TV Ratings April 18: Contestant calamity returns MKR to glory days with 1.62m metro

Mediaweek editor James Manning looks at last night’s TV ratings.

• Fried! Horror contestants booted off TV’s #1 cooking show after insults
• Contestant calamity returns MKR to glory days with 1.62m metro
• TEN’s Bachelor In Paradise overtakes Nine’s Elton Salute in 7.30pm slot

Seven

Home and Away has been batting in the 700,000s this week. After two nights of 784,000 and 746,000, the midweek episode did 735,000.

A scandal that shocked the nation! Not quite everybody, but a giant audience of 1.62m, which is easily the best this year. All hell broke loose as horror competitors Sonya and Hadil refused to play nice, launching an attack on their fellow contestants. As threats were made to many of their opponents, the judges were left with no choice but to excuse the Jordanian friends from the table. A delay in service did not deter mums Kim and Suong, who delivered a strong enough meal to keep them safe from elimination and secure them a place in the MKR finals.

The first episode of the new Back With The Ex followed with 430,000 tuning into the format developed in-house and produced by Seven Studios. It was a disappointing debut after Interview did over 500,000 in the slot the day prior with a smaller lead-in.

The 10th season of Hell’s Kitchen USA then launched with a two-hour episode and 162,000.

Nine

A Current Affair was on 770,000 with stories about a mysterious death in Bali and rogue doctors botching cosmetic surgery.

No episode of The Voice, but Nine stayed with pop culture via two music specials.

The first was the Grammy Salute to Elton John called I’m Still Standing. The two hours featured a diverse array of talent who did great work showcasing some of Elton John and Bernie Taupin’s greatest tunes. There were a few bum notes, including Gayle King’s dramatic reading of some Taupin lyrics. The producers, however, saved the very best to last with Elton John performing “Bennie and the Jets,” “Philadelphia Freedom” and “I’m Still Standing”. Given the history of pop music in primetime, including last year’s The Nation’s Favourite Elton John Songs TV special, Nine might have been bracing for a small turnout. They got it – 542,000 is short of expectations for the 7.30pm slot.

Later in the night the network screened the 2016 Ron Howard doco The Beatles: Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years with 336,000 watching. When originally released, the movie was way overhyped with footage many Beatle fans would have been very familiar with. Among a sea of good reviews it was the Herald Sun’s Leigh Paatsch again who got it right telling his readers it wasn’t really all that remarkable a piece of filmmaking.

TEN

Comedian Paul Chowdhry was the star performer on The Project, but the big news is that Rebel Wilson is co-hosting the Thursday edition. The Wednesday audience was on 505,000.

More drama for the cast of Bachelor In Paradise with 630,000 watching episode 12. The series is certainly doing its job – giving TEN competitive and much bigger audiences in the weeks before the launch of MasterChef Australia. Using last night as an example, TEN’s numbers are up 70% for the night year-on-year in key demos. The broadcaster is also reporting record growth in BVOD viewing numbers for the reality format.

The Graham Norton Show had another midweek slot with guests including The Rock, Martin Freeman and Roger Daltrey. The program did 326,000 after 397,000 a week ago.

This Is Us then did 151,000.

ABC

A Black Sabbath expert was among the contestants on Hard Quiz with 557,000 watching.

Episode 12 of Mad As Hell did 525,000 in the week that Nine is flooding the airwaves promoting Shaun Micallef’s return as host of Nine’s Talkin’ ’Bout Your Generation.

Sando was on 246,000 at 9pm while the midweek big channel outing for Tonightly was on 84,000.

SBS

Michael Portillo’s Abandoned Britain doesn’t have the same sort of magic as his Railway Journeys yet it pulled a very strong audience of 289,000.

The Ganges with Sue Perkins then debuted with 181,000.

*Shares all people, 6pm-midnight, Overnight (Live and AsLive), Audience numbers FTA metro, Sub TV national
Source: OzTAM and Regional TAM 2018. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM

Get daily TV ratings and analysis sent straight to your inbox with the Mediaweek Morning Report. Subscribe free here.

To Top