Seven’s premiere a Winner for Australian drama
Seven's new drama Winners and Losers premiered to a big audience of 1.61m viewers, as the #1 show of the night.
- Published by David Knox
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Seven’s Winners and Losers premiered to a big audience of 1.61m viewers last night, topping the evening as the #1 show.
In TV numbers it was rather like winning the ratings lottery.
In its hometown audience of Melbourne the show enjoyed a massive 570,000 viewers, well ahead of 387,000 in Sydney and 269,000 in Brisbane.
The debut delivered on Seven’s extensive marketing campaign in which it reminded the audience it was created by Packed to the Rafters Bevan Lee. So far the signs indicate a vote of confidence in Australian drama and Seven’s internal drama slate under exec John Holmes, but episode two will arguably be a better indicator to see how many viewers return.
Seven’s premiere whacked the competition: NCIS (1.1m), Top Gear (771,000), How Earth Made Us (498,000) and Wonders of the Solar System (229,000).
Significantly, Winner and Losers even rose above its lead in, My Kitchen Rules (1.55m). Kitchen Rules also won its slot ahead of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (946,000), The Big Bang Theory (777,000 / 1.17m incl Two and a Half Men in Brisbane), 7:30 / Foreign Correspondent (613,000 / 562,000) and Insight (198,000).
Top Gear’s additional 30 minutes nothwithstanding, an NCIS repeat won its 9:30 slot on 709,000 over Parenthood (681,000), Qi (547,000) and Adults Only 20 to 1 (419,000).
Today (367,000) beat Sunrise (356,000).
Neighbours led the multichannel charge on 343,000 with Survivor‘s debut averaging 259,000 viewers across two episodes.
Seven now has two nights won this week with Nine on one.
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- Tagged with 20 to 1, 7:30, Foreign Correspondent, How Earth Made Us, Insight, My Kitchen Rules, NCIS, Neighbours, Packed to the Rafters, Parenthood, Qi, Sunrise, Survivor, Talkin 'Bout Your Generation, The Big Bang Theory, Today, Top Gear, Two and a Half Men, Winner and Losers, Wonders of the Solar System
59 Responses
@Ruddeger, 29 hardly “close to 40.”
@Ruddeger
Virginia Gay is one of those actresses that looks older/more mature than she actually is. She is only 29, so only a year older than what her character is supposed to be.
@Lizzie May
Do you seriously think there are no women in Australia that don’t make dinner for their bloke who waits patiently at the table with a beer? Not every woman has burnt her bra nor every bloke suddenly become a metrosexual snag.
@BoxOfficeBowman
Not everybody has heaps of money and lives in a state of the art, architecturally designed house or flat. Those houses/flats looked real to me.
@Ruddeger
Virginia Gay is one of those actresses that looks older/more mature than she actually is. She is only 29, so only a year older than what her character is supposed to be.
Do you seriously think there are no women in Australia that don’t make dinner for their bloke who waits patiently at the table with a beer? Not every woman has burnt her bra nor every bloke suddenly become a metrosexual snag.
@BoxOfficeBowman
Not everybody has heaps of money and lives in a state of the art, architecturally designed house or flat. Those houses/flats looked real to me.
Finn in Glee is 16/17 and in real life Cory Monteith is 28. Virginia Gay has her age listed at 29. Just saying.
I watched a bit of Winners and Losers (it clashed with Survivor) and thought it was ok ….. probably wouldn’t watch it again.
@DC, I agree with your criticism of the girls looking all different ages. I guess we can blame the casting director for that. It was particularly obvious at the school reunion. Virginia Gay and the actress playing the beautician look to be in their early to mid- 30’s, as did a number of the minor players at the school reunion. It was also stretching credibility to think that Gay’s character would have completed university here, won a Fulbright scholarship to Harvard and completed that, then returned to Australia and set up her own successful company in a swanky CBD office all by age 27. Nope, real life does not work that way. It would have been way more believable if the girls were attending their 15 year reunion. Of the four leads, I thought Virginia Gay and Melissa Bergland were the best. I was underwhelmed by the other two. The show has promise, but I was not blown away by it. Lightning isn’t going to strike twice here, it is not the new, all conquering Rafters rating juggernaut.
@Ruddeger, perhaps you should do some research before your next post. Virginia Gay was born on the 16/9/81 according to tv.com and wikipedia so by my calculations that makes her 29 and a perfect fit for the role she is playing. I think the show will get better as the season progresses. Solid debut.
So according to 7’s ratings Australians want to see more drama locally made and more cooking shows.
Why isn’t Nine making more drama that isn’t stuff like Rescue etc.
David, do you know if Seven will be screening an encore of W&L?
I thought it was great and better than a lot of the dramas that we’ve been served lately. I’m glad we have something that is different from the regular cop/medical shows that we have plenty of already. There seem to always be critics about every show so I guess every show can’t please all people.
W&L was alright. Mostly cringe worthy.
1.6m viewers can’t be wrong…or can they – maybe they’re just stupid and watching it on the their LCD TVs (Lowest Common Denominator TVs that is!)
Ive mainly only heard good things….yes its aimed at the common demonator and very predictable and basically written but seven are smart in knowing thats what the main audience is so they pinpoint their dramas to suit that instead of trying to be award winning. The only complaint ive mainly heard from a lot of people is that the girls do all look different ages. Most though Virigina Gay looked at least mid thrities not 27, same went for Michala banas and a few of the other girls at the reunion who looked way past 10 years out of school. Probably should have made them all at least 29-30 not 26-27.
Didn’t watch but are we suppose to believe Virginia Gay is playing a chick in her late 20’s,yet she looks [and is in real life] closer to 40 ?
Didnt watch it but i wonder if it can sustain those ratings for next week my prediction is it will drop to about 1 mill
I loved it. It was a little different to the pilot, and in the pilot I think they all won the lottery, but have re-shot it to leave Jenny out. Interesting to see what happens there!
Can’t wait for Ep. 2.
As I said before, they over promoted it to death and that left them a lot to live up to …
I loved it!!! Every character and performance was spot on, and the story was perfect for a first episode … well done all, you won over a tough critic!
This show is an insult to young women, making them out to be twittering, silly air-heads. And the blond character serving up dinner to her bloke waiting patiently at the table with a beer in his hand. What century are we in????? I switched off and won’t be back.
I thought it was fantastic also. The school renunion was hilarious, and I reckon the lotto win will be a great storyline. It looks as though Michaela Banas was only in it for the first ep, unless she is somehow woven into the story down the track. Good Australian television.
Cringe worthy at best. These people are supposed to be 10 years out of school yet still go around like immature school girls? Don’t see how anyone can relate to these characters unless your a teenager!
I predict a big drop off of viewers next week who thought this was some kind of Packed to the Rafters spin off show.
I liked the school reunion part of the episode; I thought it was hilarious and the F bomb was so unexpected but it was hilarious. I’ve already heard chatter amongst some peers saying they liked it and some saying that it was a bit predictable, but I say good on Seven for producing an Aussie drama.
The first half of the show was fairly terrible, but once they moved past the ridiculous school reunion the second half was a lot better.
Still, it’s always good to see a local drama do well, especially when the plot involves something other than ‘so it’s about police officers, right, and they solve crimes’.
I thought it was fantastic. I’m not sure how believable the whole winning the lottery storyline is but I think everyone will relate to the characters. This seems like a real “easy watching” show which should continue to rate well.
I’m not sure if the viewers will become as passionate about this one as Rafters but I expect it to be a real winner (pardon the pun) for Seven and Australian drama.
Dropping the F bomb was a bit of a surprise but in the context it was used in I thought it was hilarious!
Not seen W&L, will tonight. Much rather watch the doco over on ABC.
That must be a new low for TG on Nine, how low will it go now they are out new UK eps. I noticed next week they have the Ashes special listed but is it the AU or UK version? When will new local eps return or the US version?
No accounting for some people’s taste i guess
It had a great cast; wasted on a sub par script and sets that looked like they came straight out of a 1980’s sitcom.
What a waste, which no doubt means it will be the next best thing in boring middle of the road television…