It was billed as the drama event of the year and on total people numbers, Howzat: Kerry Packer’s War surely delivered, with an outstanding 2.1m viewers last night.
It is the highest-rated audience for a local drama for 2012.
The Nine drama was trending globally last night as Twitter lit up with glowing praise for the mini-series, and especially Lachy Hulme’s performance.
But the bad news continued for TEN’s Everybody Dance Now -now fifth in its timeslot on 385,000, beaten by SBS.
Nine easily won the night with a huge 38.0% share to Seven 25.5%, TEN 15.9%, ABC 15.0% and SBS 5.6%.
Nine won all but the 6pm timeslot, with 60 Minutes on 1.51m, then Nine News (1.4m), Big Brother (1.36m) and The Mentalist (510,000).
Seven News (1.51m) was best for Seven then Sunday Night (1.29m), Kath & Kim (909,000) and Criminal Minds (629,000 / 497,000).
TEN had decent numbers for its MasterChef finale (winner announced 1.05m, finale 802,000) but that’s where the good news ended. TEN News was 477,000. Everybody Dance Now fell to 385,000 losing 665,000 from its lead in, fifth in its slot. The Project was 334,000 and Movie: The A Team was 310,000.
ABC News was 822,000 for ABC1 then Grand Designs Revisited (809,000), Dream Build (744,000), Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (670,000), Compass (352,000), Inspector George Gently (315,000) and Antiques Master (229,000).
Despite heated competition SBS did well with Pompeii: Cellar of Skeletons (427,000), then World News Australia (229,00), Inside Nature’s Giants (182,000) and Capitalism: A Love Story (141,000).
Big Brother on GO! managed to top multichannels but only with 233,000.
I haven’t watched Howzat yet, I’m going to watch the Saturday repeat, but I am disappointed to hear from one of the major players, Ian Chappell, that a lot of it is factually incorrect. Sure, I understand the need for dramatic license, but what Chappell has said kind of ruins it a bit for me. Luckily, I am old enough to remember when this all happened and I used to go along to the WSC games when they were played at the Sydney Showground in the very early days. I also attended the first day-night match at the SCG, an amazing experience which, from memory, was the first time the coloured pyjama style uniforms were worn.
I think EDN will get another weeks grace. Kelly Rowland is on The Project tomorrow night probably for some more promotion of the show.
Glad Howzat did well. I enjoyed it and I’m glad it’ll be on next week rather than today. I also liked Young Victoria on Friday. Plus on SBS I liked they had Pompeii.
Lastly I want to belatedly thank all the channels that had interesting stuff on Saturday. I liked having choice. Including all the ABC channels after 8.30pm especially two of them. Also two Ten Network channels but not Eleven. Plus others. I hope it won’t be a one off event for Saturday. I also appreciated Chuck and Fringe being back-to-back this morning.
Just got around to watching Howzat! A great piece of fiction. As someone who was at TCN9 at the time I agree completely with Ian Chappell today. In is own words ‘a number of portrayals are very ‘incorrect’
Most of it was pure fiction.
As for advertising time. Sir Frank Packer dictated that TCN9 must never run more than 3 commercials per break. In those days they were 30-secs, with a few 60-secs and 10 secs. And programs always started on time. Always.
@Kathy – It’s your choice whether you decide to catch Howzat or not but it’s a drama *based* on real events, not a doco. There was even a disclaimer at the start that some things had been changed for dramatic effect.
If you enjoy quality drama and don’t require that every single event be depicted as it happened (ie prob less interestingly), then I recommend giving it a look.
I didn’t watch Howzat myself,but what brilliant numbers.It’s a truly Australian story and people love that.As for EDN as I’ve mentioned other times,no amount of tweaking will help it.If people don’t take to it from the start and it gets so much negative attention,it’s really hard to bounce back.One last thing I really enjoyed the 60 Minutes story on the hoarder,I found it fascinating and Brooke Hansons story was truly heartbreaking,I was in tears through the whole story.
Loved Howzat!, deserved its numbers.
About time 60 Minutes showed decent solid stories withe the Hoarder Man and Jared and Brooke Hanson’s tragic, brave story of their baby Jack.
As yet I have not had a chance to watch it, and not too sure I want to now after listening to a couple of interview given by Ian Chappell today….
In is own words ‘a number of portrayals are very ‘incorrect’… Apparently a ‘big’ percentage of what was aired did not happen and as Ian said, when going through the script with producers he pointed that out… yet it was still portrayed incorrectly.
@ David Knox…oh ok …thanks…did not allow for the Melb. Syd. difference…
I wonder if 9 made money with Howzat, seem like an expensive production, given the setup, travel and props.
Really enjoyed Howzat. Can’t wait for next week.
Well done to everyone involved. Fantastic ratings as well.
Ten could easily move edn to 11 considering nothing on 11 is working on 11 atm, this might hold 200,000 on 11?
“Howzat! bowls 2.1m. But Everybody Dance Now beaten by SBS” – David, if you were even slightly interested in cricket you might have written “… [EDN] stumped by SBS”
EDN was a turd and all they’ve done is polish it a little bit. It still stinks. I predict that it will be flushed to Eleven next week. (Incidentally, I missed both Wilfred and Fresh Meat because I forgot that Ten had changed their night, so thanks for stuffing them/me around).
On a positive note, I thoroughly enjoyed Howzat. The dialogue wasn’t always natural but the acting was good, and Lachy Hulme has prob put in the performance of the year (despite what the Underbelly ad says about Aaron Jeffery’s upcoming role). Richie Benaud’s first line sounded about right but after that it was a different bloke. Don’t know what happened there.
Choosing not to watch Howzat because “it’s about cricket” is like not watching “Mad Men” because it’s about advertising or “Breaking Bad” because it’s about the manufacture of illicit drugs – you’re missing the point.
Yes depends on the state. Check local guides.
@ David Knox …re: Howzat is repeated 9:30 Saturday
Freeview and Ice TV guides are showing the repeat at 8.30PM Saturday?
Speaking of repeating….
I didn’t bother watching this after big brother show. The promo was so irritating every time there was a commercial break.. Howzart on sunday… then howzart tonight and howzart.. just every moment and every ad break. It was complete irritating and they keep repeating it over and over. Is that all channel 9 has to offer apart from just repeating it multible times every ad break ? I didn’t bother watching it. Too much drama and such and surely howzart never was like that in reality but it is in this 2 part series just to give flavour into it. But yeah this and also underbelly comming soon then its repeated again and then next week its comming then it just kept repeating itself underbelly starts after big brother and each break you know they where going to repeat the promo more then dozen times in 24hours. Its also with Dallas. I don’t no why they need to keep repeating the promos so much considering they should concentrate in commercials.. Thats why channel 9 is getting paid for to show commercials of companys and such Not just keep on wasting minutes and seconds repeating themself over and over about this howzart thing. Sorry for my argument but really i just sick of seen repeats of it. Oh don’t tell me they continue to repeat themselfs with underbelly and then howzart for sunday again all this week.
Edn was much better last night, straight to the dancing was a good move, sarah was much better. Shame about the ratings.
I did not watch Howzat, but catch up with it on Sat or online. As for ch10 ….well…that is their major show stuffed for the second half of the year a bit like renovators last year. Fta networks simply can not afford to have such major failures……ch10 are in a bad place
I’m not remotely interested in cricket, but Howzat! had me completely enthralled. A fantastic ensemble cast – Lachy Hume’s Kerry Packer, in particular, was just awesomw!
I can’t wait for part 2!
Many younger viewers might not know that Kerry Packer actually tried to get TV advertising deregulated in the early 1990s so that TV stations could show unlimited ads. When a scandal erupted one of the TV bosses said that if people didn’t like it “they can just switch off”. Prime Minister Paul Keating intervened and the limits on TV ads stayed.
Revenge was highest drama, hence me saying highest local drama.
Ads per hour = 13mins, doesn’t include network promos.
I watched Everybody Dance Now last night to see what the changes were and aside from shortening the show and removing some of the judges explaining why their act should win, it was the same show. There still is no excitement factor when it comes to audience voting. It’s more like a political debate than an exciting dance show. Sorry Sarah but your delivery is bland.
As a young boy when World Series Cricket was beginning, I had no idea as to the machinations that made it happen and particularly the people. Howzat has really opened my eyes and so far the story has me hook line and sinker. Lachy Hulme and the rest of the cast are truly fantastic; I’m really looking forward to Sunday night. If channel nine stuck to making shows for adults, they’d be on a winner in my view.
I pretty sure Revenge was the highest rating drama of the year. But I think this would be this highest Australian one. Great ratings. Good to see Australians watching drama series not silly realitive TV
9 ads. I noticed on FB someone said they did an ad count during Howzat. 5min show…3 min ads…repeat and repeat. Seems Howzat had enough going for it for the ad saturation not to have bothered too many people but the ads seem to be a real downfall for 9. May be money making but generally such high levels prevent audience engagement and the products being advertised wind up being seen as negative. Someone reminded recently about the Keating era and him proposing 4 ad breaks per hour show. I’m not au fait enough with the history of ads vs TV program time and if there is any current ‘accepted level’? David?
Hey TEN. you should’ve kept The Renovators…
I may be wrong but I counted 50 seconds of new content on K&K tsk tsk. Howzat is repeated 9:30 Saturday.
I didnt watch Howzat, I’m not a cricket fan so didn’t bother watching. I might give it a try if it is repeated this week.
I am shocked at the high rating for Kath and Kim… Were people confused and thought thay they were going to be new episodes? I wonder how it will go next week.
Big Brother rise is good for Nine, they must be happy with that.
An TEN, what an embarrassment to be beaten by SBS! (Not that SBS is bad, its just limited appeal). EDN will have to be cancelled or moved to 6.30pm. I am sure that after this, trying to import US singers/dancers as judges may get a little more difficult. I still don’t understand why we needed US judges? SYTYCD went fine without imports, even with the screeching of Nat Bass yelling everything throughout the series.
My review did question whether we cared too, but that came for me about halfway through when he spoke about his father’s love of cricket. Finally I could connect with him as a central character. But it was still a solid performance and very well produced.
Interesting that most of the comments on this page aren’t about Howzat. I so wanted to love it but found myself wondering why I was still watching and switched off half an hour before the end. I did enjoy seeing which actors were cast as the cricket greats. The acting was good, the production values were good but there was no emotional hook for me. Did I care about Kerry Packer – nope. Had we seen his passion for cricket and not just his desire to gain the television rights right from the start maybe I would have cared. Obviously, I’m on my own here. The highest rating drama of the year, go figure?
Many Howzat fans are asking why they have to wait a week to see part 2. They feel the second part should have been shown tonight. First positive for 9 in a while. Obviously great with from production team and writers. 60mins was drab and I agree with NathanL about the dumbing down of news. I think news.com.au as former online news course is a hair away from becoming an aussie TMZ – but with less celeb clout.
Congrats to Nine on the ratings last night. I also was however astounded at the content in 60 Minutes. For a flagship news and current affairs program to be showing a story on a man living with clutter and an interview with JLo is ridiculous. With all that’s going on in the world, the dumbing down of our news in this country is very worrying.
And the winner for the most outstanding drama in Australia…..Howzat! Kerry Packer’s war!
What’s going to happen to EDN? Is it going to get axed? moved to Eleven? Ten can’t keep airing it. Its a total flop!
I noted, again, that ABC1 beat TEN, but missed that SBS had beaten TEN’s EDN. What a disaster. I thought Sarah’s spray in Lachlan’s Sunday Tele was hilarious. Not even a free page 5 spread in the family Sunday rag helped. Quite the opposite.
The hilarious part was that my teens didn’t know no one was watching it and it was actually as bad as Sarah was talking it down to be – not that they had been watching it. There was very little “dancing”. More acrobatics and gymnastics. Weird. And we really do still need US “judges”.
looks like the end of EDN, to be beaten by sbs outside something like eurovision or world cup is obviously really bad.
The question now is what can TEN replace EDN with for Sunday night? I don’t think there is much in the closet that fits a PG timeslot. Double Last Man Standing at 6:30 and double Modern Family at 7:30? Or repeat an episode of Don’t Tell the Bride / IWS? Either way it’s problematic.
Why did channel ten get rid of Big Brother again? It would surely be one of their most watched programs if they kept it
I’m actually more surprised by 60 minutes. I caught the intro and that was enough
Interview with J.Lo and the story of the man living with clutter was enough to win that time slot *shakes head*
Logies for 2013 have now been decided. Oh my god, this is fantastic
Wow. Everybody Dance Now is gonna get the axe this week!
Decent numbers for Big Brother – I really enjoyed the secrets revealed episode. They’re not big, dark secrets, which is good – keeps it light & entertaining!
Will be interesting to see how BB fairs tonight against X Factor.
Loved Howzat!
I only saw the intro to EDN last night but it was clear all three presenters were doing their damn hardest to work it and I suspect they may have recieved some ‘special juice’ from Honey Boo Boo’s bot bot but it wasn’t enough to make me want to watch this show.
EDN will either be immediately axed or consigned for the remainder of its run to a secondary channel.yanked for sure. It can’t survive in a prime time slot on those numbers. The idea was good but the format and delivery was a dud.
I watched EDN last night and didn’t mind it…but beaten by SBS, I highly doubt it will still be on air next week. There’s no way you can spin those ratings positively…
I’m happy to see Criminal Minds drop, worst show on air IMO. Flipping channels I saw one scene where there were severed arms and legs everywhere and they were talking about how the “unsub” was sexually aroused by fires/tornadoes/natural disasters…not my idea of good entertainment
I wonder if Nine are concerned for the low numbers for the Big Brother Daily Show on GO! Sure it lead multi channels, but 233k is still a low number.
Nine may think about having a 90 minute episode at 6:30pm and then showing 60 minutes at 8pm.