FUNNY HOW THOSE RATINGS WORK
HANDS up who needs a good laugh? For a start, our local TV programmers, who have packed their schedules with new comedy shows.
After a blockbuster run with its reality ratings winner Married At First Sight, Channel 9 is already finding success with its comedy import Young Sheldon.
The spin- off “prequel” to megahit Big Bang Theory peaked at a national audience of 1.7 million people on debut, with Nine to continue double episodes in the coming weeks as an alternative for viewers not interested in the Commonwealth Games.
A buoyant Nine – probably still chuckling after pinching the tennis rights from Seven – also has a second series of Hamish and Andy’s factual comedy True Story to come this year.
That format – where actors play out the weird and wonderful true stories of punters – is also about to earn an international audience after the rights were sold to Germany, with deals in Spain and Israel in the works.
Shaun Micallef will host Nine’s reboot of Talkin’ Bout Your Generation, with Andy Lee a team captain alongside Robyn Butler.
Seven has its own plans, with Screen Australia funding confirmed for a sketch comedy Orange Is The New Brown, starring I’m A Celebrity jungle favourite Nazeem Hussain and Have You Been Paying Attention’s Urzila Carlson. The six-parter “will reflect modern Australian life using one- off sketches, original and recurring characters and TV parodies”.
Ten will be hoping the staggering ratings of the Roseanne revival in the US will translate here when it screens the series later this month. Analyst Peter Cox said commercial TV was turning away from drama because it was too costly to compete with quality US programs.