HE’S hot-tempered and foul-mouthed. He relishes the heat of the kitchen as he roasts those who fail to live up to his demands. Born in Scotland and raised in England, chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay lambasts and humiliates people with predictable regularity, and Melburnians seem to love him for it. Watching the Rampaging Ramsay bully and berate the hapless staff at the struggling eating establishments he barges into with extreme makeovers in mind has become a popular local pastime. The No. 1 program in Melbourne last week was Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares.
Nine is having such a fine time with all things Ramsay-related that it’s now serving up two courses of Ramsay’s TV diet each week: Kitchen Nightmares USA at 8.30pm on Tuesdays and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares at the same time on Thursdays. Last week, both of them were top-10 entries. The Tuesday night course drew 411,000 viewers (No. 9) while the top-rating Thursday night serve attracted 522,000. Nationally Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares was No. 3 with 1.538 million viewers and Kitchen Nightmares USA was No. 24 (1.16 million viewers).
But Nine is having less spectacular success with its other restaurant-related offering, The Chopping Block, although it has been lifting steadily since its February 6 premiere. The show, which pits struggling Australian eateries against each other in a battle to win a favourable review from the sniffy food critic and a handy cash prize, was No. 35 nationally last week and came in a whiff over the “magic million” mark with 1.07 million viewers. Created by the men behind The Block, Julian Cress and David Barbour, The Chopping Block attracted a disappointing 720,000 viewers nationally on its debut, with only 194,000 of them in Sydney. That week, it was No. 76 nationally. Last week, it drew 304,000 Sydney viewers and 334,000 in Melbourne.
Gordon Ramsay, along with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Footy Show and a good weeknight performance from National Nine News helped Nine win its fifth consecutive week in Melbourne with a 27.8% prime-time audience share ahead of Seven’s 26.5%. Ten was third with 23.1%, followed by ABC1 (17.5%) and SBS (5.1%).
However, as has been the case in a few weeks this year, the national picture was different from the local one. Nationally, Seven won the week with a 28.2% prime-time audience share to Nine’s 27.6%.
As the networks head into the two-week Easter non-ratings period that marks the end of the first round of ratings, Nine has won three weeks nationally to Seven’s two. Clearly, Nine has been helped in this first block by its cricket coverage, while Seven and Ten are likely to enjoy a boost once the AFL season kicks off.
Aided by the consistent crowd-pleaser, So You Think You Can Dance Australia, screening twice a week, Ten has also had a good start to 2008. Both editions of the show have been regular top-10 entries. Last week, the Sunday night program drew 1.472 million viewers (No. 5 nationally), while the Monday results edition attracted 1.339 million (No. 9). Also scoring well for Ten was Bondi Rescue (1.31 million, No. 11). In Melbourne, the Sydney beach patrol program reached No. 5 with 431,000 viewers.
Ten will extend the revived comedy panel program, Good News Week, until the middle of the year. Hosted by Paul McDermott, GNW has hovered around the “magic million” mark since its relaunch, in a competitive Monday night slot against CSI, Desperate Housewives and Four Corners.
