Game of Thrones dips on second outing on Foxtel as The Water Diviner gets 868,000 viewers
The second episode of Game of Thrones has seen its audience dip slightly overall on Foxtel’s Showcase yesterday, with less people watching the fast tracked 11am showing but more coming along for the 7.30pm encore.
OzTam overnight figures show 293,000 national viewers tuned in for the 7.30pm screening, up from 279,000 last week, but 205,000 watched the 11am showing, down from 236,000 for the fast-tracked presentation.
Last week’s live numbers grew by 89,000 viewers when catch-up viewing is taken into account, bringing its total episode one audience to 604,000 viewers – making it the biggest ever drama on Foxtel.
On free-to-air, Seven’s decision to fast-track Russell Crowe directed movie The Water Diviner ahead of Anzac Day was watched by 868,000 viewers from 9pm.
Reading that a lot of Gallipoli-related coverage (Power of 10, Water Diviner, even live-crosses to Gallipoli) is being scaled back after some “surprisingly low” audience numbers.
I’m surprised that it’s a surprise. People rightly reject what might ever even be perceived as exploitative or over-the-top coverage (See: Woolies) and most people reject blokes with deep voices narrating actors dressed as diggers doing scene-chewing reenactments with make-up mud on their faces? Who thought that was a good idea?!
Which is not even scratching the surface of a bigger elephant-in-the-room: The way news and media refuse to even ask the questions that any decent historian would ask about the words “invasion” or “waste” or “colonialism” or “cannon fodder.”
For the record, I’m not a historian so I don’t know the facts, but I do know it’s not necessarily all “glory and heroes” and “triumphs of the Aussie spirit”. I think MOST people know that, and would prefer a more respectfully accurate narrative.
It’s been a Gallipoli / War overload on Australian tv at the moment. Viewers have become complacent.
Gallipoli……. sickening
Gallipoli exploitation…. sickening
Regarding the media hype over the Anzac centenary and the public backlash, it is worth telling the programmers and media bosses an old military saying – “Pull out digger, the dogs are p*ssing on your swag”.
No surprised. Still not sure what the hype is about of Game of Thrones…it will surely dip even further as the series progresses. In the US it barely rates.