New US drama FlashForward enjoyed a solid 1.78m viewers last night, landing as the #1 show of the night.
It was a strong debut for the new Seven acquisition after months of promotion and hype. The audience was strongest in Sydney where 516,000 viewers tuned in, just ahead of Melbourne’s 493,000. While it was nothing like the debuts for Desperate Housewives, Lost or even Prison Break it streaked ahead of its competitors, a fastracked Mentalist (988,000), Good News Week (828,000), Four Corners (814,000) and High Altitude (228,000) / South Park (173,000).
Seven was first from 6pm right through to 10:30pm with wins for Border Security, Highway Patrol and Mercy which took 1.07m, well ahead of Nine’s premiere of The Apprentice Australia (692,000). There will be repeats on the weekend if you still want to sample the show. Seven’s wins were also helped by running overtime and thwarting channel switching.
Nine fared best with its new Two and a Half Men episode on 1.31m. Even a $1m question on Hot Seat didn’t gain much traction. Its 645,000 was beaten by Deal’s 732,000, and Mondays are usually their best night.
TEN had another one of those nights where it coudn’t lift beyond TEN News at Five (841,000). Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? was crushed in the melee at 606,000. Just 396,000 watched the second ep of Nurse Jackie, down from its lead in Little Britain USA on 680,000 -better than the 7PM Project (675,000).
Top Gear was virtually untouched by the commercial brawl, taking a cool 883,000 for SBS.
The Vampire Diaires took 147,000 across its two screenings on GO!
As the week from hell continues to unfold, Seven now has two out of two wins.
Ok Yes, the first episode of Flash Forward was hard to follow and actors with small parts not too good. However I will be watching it again because I enjoyed it once I started to follow the storyline….
I’m not a seasoned blogger/critic like some posters, just an ordinary viewer who thinks you have been a bit tough on Flash Forward.
@Justin: That oceanic poster caught my eye too. I rewound and paused on it for a few seconds. Anyway, the tagline on the Oceanic poster says “Perfect Safety Record”- some are speculating that this could mean the H-bomb at the end of last season worked and history has been re-written (in the lost universe).
I didn’t love flash forward but the appentince
was brilliant
Great Pilot episode!
There is no doubt that FlashForward has drawn a lot of inspiration from Lost.
Obviously the opening is pretty much the same as the Lost pilot episode, just the island being replaced by downtown Los Angeles. And of course the word flashforward is the term used for the scenes in Lost depicting the characters future storylines. Also 2 former Lost alumni are part of the FlashForward cast. Of course one thing it couldnt copy is the quality of the writing, acting, tension, drama and one forgotten aspect…the score. The sounds and music used in Lost evokes such a hightened sense of emotion, whereas FlashForward seemed to stick with the plain and boring action movie score. Lost is the King of Motion Picture Television and it has planted the seeds for shows such as Heroes, Prisonbreak and now FlashForward.
And FlashForward knows it has Lost to thank for its chance to be produced.
Did anyone notice the easter egg in the first part of FlashForward? On one of the buildings, was a large billboard for the fictional “Oceanic Airlines” which is of course the airline that features in Lost, the doomed (or possibly not doomed, come 2010) “Oceanic 815″.
I didn’t even realise FlashForward was on, and I have no idea When it is on… Clearly Where Seven is promoting FlashForward as much as possible, Prime is not really succeeding
So… where were the credits for flashforward? It seemed to litterally black out at the end of the show and wake up at the next show, Mercy.
I’m surprised by the number of people who didn’t like the pilot. I thought it was excellent.
I really liked The Apprentice! Guess I’ll be following it on Go within a couple of weeks…
@ nelly
yes, as far as i know most networks still have HD master tapes. that’s how a studio or production company delivers the final broadcast copy to a network.
the network may the ingest the tape onto a hard drive server and play it it out from the server to air, but the master copy is still delivered in tape.
they need a physical copy i case the computer were to crash.
shows like ET and Oprah in the US are fed to individual stations (say 250 affiliates) across the US each day via fibre optic and satellite.
but for network dramas and comedies a physical tape is delivered.
Russell – do they physically have ‘master tapes’?!?! i always wondered about this … but thought they probably just beamed over via a direct feed (in “olden days” via satellite), or digitally via computer …
hmm? anyone know ~
I cant’ believe nine go about wasting time on an Australian Version of the Apprentice when they just cant make those type of shows. As JohnTv pointed out, Survivor
Australia was an absolute train wreck. The Australian apprentice needs a tougher boss like Donald Trump who didn’t give those contestants a free ride and seemed to give the final boardroom some tension and spark.
The Australian Contestants aren’t that bad but its the final boardroom that lets the show down. Mark Bouris seems weak, the set seems fake and as David pointed out even the secretary typing seems fake.
Bring back American Apprentice, the original or the British version.
@ david knox,
yeah, the final broadcast for air version would have been revised from the disney screeners
I honestly think whatever 7 airs works for them by default. Didnt see it because I already watch far too much TV for my liking. If NCIS LA wasnt on this Wednesday I mightve tuned in..
@ slydoggie – Totally agree, the acting was horrible. There were times when it felt like a bad made for TV movie. Granted it’s the first episode but jeez.
Good to see I’m not the only one that had a Massive problem with the watermarking the night before. I was so annoyed when the “flash forward” watermark stayed on the screen All through Casino Royale. This better not become standard practice Seven.
@George Definitely agree with you there. I only caught a few glimpses of FlashForward. But the Apprentice Australia, was a great watch, and should be moved to an earlier timeslot.
Not sure what Disney used for review screeners in cinemas last month. The effects looked a bit dodgy on the big screen so I wanted to check the small screen to see if they shaped up better.
It’s only a guess, but Seven must not have been able to get a HD master tape in time from the US.
It only aired in the US Thursday (Friday Australia time) and the tape had to be prepped for air, timed out, classified etc. All in time for Monday.
Many US shows are not delivered to US networks till the very day before they are. Especially ones that are effects heavy. There is every chance FF was not even in ABC’s hands till Thursday last week. That is pretty normal.
Promos are cut from unfinished episodes and dailies that come in.
In my flashforward is saw seven’s 2nd sd channel.
I know I am sounding like a broken record here, but … I still think The Beautiful Life was much more interesting than this … it just seems up like another version of Lost … bring back “the Beautiful Life” without Mischa Barton!!!
Jack!
@ jayjay – agreed…I couldn’t get over the bad acting and crap CGI. Definitely won’t be back.
@Richard W – Remember that Seven’s viewers are a lot older and there’s also more of them. Over half of that figure last night was from audience over 40 yrs old, and a quarter of that figure last night was over 55.
It will be this older audience that keeps the figure over a million. My tip is you’ll see at least 200,000 viewers drop off next week.
I thought hands down the Apprentice was the best show of the night.
It shouldn’t be buried at 9:30!
Next week is the big test for FlashForward (or any new show) will people come back? I’m sure a large percentage will but it may drop to 1.5 million and with luck Mentalist should rise to 1.2 to take up the slack JMO.
BTW the think I hate with shows now (on all the networks) is how they completely cut all the credits with absolutely no break between some shows and then last night ‘forcing’ viewers to keep watching to see a preview for next week! I know it’s all to keep them from switching and apparently it worked.
Channel 7 know how to milk a popular premier, it started late, they had a sneak peak of world’s stricktest parents, a thousand ad sets, and then made people sit through 9 minutes of mercy before they showed a pretty poor preview for next week. Then there is the not having it in HD. It is definately going to be a lost/24/prison break/heroes and be popular for 1 season then get bumped to 10:30.
Well said Bakshi43
I think FF will have a massive drop in audience next week. I thought it looked cheap. I think it only debuted in the US with 12.5 million which isn’t a lot.
Apprentice – its a matter of WTF were they thinking?! Did someone seriously think this would work? It gave me a laugh as it has this tacky quality about it. The contestants are train wrecks. I’m still confused that Freemantle can get so much right but then come out with these pearlers.
I was looking forward to FF but I just can’t commit to another 5-6 years. I love Lost but it is a committment, a draining one.
So Flash Forward wasn’t in HD last night? Thank goodness, I thought something was wrong with my new TV. But I was looking forward to watching it in HD. Will there be repeats of Mercy? I only saw the first half due to conflicts.
I would feel much more comfortable about this show if it was a miniseries, say only 13 eps and that’s it. Because then you would know the producers and writers would have considered a plausable, and considered ending. As opposed to lost, or ballestar galactica, where they just made it up as they went, all the time acting as if they had a “plan”.
The Apprentice Australia is about 5 years too late for Nine. They should have done this when the 1st season of the US version had finished. – like Ten did with the Biggest Loser. Run the American version and then do the local version.
This is also an example of poor understanding of the Australian audience. As seen with Wipeout, we love watching americans make fools of themselves or act like tools, but we are not that keen on watching Australians do it. Surely someone at Nine must still remember what a failure Australian Survivor was.
This show will be out of the schedule next week and will finish its season on GO! – who last night did an special simulcast.
Flashforward had me intriqued.
It did seem very slow to get going and unless eps 2 & 3 pick up the pace, I doubt I will watch longterm.
Watched bits and pieces of Apprentice (mainly watching Ashes to Ashes) and David’s review of it was spot on.
Apprentice look so staged, men v women, 1st task physical, model posing as secretary and a genuine lack of any knowledge by any of the contestants.
The Apprentice Aust looks worst that I expected.
I agree with Bakshi43 why wouldn’t Seven screen Flashforward in HD is beyond me. Even the wife noticed it wasn’t in HD. I liked the show but was very disappointed in the lack of HD. At certain times I could have sworn I was watching a divx file. If I wanted to watch that quality Seven I will download it and watch it when I want. You make it very hard to do the right thing. If you Fast Track it and put it in HD then I will watch it with your commercials, if you don’t do both of those things then I will go elsewhere!
Seven do have a habit of being able to get people to watch their new shows but I think a lot of people underestimate the power of momentum in TV ratings.
After TEN’s effort earlier this year I think you could probably dub it the Masterchef effect. Whilst their programming didn’t differ all that much from previous years, they had eyeballs on promo’s played during MC and people are more reluctant to switch after watching something they were happy with (i.e the feel good factor of MC so many people have mentioned).
The same thing won’t be happening with Celeb MC as it’s not stripped across the week but i’m sure it will give the rest of Wednesday nights programming on TEN a bit of a kick along.
Well done Seven for fast-tracking FF (great show, great potential). Well done TEN for shwing Nurse Jackie (fantastic show, soo addictive) – it’s shame it’s not gaining a decent audience.
That’s what I expected from The Apprentice Australia even with no competition on other networks. Nurse Jackie is not suited for TEN. ABC1/2 or SBS should have picked this up. I obtained it from other sources the day I found out that Ten was reshuffling it. Now I can watch it when I want.
I can see why SBS wants to move South Park to later in the year. The target audience have already seen them back in March this year after the US airing.
Look forward to watching FlashForward tonight on the PVR.
Good figures for FlashForward, question is though, will people be back? I didnt make it to the end. Comments on other forums are basically showing people either loved it or hated it so it will be interesting to see how many return.
After all the hype and the inexcussable flashforward watermark all over Sunday nights programmes, I was interested to see what Seven would do with their screening last night.
Having seen clips of the show in HD, I was interested to see Seven’s presentation.
I watched the last quarter on an hour and after that all I can say is – ‘Their presentation of Flashforward is why I don’t watch commercial FTA any more’.
The endless commercial breaks, the pop-ups, the crap SD quality on HD all made for a typically ‘let’s just give them what We want’ type of show.
These guys just do not get it ! Why keep pi**ing your viewers off ?
Memo to Commercial FTA: Fibre to the home is coming.. so is online HD..
you have little time left if you continue on the same merry way.
That is all.
I don’t get it, Seven seems have the uncanny ability to get people to watch new shows. If they stick the same show on 9 or even 10, the ratings would be almost half!
I can’t see this show lasting in prime time. Its too much like Lost and 24 and not very good for pulling in the important female viewer demogrpahic. It will be pushed back to a 10:30pm timeslot before you know it.
I saw FlashForward before it aired on 7. In addition to being rather tedious, its problem is its gimmick can only be interesting for 1 season. If it was a 1 season show, it’d have worked.