Seven’s TV fortunes get off to strong start with Holey Moley
Australians are flocking to Seven Network’s new minigolf show Holey Moley, featuring golf great Greg Norman and Sonia Kruger.
Seven Network’s television ratings fortunes appear to be on the way up following the stellar premiere of its heavily-promoted minigolf show Holey Moley, featuring golf great Greg Norman and Sonia Kruger.
Holey Moley was the No 1 entertainment show around the country on Monday, beating Nine’s second instalment of its Married At First Sight reunion special, in the absence of the Australian Open and Ten’s new reality show The Amazing Race.
The family-friendly minigolf show was the third most popular program overall behind Seven’s one-hour evening news program, which consistently beats Nine News in the ratings battle.
Nine’s first-quarter TV schedule has been hit by the three-week delay of the Australian Open with the network trying to fill the void with a two-part MAFS reunion special, game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and travel series Travel Guides.
Seven’s programming boss Angus Ross was thrilled with the show’s launch on Monday night, six days before the official start of the new ratings year.
“Australia is clearly gripped by minigolf mania. It’s a real thrill to see a new format for the network hit a hole-in-one with audiences,“ Mr Ross said.
“The right mix of exceptional presenter talent, high production value and just a little bit of weirdness has provided Australians with a welcome addition to their evening viewing. We’re very happy with last night‘s performance and are looking forward to the show’s continued success.”
Seven is looking to snatch back the TV ratings crown from Nine following a major revamp of its TV program slate as part of chief executive James Warburton’s push to turn around parent company Seven West Media’s financial performance.
Shortly after the premiere of Holey Moley, Seven’s publicity team sent out a teaser email about this year’s series of Big Brother, hosted by Kruger, which proved a big hit with viewers last year.Seven also broadcast a Big Brother teaser clip during Holey Moley.
Mr Warburton is also looking to take advantage of its new show The Voice, which it poached from Nine, and the expected broadcast of the delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo later this year.
The first Holey Moley episode attracted a national audience of 1.52m,making it Seven’s biggest launch in more than three years, and 983,000 viewers across the five major cities on Monday night.
The second part of the MAFS special union was watched by nearly 1.06m people around the nation with 781,000 metro viewers. The premiere of the first locally filmed series of Ten‘s The Amazing Race, hosted by former footballer Beau Ryan, attracted a national and metro audience of 678,000 and 501,000, respectively.
Nine’s program director Hamish Turner said it was “thrilled” with the performance of the MAFS reunion specials.
“Both episodes drew over 1m nationally on linear overnights and now have 9Now audiences in excess of 250,000 for episode one,” he said, adding that it sets the stage for a big first-quarter with the Australian Open starting on Monday and the launch of the eighth season of MAFS on February 22.
US-owned Ten will be disappointed by The Amazing Race’s premiere following the solid performance by its reality show I’m A Celebrity … Get Met Out Of Here!, which wrapped up on Sunday night with 896,000 metro viewers.
Still, a Ten spokeswoman said it was pleased with show’s performance, noting that it has a much younger audience than its competitors. She said 56 per cent of its viewers are under 50 year-olds and that its live stream audience was up 400 per cent
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