Australia Versus

It looks as though Seven will close out the ratings year with both the most number of viewers as well as the most number of local programming flops.

The network leads the list of new programming failures with a range of new Australian shows failing to take hold in the domestic market.

While Seven enjoyed success with the return of ratings powerhouse Packed to the Rafters, its list of pulled shows is vast.

AFL magazine show The Bounce barely got off the ground before being pulled along with The White Room, which lasted just two weeks.

Reality shows ICU, Beat The Star and Australia Versus were all pulled form Seven this year after poor showings, alongside The Suspects, Under The Hammer and Russell Crowe’s Damage Control documentary.

Channel Nine pulled new Kate Richie drama Cops LAC during the year while TEN managed to escape without any casualties.

Source: News.com.au

10:30pm – Tuesday, July 27 on Seven

- NEW TIME

- AUSTRALIA VS ENGLAND IN COMMERCIALS

This week on AUSTRALIA VERSUS, the Aussies take England in “Commercials” with rounds including Sexiest Ad, Catchiest Jingle, Funniest Ad, Best Loved Character and Most Viral Ad.

Waving the funny flag for Australia tonight are Peter Helliar, Rebel Wilson, Fiona O’Loughlin, Mark Trevorrow, Jono Coleman, Sam Simmons and more, while the Brits are represented by the likes of Russell Kane, Jason Cook, Gordon Southern and Holly Walsh.

AUSTRALIA VERSUS sees our leading comedians taking on their counterparts in England, Ireland or the USA to prove that Australia is the best in the world at just about anything. It’s a fun battle of wits as the comedians argue their way through a series of subject rounds. Each round is judged by an impartial international panel of judges – just to make it fair – with the overall winning country announced at the end of the episode.

AUSTRALIA VERSUS is hosted by TIM “ROSSO” ROSS.

It has become the latest troublesome timeslot for Seven – Tuesday night 9.30pm, after Packed to the Rafters.

Following Rafters at 9.30 Tuesday this week and last was Ghost Whisperer. Before that, Australia Versus. Next week, due to bad ratings, Ghost Whisperer has been moved to 10.30 only with repeats of Thank God You’re Here to fill the 9.30pm timeslot.

Packed to the Rafters rates for Seven almost as well as Masterchef does for Ten, and better than Underbelly did for Nine this year. All three shows have either passed or flirt with the two million mark in ratings, a fete rarely achieved these days by other regular shows.

But rating around the 600,000 mark at 9.30, after a show that had nearly two million tuned in is simply not good enough, in the eyes of Seven programming. Compared to what is on Nine and Ten at the time, Ghost Whisperer is not too far behind Nine’s Paul Hogan which managed 717,000 but finished at 10, while 20 – 1 pulled 550,000 from 10pm. On Ten, the second NCIS repeat was watched by 840,000.

Does Seven really think Thank God You’re Here repeats are going to do any better? They didn’t rate much better than 600,000 when aired on Thursday nights earlier this year. And just because they are putting it after Rafters is not a guarantee of ratings success. Expect another change if Thank God You’re Here doesn’t work. Maybe time they put on Parenthood – alot of people are asking for it. Something new and fresh in that timeslot could work.

From next week, with no Masterchef, Seven should see Minute to Win It pick up again, while their strength in 6pm – 7pm combined with nearly two million watching Packed to the Rafters will see the network win Tuesday night over Nine and Ten. New Top Gear may help Nine, but Modern Family and NCIS repeats will keep Ten firmly in the race for second.

9:30pm – Tuesday, July 20 on Seven

- AUSTRALIA VS USA IN “SEXINESS”

This week on AUSTRALIA VERSUS, the Aussies take on the USA in “Sexiness” with rounds including Yummiest Mummy, Most Eligible Bachelor, Top Model, Most Sizzling Song and Sexiest Accent.

Waving the funny flag for Australia are Fiona O’Loughlin, Dave Thornton, Peter Berner, Joel Creasey and more, while the Yanks are represented by the likes of Rich Fulcher, Tommy Dean and Pauly Shore.

AUSTRALIA VERSUS sees our leading comedians taking on their counterparts in England, Ireland or the USA to prove that Australia is the best in the world at just about anything. It’s a fun battle of wits as the comedians argue their way through a series of subject rounds. Each round is judged by an impartial international panel of judges – just to make it fair – with the overall winning country announced at the end of the episode.

AUSTRALIA VERSUS is hosted by TIM “ROSSO” ROSS.

And the winner is 20 To 1 – outlasting all copy cat and other clip shows so far.

Australia Versus did not rate well enough to even maintain a 10.30pm timeslot, so Seven have taken the show off completely after having aired only two episodes. No word if they’ll be played at another time or on 7TWO.

Australia Versus joins the growing list of Seven’s comedy based flops such as The White Room, TV Burp, Double Take and the AFL show – The Bounce (although that is meant to return in September for the finals).

In its place will be an extra episode of Ghost Whisper . Should Ghost Whisperer remain in doubles, the remaining episodes of the series will finish after just five weeks. Repeats of the show can still be seen on 7TWO, 7.30pm Fridays.

Ghost Whisper new episodes on Seven, double episodes, 9.30pm Tuesdays.

9:30pm – Tuesday, July 13 on Seven

- TONIGHT, AUSTRALIA VS ENGLAND IN “MUSIC”

This week on AUSTRALIA VERSUS, the Aussies take on England in “Music” with rounds
including Wildest Festival, Hottest Boy Band, Sexiest Video, Top of the Popsters and Best
Karaoke Song.
Waving the funny flag for Australia are Rebel Wilson, Dave Thornton, Julia Morris, Jono Coleman,
Joel Creasey and more.
AUSTRALIA VERSUS sees our leading comedians taking on their counterparts in England, Ireland or the
USA to prove that Australia is the best in the world at just about anything. It’s a fun battle of wits as the
comedians argue their way through a series of subject rounds. Each round is judged by an impartial
international panel of judges – just to make it fair – with the overall winning country announced at the
end of the episode.
AUSTRALIA VERSUS is hosted by TIM “ROSSO” ROSS.

Australia Versus, from next Tuesday, will move to 10.30pm after rating very poorly for its premiere episode last Tuesday. Australia Versus is Seven’s latest attempt at comedy but essentially a clip show pitching Australia against other countries in various areas of entertainment.

At 9.30 Tuesday, following Packed to the Rafters, will be new episodes of Ghost Whisper while Alan Sugar’s The Apprentice will move to 11.30pm.

The changes take effect immediately, from Tuesday July 13.

Tuesday night on Seven will now look like this:

7.30 Minute to Win It
8.30 Packed to the Rafters
9.30 Ghost Whisperer
10.30 Australia Versus
11.30 Alan Sugar: The Apprentice

Well – this would be the clipshow Seven were reported to be working on earlier this year – but thankfully not another countdown as previously reported.

The point of difference was that the show was done in a style pitching country against country in “rounds” comparing movies, songs, sports people and the like but not actually counting down like Nine’s 20 To 1 and the flopped Spearman Experiment seen on Ten last year.

Australia Versus, like all clip shows, shows footage of the feature being compared, followed by a number of celebrities or personalities discussing their thoughts on the subject. The first episode was billed as Australia Versus the UK.

In movies for example, they compared Australia’s Crocodile Dundee to Britain’s Mr Bean, and discussed. Each round of comparison was awarded a win to one of the sides, with one country being declared the winner at the end.

It is no secret that clip shows are cheap for networks to produce, and, if done well, can rate well enough to justify. Because they are less expensive to make, a lower rating figure can sometimes be acceptable, but that also depends on the timeslot.

Australia Versus aired after Packed to the Rafters at 9.30pm Tuesday on Seven. Last night – on its first episode – it rated around 600,000, just one third of the 1.8 million watching Packed to the Rafters. By 10.30 – when the Apprentice followed – the audience on Seven had dropped to one third of that again – 200,000.

Usually, the first airing of a show would do a lot better than that, and being after Rafters, there would have been plenty of viewers aware it was coming up. Competition in that timeslot was the finale of NCIS: LA on Ten and either Two and a Half Men or the AFL legends game on Nine.

With a figure of just 600,000, following 1.8 million for Rafters, it is not likely the show will survive at that timeslot, or even on Seven at all. The figures suggest that the audience are perhaps over clip shows, and the pitch of country versus country would appear no incentive to tune in.

Yes, Australia Versus does have a point of difference over other clip shows like 20 To 1, but, at the end of the day, it’s just a clip show and does not make for compelling viewing, as the ratings figures have reflected.

Ratings figures 5 city OzTam.

Updates to Seven programming.

From July 4, Seven are bringing back their ratings winning combination of Bones and Castle, after Dancing with the Stars at 8.30pm. This move comes after several weeks of movies which have not done too well for the network. Bones and Castle will be repeats as there are no new episodes available for the next few months.

Recently announced comedy program “Australia Versus” will air at 9.30 Tuesdays, from July 6, following Packed to the Rafters. Read more about the show here.

Seven’s programming issues continue on Thursdays nights, with True Beauty being pushed back from 10pm to 10.30pm from July 1. Although not rating well, Cougar Town will play in double episodes from 9.30 that night – which may be an attempt to burn off episodes, as the first season has concluded in the US. How I Met Your Mother remains at 8.30 – the fifth season of this show has also concluded in the US – with a repeat at 9pm. Why not do the same – play double new episodes?

Beauty and the Geek Australia will most likely return to Thursday nights on Seven at 8.30pm some time in September.

Channel Seven today announced Tim Ross will make his solo television hosting debut on the new comedy series, Australia Versus.

Australia Versus sees national pride at stake with our leading comedians taking on their international counterparts to prove that Australia is the best country in the world bar none.

England, Ireland and the United States are in the firing line as Australia fights for global supremacy in anything from sport to movies, food to music, and who’s sexiest!

In each episode, it’s a fun battle of wits as the featured comedians patriotically argue and sledge their way through a series of subject rounds, while contemporary and historical archive clips back up their arguments.

An independent international judging panel determines a winner of each round and the overall winning country is announced at the end of the episode.

The roll call of comedians includes Peter Helliar, Rebel Wilson, Anh Do, Fiona O’Loughlin, Corinne Grant, Peter Berner, Julia Morris, Heath Franklin, Dave Thornton, Greig Pickhaver and newcomer Joel Creasey for Australia, while the likes of Hale & Pace, Pauly Shore, John Moloney, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Des Bishop represent the internationals.

“I’m very excited about Australia Versus and I’m very proud to be hosting this show which features some very, very funny comedians,” Ross said today. “Obviously I see this as the first of many projects at Seven and expect to be co-hosting the Australian Open in 2011.”

Australia Versus – hosted by Tim Ross – is coming soon.

Australia Versus is a FremantleMedia Australia production for Channel Seven.