Nadia Bartel approached to join SAS Australia; Jessika Power’s new TV deal and the ratings round-up
International reality TV star Jessika Power is gearing up for her next show and it could see her follow in Paris Hilton’s footsteps. The Rundown on your TV and radio news.
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Australia’s reality TV export to the world Jessika Power is tipped to star in her own “fish out of water” travel series.
Power, who is in the UK, is expected to be back in Australia in a couple of months to start work on reality series where she will hit the road exploring known and not-so-known towns, communities and coastlines from Melbourne to Brisbane.
Kyle Sandilands’ ex-fiance Imogen Anthony is being mooted as her roadtrip sidekick … a modern-day Thelma and Louise.
While the concept is still in its early stages, it sounds like a bit of inspiration has been drawn from the Paris Hilton/Nicole Richie show, The Simple Life, which aired in the early 2000s.
Power is a reality TV powerhouse having done Married At First Sight, Big Brother VIP and Celebrities Go Dating in the UK. She knows the reality game, plays it well and is enjoying the success.
SAS: Australia has provided a redemption arc for many celebrities who have faced challenges in their personal or professional lives, or needed to find a way to earn back good will after dealing with the fallout of poor decisions becoming publicly known.
Word is ex-WAG Nadia Bartel, who found herself in the headlines after being videoed snorting an unidentified white powder off a plate, was fined for breaking Covid lockdown rules and has gone through a very public marriage break-up, was approached to do the show.
Exactly when the inquiry was made and for which season – 2020, 2021 or 2022 – is unknown.
Whether the approach was considered at all is also unknown.
Three celebrity versions of SAS: Australia have been made, with them airing in late 2020, September/October 2021 and February/March 2022.
KEEPING A KEEN EYE ON LIES
Channel 10’s new comedy offering Would I Lie To You has surprisingly shed a quarter of its overnight capital city audience from its debut episode last week.
Where did those eyeballs go?
Is the show too long? Is it not fast and funny enough for hard-marking terrestrial TV viewers?
The show, where teams try to pick the truth from lies in a series of questions, is based on a successful UK format.
It launched to an overnight average capital city audience of 482,000 viewers on Monday, February 28.
Last night, Monday, March 7, it pulled an average overnight capital city audience of 343,000, down 139,000 or about 28 per cent.
While that drop is concerning, Ten will be keeping a keen eye on the seven-day consolidated viewing numbers. The debut episode’s total audience grew to 746,000 once seven-day time-shifted, BVOD and regional figures were added.
Would I Lie To You runs as a half-hour product in the UK but the Australian version is an hour-long show which does slow down and draw out the banter and prodding for clues stage of the game.
The weird and wacky stories that the teams are being asked to pass judgment on – with the exception of Hughesy’s offering on Monday night – need to be supercharged. In the main they have been pretty dull so far.
The socially distanced set does not help with the show losing a sense of intimacy and connection with the Covid safe space between the seven participants; the host, team captains and four guests.
We could certainly hear more from host Chrissie Swan, her presence is a bonus for the show and her role has seemed a little underplayed on the two shows to date. Let her rip!
And while I enjoyed both episodes, social media has not been so kind. The main criticism from social media pundits seems to be that the show is not funny. Harsh!
The viewing numbers look like they are going to wash around as the core audience settles.
It is early days, but I am tipping we will see this show hang around for a while.
SEXY MELBOURNE COUCH SITTERS
Is Melbourne full of sex-crazed singletons obsessed with hook-ups or are we a city of coupled-up couch sitters who delight in seeing love go wrong on screen?
Or maybe we are a town of TV viewers who can’t look away from couples in chaos, emotionally immature brats, bad cosmetic filler and catty screaming matches on reality shows.
Whichever of those scenarios is correct, it is an indisputable fact that Melbourne is switched on to Married At First Sight.
The show’s strongest viewing market, based on the overnight capital city ratings, reveals Melbourne’s passion for the ‘pretty much everyone behaving badly’ cast of MAFS.
On all but one night since the 2022 series of the trashy dating experiment launched on January 31, Melbourne has been hot under the collar for the mismatched sexy singles, making it the top rating capital city market.
As usual this season features many cast members who clearly indulged in a bit of filler and plumper before filming started.
Not surprisingly a cosmetic injectables company is advertising during ad breaks on the 9Now stream of the show.
LIFE WAS NO REHEARSAL FOR WARNIE
Shane Warne continues to leave his mark on TV.
The ABC replayed a 2018 interview between Leigh Sales and Warne on Monday night with Shane Warne: The Interview drawing 549,000 overnight capital city viewers.
Those ratings put the show above Australian Survivor, which had 482,000 viewers and SAS Australia with 383,000.
Warne was unique and will be dearly missed.
The last time I interviewed him we talked about the many and varied projects he had on the go and how he rarely slowed down.
His response was: “It (life) is not a rehearsal, you only have one crack at it so make it a good one”.
It was good advice and wisdom that he lived by. Vale Shane.
DIRTY DANCING
Watching Dancing With The Stars in recent weeks has brought back memories of the many past seasons of the delightful, elegant, visually spectacular, celebrity-studded show
Dancing first aired in Australia in 2004 and was an immediate hit. Nineteen seasons have been screened in Australia with the show appearing on both Channel 7 and Channel 10 at various stages during its evolution.
So many stories have been told on screen and many, many more from behind the scenes have never, ever been told …. although they may have been whispered of occasionally.
Some just seem too good to be true, I mean, surely a contestant taking part in the show many moons ago was not busted backstage before an episode getting extremely intimate with another member of the cast.
Blow me down, if this incident did happen it would have been more than a sexy samba or a touchy tango.
More Coverage
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