Australian Idol has launched on Channel Seven for 2023, going up against Married At First Sight and Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains in a big night for commercial television.
With a five city metro audience of 413,000, Seven is reporting that the premiere brought in 731,000 viewers nationally – made up of 673,000 national viewers and 58,000 watching on BVOD.
The boosted timeslot audience was 64% week-on-week, up 83% in 25 to 54s, and up 99% in 16 to 39s. Year-on-year it was 12% in 25 to 54s, up 22% in 16 to 39s.
Australian Idol came in third in its time slot in metro markets, but a strong regional performance brought it to second nationally – finishing only 13,000 viewers behind Married At First Sight.
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Idol judges: Kyle Sandilands, Meghan Trainor, Amy Shark, Harry Connick Jr
Having had 14 years away from Aussie screens, Australian Idol doesn’t have a previous launch to compare it with in the current television landscape – however, 2022 did see the launch of The Voice: Generations on Seven. The Voice: Generations launched with a five city metro audience of 529,000 viewers, and later rose 24% in total TV for an audience of 1.092m.
Seven is also reporting that Australian Idol also grew younger demo audiences compared to The Voice Generations launch. In key demos, 25 to 54s were up 3.8% nationally year-on-year and metro markets were up 9.2%. The 16 to 39s demo was up 8.7% nationally year-on-year and metro markets were up 17.6%.
Speaking to Mediaweek, director of 7RED Katie Finney said that evolution in technology over the past 14 years means that Seven will be able to help advertisers reach wider audiences – no matter where those audiences are.
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“Where things have changed is the way that we now have our data through OZTam with VOZ, we can actually optimise based on audiences. As this program runs for a series of weeks, we’re going to be really pointed in ensuring that we’re following those eyeballs, whether it’s across metro, regional, VOD, a live stream in the 7Plus environment, or catching on demand as well. So that’s also really exciting that we’re now able to do that.”