Seven on track with Big Brother revamp

Seven’s bid to revive the Big Brother reality franchise is showing early signs of success.

Three of the Big Brother contestants: Allen Liang, Marissa Rancan and Xavier Molyneux. Picture: David Swift

The public's love affair with reality television shows no signs of abating with the long-awaited debut of revamped Big Brother attracting a strong audience for Seven Network, which is trailing behind Nine Network in the ratings race.

The eviction episode of Big Brother, which now pits housemates against each other in a way similar to rival reality format Survivor, was the most popular entertainment show on TV on Monday night, beating cooking competition MasterChef on Network Ten and singing competition The Voice on Nine.

Overall on the TV metropolitan ratings table, the episode was the fifth most popular program behind Seven and Nine's news programs.

Seven’s programming boss Angus Ross says the network is “thrilled” with the launch of Big Brother, which has exceeded its expectations.

Mr Ross said the reality show and its broader content-led growth strategy is about attracting viewers aged between 25 and 54, which is “key” for its advertisers, which include online retail giant Amazon.

Big Brother was also popular with younger viewers under the age of 39, and was the most-watched live entertainment program on broadcast video-on-demand in Australian history, as viewers watched the show on its streaming platform 7plus, which is free but runs ads, he said.

The Big Brother eviction episode was watched by 930,000 people across the five metro cities, a market closely watched by advertising executives, taking fifth spot.

Closely behind in sixth position was the middle part of the part of the show, which saw 853,000 viewers watch the 12 housemates get to know each and undertake their first challenge. The first part, better known as the arrival episode, was watched by 853,000 viewers, in eighth spot.

MasterChef was in seventh spot on the ratings table, boasting an audience of 854,000, with The Voice taking ninth spot with 849,000 metro viewers, according to figures from ratings agency OzTam.

Prior to the debut of Big Brother, Mr Ross told The Australian that the reality show was “very important” to the broadcaster and chief executive James Warburton’s turnaround plans.

Seven's program slate, including rebooted My Kitchen Rules: The Rivals and House Rules: High Stakes, has been unpopular with viewers, who have flocked to Nine's reality dating show Married At First Sight and Lego building competition show Lego Masters and Ten's reality shows Survivor and MasterChef.

In a bid to bolster its appeal to viewers and advertisers, Seven has cut ads and breaks during shows by an average of 30 per cent, starting with the launch of Big Brother.

Including regional TV viewers, Big Brother's eviction episode was watched by nearly 1.3m people across the country. The No 1 program across the country was the first 30 minutes of Seven's one-hour news program, which was watched by 1.9m viewers.