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151,000: Cleverman stumbles in second season launch

Ratings: ABC drama lands with a thud, Filthy Rich & Homeless boosts SBS, and an AFL upset in Melbourne.


The return of Cleverman has failed to excite viewers with a disappointing 151,000 viewers tuning in for the second seasons launch. Landing last in its slot, this compares to the first season launch of 452,000 viewers.

The drop comes despite its lead-in Janet King‘s 477,000 being higher than last week’s 462,000.

But this week there was competition from Filthy Rich and Homeless Live which at 352,000 viewers helped push SBS to double figure shares last night.

Earlier MasterChef was a winner again as 899,000 viewers watched Sam eliminated from the show.

…and there was an upset in Melbourne with Seven’s Front Bar (169,000) defeating The Footy Show (122,000 -to be adjusted to 164,000).

Nine network won Thursday with 26.1% then Seven 25.3%, TEN 21.9%, ABC 16.5% and SBS 10.1%.

Nine News (946,000 / 916,000) was best for Nine then A Current Affair (775,000), Hot Seat (490,000 / 302,000) and Thursday Night NRL (374,000 in 2 cities). RBT was 270,000 in 3 cities, the AFL Footy Show was 230,000 in 3 cities and NRL Footy Show was 204,00 in 2 cities but Nine is claiming a coding error that will adjust as 271,000 / 179,000 respectively.

Seven News was #1 with 1.03m / 982,000 for Seven then Home and Away (675,000), The Chase (638,000 / 434,000) and The World’s Most Luxurious Ship (351,000). The Front Bar drew 199,000 in 3 cities.

MasterChef Australia (899,000) led for TEN then The Project (538,000 / 377,000), TEN Eyewitness News (489,000), Family Feud (378,000) and Law and Order: SVU (377,000 / 303,000).

ABC News (711,000), The Checkout (558,000), 7:30 (549,000), Janet King (477,000) and Grand Designs (244,000) comprised ABC’s night. Cleverman returned to just 151,000.

On SBS Filthy Rich and Homeless Live pulled 352,000 followed by the final episode of Filthy Rich and Homeless (343,000), Great British Railway Journeys (317,000), Rachel Khoo’s Kitchen Notebook Melbourne (194,000), SBS World News Late (152,000) and SBS World News (121,000).

Shaun the Sheep showed up multichannels once more with 240,000. Newcomer screenPLAY debuted with 69,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 29 June 2017

24 Responses

  1. I wasn’t expecting Good Game quality with ScreenPLAY sadly… and I was right. Sure it’s flashier, but what made Good Game great was the constant reviews of games. There was one on this show… and it wasn’t even a proper review, almost a ‘sum up’ if anything… Nick and Stephanie had good banter but in no way should they dedicate over half the episode to eSports… not for TV anyway… overall it was lacklustre.

  2. Sci-Fi is not an easy genre to write, I get the feeling that Cleverman would have been better written differently as a children’s show for viewers 8 to 16 years of age, then the exploration of what one presumes is fictionalised ancient indigenous culture could have been treated with a little less emphasis on adult themes.
    The ABC does seem to have an agenda going introducing more indigenous characters and their stories to their drama shows which is not a bad thing, if the national broadcaster wont do this I’m not sure who will.

  3. The ABC needs to lift its game and start making product that connects with their audience. Other than that, they need to commission producers who at least know how to tell a story. Clearly the Cleverman producers don’t.

      1. Low ratings doesn’t make something off Charter. It makes it low ratings. Charter includes programs that contribute to a sense of national identity ….. reflect the cultural diversity of the Australian community.

  4. Cleverman, I tried to watch the first series but gave up early on. It was just poor tv and with critics raving about it, no wonder local drama seems to be a poor relation compared to overseas stuff, no one is telling the makers to raise their game.

    So glad that Diana did so well last night on MC

  5. So agree with all the comments here regarding Cleverman.
    On the basis of all the glowing critic reviews I watched Series 1, but was sorely disappointed.
    Found it plodding and overly earnest ,with overall wooden acting, little character development and convoluted and confusing storyline . As others have noted, it also takes itself way too seriously.
    Persevered through the whole first series, thinking it might get better but sadly it didn’t.
    So I’m not going to bother watching Season 2.
    Was actually surprised it was renewed for a second series. Surely many other better local productions that deserved the funding more..

      1. Agree with those critics that the ambitions and intent were admirable and could have resulted in a quality, thought provoking program. Unfortunately they were executed somewhat clumsily and lost in translation.

  6. Glad to see others agree with my low view of Cleverman. The critics raved, but couldn’t see what they liked about it. Poorly scripted, directed and acted.

  7. I must admit that I didn’t even give Cleverman a look as I couldn’t make it thru the second ep last time. An overly-earnest mish-mash of faux mythology tropes coupled with second-rate acting and third-rate dialogue. It’s biggest crime was that I just didn’t care about any of the characters.

  8. Cleverman had no audience last series but the ABC renewed it anyway. The writing is sub standard for a mini-series of this budget and when matched by plodding direction it was pretty dull television. It seems Australian television writing is in permanent decline and the new streaming channels have really exposed how average and predictable it has all become. Janet King is little better. Sad to have to switch off local production.

  9. It was great to have a new episode of Air Crash Investigations on Seven here in Sydney last night (not sure if AFL states got it). Just wish they’d play out more episodes in a consistent timeslot!

  10. I thought this season’s Cleverman was better than the last. The budget seems to have gone up. However, the writing is still awful. Every line of dialogue is delivered like a sledge-hammer blow to the head. A little subtlety in dialogue goes a long way. And some humour wouldn’t hurt, either.

  11. Janet King very good last night, much tighter writing than recent weeks. Anita Hegh deserves a lead role of her own-equally as good as Marta Düsseldorp.

  12. Out of interest, what exactly do 9 mean by “coding error”? Please tell me they are not planning on splitting the rating to boost the numbers by using only the first half!?

    1. It can mean many things but it generally means the allocated time with OzTAM was incorrect, according to when it aired. It’s not used for overruns and doesn’t apply to what you’re suggesting.

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