month and new customers can start their 7 day free trial now by visiting: Stan.com.au/sport.

Primetime News
Seven News 1,185,000/1,149,000
Nine News 1,1081,000/1,051,000
ABC News 757,000
10 News First 409,000 (5:00pm)/ 254,000 (6:00pm)
SBS World News 181,000 (6:30pm)/ 131,000 (7:00pm)

Daily current affairs
A Current Affair 823,000
7.30 595,000
The Project 326,000 (6:30pm)/546,000 (7pm)
The Drum 218,000

Breakfast TV
Sunrise 289,000
News Breakfast 230,000
Today 225,000

Late News
Nine News Late Edition 186,000
ABC Late News 134,000
The Latest 129,000
SBS World News Late 45,000

Seven

Seven has continued its winning streak, once again securing the top primary (24.9%) and network (32.5%) shares, although it had to share the multichannel spoils with 7TWO and 10 Bold both on 3.3%.

Home and Away continued its strong return to TV after its hiatus with 733,000 viewers. This was followed by The Voice with 1,066,000 as it continues its incredible debut week following off from the Olympics, with every episode over the 1 million mark.

The episode featured noteworthy performances from Cassie McIvor, TanyaGeorge, Abbey Green, Henry Starr Ahomana, and Dan Eade.

Up next was the debut of Seven’s new show Australia: Now and Then hosted by Shane Jacobson. The show features Australian celebrities comparing generations and discussing which one has it best. The episode had 516,000 viewers and featured the topic of kids.

Nine

A Current Affair had 823,000 viewers as the show covered the Moderna vaccine’s arrival in Australia as well as the devastating impact the pandemic continues to have on Australian families.

The Block then followed with 634,000 viewers which was up on Monday night’s 627,000.

The episode featured the teams receiving advice from The Block architect Julian Brenchley about designing their floor plans. But his advice was not heeded by everyone with Josh and Luke ignoring his advice and deciding to convert the double garage into a fourth bedroom.

“I’ve just come from a meeting with House 4, couple of young guys, I’ve got to say they came across as a couple of belligerent 13-year-olds,” Brenchley admitted.

The Hundred with Andy Lee then aired its first episode with 484,000 tuning in for the fitting census night premier. The celebrities competing last night were Sophie Monk, Mike Goldstein and Sam Campbell. The episode also featured a cameo from Anthony Field.

10

The Project had 326,000 (6:30pm) and 546,000 (7:00pm) as the show discussed who should be held accountable for Sydney’s extended lockdown.

Survivor featured the biggest blindside of the season with Simon going home with two idols in his pocket after a covert ploy from every member of his tribe. Even more devastating for Simon is the fact that it was revealed the next episode will see the tribes merge.

The episode had 664,000 viewers and was #1 for the 16-39 and 18-49 demographics.

The Cheap Seats followed with 313,000 which was up on last weeks 255,000.

ABC

On the ABC, Aaron Pedersen and Holly Ringland led a tour through Australia’s unique stories on the new series Back to Nature. In the first episode, the pair visited Springbrook National Park on Yugambeh Country in Qld, bringing with them 363,000 viewers.

SBS

The top program on SBS was a repeat of Who Do You Think You Are? featuring Lisa Curry which had 188,000 viewers.