Better Homes and Gardens dominating ratings battle against The Block
Now in its 21st year, Better Homes and Gardens has truly come of age in the ratings battle, dominating Nine’s The Block and DIY rival The Living Room.
Confidential
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THEIR trophy cabinet tells the story, now Seven’s perennial lifestyle favourite, Better Homes and Garden looks set to take it up this year to Nine’s The Block and its direct DIY rivals The Living Room.
A sluggish ratings start by Nine’s renovation series has revved up the competitive spirits over at Better Homes, which consistently pulls bigger audiences for this Friday night show, now in its 21st year.
While The Block has always built its numbers across each season — and set the record for its shocking auction results last year — the audience has been slow to stick to the Triple Threat format — posting a low of 684,000 viewers in week one; then averaging 794K across three nights last week.
The Block’s spin-off series, Open House also failed to fire on debut last Thursday, with the audience drifting out again to just 620,000 (tying with Ten’s jungle series, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here).
This compares with Better Homes average last year of 920,000 people across the five-city metro markets — and on a Friday night.
It returned last night for 2015, doing well and attracting an average of 868,000 viewers.
Over on Ten, The Living Room managed 496,000.
It’s a better ratings story for Nine in the news battle, where Peter Overton continues to have it over Seven’s Mark Ferguson at 6pm.
Taking out the Sunday figures — confused by Seven embedding its siege story into its news bulletin — Nine and Seven shared two nights of national wins each (Mon and Tues. to Nine; Wed and Thurs. to Seven) but in Sydney, viewers stayed locked on to Overton every time (with his audience peaking at 325,000 people on Monday night).
TRAVIS SETS SAIL FOR CARIBBEAN
IF this is a dream, WAAPA graduate Travis Jeffery doesn’t want to wake up, with news the rising star has inked his next blockbuster role, opposite Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush in the new Pirates Of The Caribbean feature, Dead Men Tell No Tales.
The 25-year-old, from Victoria’s Yarra Valley, will today fly to Port Douglas to begin production of the fifth film in the franchise — continuing a career run for the young actor he could never have imagined.
Last year, it was the chance to be directed by his boyhood crush, Angelina Jolie in Unbroken; then Jeffery scored a role in Nine’s war epic Gallipoli — making his debut in the series tomorrow night (9pm) as light-horseman Henry ‘Stewie’ Watson.
He admits he knew little of the Anzac legend before signing on for the TV drama, but was swept up in the “heart” of the story.
His start in Gallipoli marked”the fifth or sixth soldier” Jeffery has played (he’ll play another in Pirates) including parts in the ABC’s Anzac Girls and a docudrama filmed in Adelaide last year.
“I’ve been very lucky and it’s always great to work on productions about war because ... you can feel the respect on set and how much people put into it,” he said.
The acting bug bit Jeffery’s sister Tracey first, but he credits the time when Blue Heelers filmed opposite the family farm for sparking his interest.
“It was the greatest thing that had ever happened. At the time my sister was doing all the classes and my parents were like, ‘Would you like to have a go?’ And I said, ‘No, why would you want to get up in front of a bunch of people and act, that sounds terrifying.’ But I got involved later on in high school, got into WAAPA and fell in love with it.”
Watch this face.
ABC RUSH ROYAL SECRETS TO AIR
AUNTY is taking the unusual step of fast-tracking a controversial new documentary about the Royal Family which Buckingham Palace tried to stop going to air.
Reinventing The Royals, by BBC journalist Steve Hewlett, is a two-part series which looks at how Prince Charles and his press team worked to rebuild his public image after the death of Diana, Princess Of Wales; as well as the unpopular introduction of Camilla Parker-Bowles into the Royal family fold.
Clarence House officials tried to withhold archival material approved for use the program, which includes first-hand interviews with Prince Charles’ press secretary at the time Sandy Henney and Alastair Campbell, director of communications for then Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Breaking with tradition back in 1997, when the documentary starts, the story centres around the spin doctor role of Mark Bolland, brought in to help Charles shake off the tags of bad husband, bad dad, loopy environmentalist.
A must-watch on Tuesday, March 3, 8.30pm on ABC.
HAROLD’S BACK ON RAMSAY STREET
AUSTRALIA’S favourite grey nomad Harold Bishop steers his caravan back into Ramsay Street this week — uniting Ian Smith and his TV grandson Tim Phillips (pic, right) together on screen for the first time.
The plot line which sees Harold return for the wedding of Daniel Robinson (Phillipps) to Amber Turner (Jenna Rosenow), marks the start of a celebratory year for Neighbours (boasting 30 incredible years on air).
In next week’s episodes Harold’s new wife Carolyn is a no-show but we do know his great love, Madge makes a spooky comeback of sorts.
The anniversary episodes will air on Eleven mid-March.
ONE TO WATCH - Farmers go wild on high seas
GOURMET Farmer’s Matthew Evans continues his big boys-own adventure, taking his latest SBS food series on the high seas (Thurs, 7.30pm). Circumnavigating his home state of Tasmania, with Ross O’Meara and Nick Haddow, boils down to three mates who go fishing for three months. Lucky bastards. Not so thrilled by the prospect was the crew’s sound man (appropriately named Russell), who happens to be a vegan and was tasked with collecting a bucket of offal to take on board as bait and burley.
TV GOSSIP - Ben’s black seed earns praise
TO stand out in a cast which includes Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek and Friday Night Lights favourite Kyle Chandler has earned Ben Mendelsohn rave previews for his role in the new Netflix drama, Bloodlines (expected to air here next month). The Hollywood Reporter singled him out for bringing “fresh kinks and no shortage of danger to (his) classic bad seed,’’ Danny Rayburn. “He is jittery, defensive and unpredictable, with a chip on his shoulder eating away at his fragile shreds of affection for the family.”
DON’T MISS - Cocktail hour with a twist of TV
IF NOTHING else, Gogglebox has proved itself a valuable catch-up on the week that was on TV — a colourful cocktail with Tom and Wayne (pictured right) thrown in. You missed MKR? No worries, watch as the couch critics replay the funny bits and the jokes you would have made at Manu’s expense. It’s on the slow burn ratings-wise (pulling a combined audience of 658,000), but it’s one to watch if you want to be across the TV people are talking about. Catch it on Lifestyle (Wed, 9.30pm) and Ten (Thur, 9pm).
$14k a clip: NSW YouTube stars making more than you
YouTube stars in NSW are raking in thousands of dollars per video but it’s what they do in their clips that will drive traditional workers mad. Check out the rich list.
Glamming it up for a return to the racecourse
The first official racing carnival featuring the new $46.6m WINX stand at Randwick Racecourse is kicking off, with model and new mum Ksenija Lukich among those dressing up for the occasion.