Questions into the future of Ninja Warrior raised after shock ratings drop this season
AFTER a whopping 45 per cent drop in ratings, the disappointing second season of Ninja Warrior Australia has cast a shadow over everyone involved in the show. Questions are being asked of hosts Freddie Flintoff, Rebecca Maddern and Ben Fordham’s future.
Confidential
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AFTER a whopping 45 per cent drop in ratings, the disappointing second season of Ninja Warrior Australia has cast a shadow over everyone involved in the show.
While Channel 9 trumpeted a winner in Rob Patterson, who was not actually a winner as he didn’t finish the course, questions are being asked about the future of the show and that of hosts Freddie Flintoff, Rebecca Maddern and, until now, untarnished star Ben Fordham.
The first season of Ninja Warrior was a ratings phenomenon, shocking the industry with an overall season average of more than 1.5 million.
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Comparatively, Nine was so confident in the format that programmers commissioned a further three episodes to make it a 12-show season, but not one episode reached one million and most sat around 900,000 or lower.
“The first season saw fluke results way above anything else in the market and well above expectations,” one industry commentator told Confidential.
“Nine CEO Hugh Marks rode on a wave of accolades from the industry, which carried through to the network’s 2018 upfront presentation. It is doubtful Australian Ninja Warrior will have such pride of place when they come to selling Nine’s 2019 schedule to advertisers.”
While Fordham is a star on the rise at the network, with his strong journalistic chops worthy of a spot on 60 Minutes and a top-rating radio show on 2GB, the disappointing season will come as a tougher blow to Maddern and Flintoff.
Maddern has been plagued by poor ratings since defecting from Channel 7 to Nine, when she jumped ship to co-host the ailing AFL Footy Show, while Flintoff was relegated to goofy sideline commentating after a prime-time role on Ten’s Big Bash League.
“Freddie was a great cricketer in his day and he went on to do good work commentating,” veteran sports journalist and commentator Phil “Buzz” Rothfield said.
“This is proof Freddie should have stuck with cricket.”
Another industry commentator said Ninja Warrior viewers tuned out this year after being left disappointed when there was no victor in the season one finale.
Nine also faced tougher competition from Seven’s House Rules and Ten’s MasterChef.
Last night again, not one Ninja made it to the end of the course, leaving the $200,000 prize money in Nine’s coffers.
Instead, 22-year-old Patterson, a gymnast and robotic technician from Brisbane, secured a medal for making it furthest/fastest in the series.
“Ninjas have to earn the right to take on and defeat Mt Midoriyama and that requires a perfect run in all three stages of the finals,” a spokesman for production company Endemol Shine said. “It took seven seasons in the US and remains unconquered in the UK after five seasons. Australian Ninja Warrior is still the toughest obstacle course in the world.
“Our Ninjas have created history and now the search is on to find the top contenders to make it all the way in the third season here in Australia.”
A Nine representative said: “It was always going to be a tough ask to repeat last year’s meteoric figures. But we’re extremely pleased with how Ninja has performed. It’s dominated family viewing these past four weeks.”