The Nine Network’s gambit of moving the Schapelle Corby telemovie from Monday to Sunday night has backfired as the show was beaten comprehensively by the premiere of Seven’s INXS: Never Tear Us Apart.
The INXS drama produced by Shine Australia drew 1.974 million viewers in the 5 city metropolitan areas, dwarfing the 1.022 million for FremantleMedia’s Schapelle. The national audience was 2.88 million for the INXS saga versus 1.339 million for Schapelle.
“I think most people are over Schapelle,“ one former network programmer told IF this morning. Either that or far more people were attracted to the story of the iconic band and the death of lead singer Michael Hutchence.
Directed by Daina Reid and written by Dave Warner and Justin Monjo, the two-part series stars Luke Arnold, Nicholas Masters, Ido Drent, Andy Ryan, Alex Williams and Hugh Sheridan.
In part 2, which airs this Sunday at 8.30pm, Hutchence finds a new love in Paula Yates, the other members of INXS look to relaunch the band’s career off the back of an Australian tour, and lifelong friends become enemies.
Khoa Do directed the controversial story of the convicted drug smuggler, which starred Krew Boylan as Corby, Colin Friels as her father, Vince Colosimo as her Australian lawyer and Jacinta Stapleton as her sister Mercedes.
The premiere of the third series of Essential Media & Entertainment’s Rake on the ABC suffered against the competition, pulling 645,000 in the five metros, 942,000 nationally.
Ten’s coverage of the women’s snowboard slopestyle final in Sochi drew 1.238 million viewers nationally/996,000,
Seven’s My Kitchen Rules maintained its ascendancy with 1.64 million viewers in the metros (2.4 million nationally), well ahead of Nine’s The Block: Fans vs Faves' 1.27 million (1.79 million).
It was a strong start to the 2014 ratings season with live audiences up 8% on the same night last year, according to Fusion Strategy.
However the launch of Ten’s So You Think You Can Dance Australia, produced by Shine Australia, at 6.30 pm was a disaster, with just 619,000 nationally/466,000.