Australian Spartan debuts with half the audience of Ninja Warrior
Australian Spartan – Seven’s take on the obstacle course competition genre spawned by the success of Nine’s Ninja Warrior – has premiered with a metro audience of 816,000 viewers.
The viewing figure is well below its rival Ninja Warrior, which debuted to a metro audience of 1.68m in July last year.
Nine’s Ninja Warrior maintained its popularity throughout its three-week run last year, finishing the season with 2.145m metro viewers, and a national audience of 3.087m.
Nine has previously flagged the ‘undeniable similarities’ in the way the two programs have been promoted, with Nine’s programming director Hamish Turner telling Mumbrella Seven is “obviously keen to emulate Ninja, but you have to question where the line of appropriation and imitation is”.
“Nine’s programming director Hamish Turner telling Mumbrella Seven is “obviously keen to emulate Ninja, but you have to question where the line of appropriation and imitation is”.
This from the network that has a history of ripping off promo ideas – most recently the Today/ BBC promo.