Iron Chef loses 20% of its audience
Seven’s cooking challenge Iron Chef Australia has slumped below the million mark on its second outing.
Despite being the lead in to ratings machine Packed To The Rafters, the show rated only 915,000, according to preliminary overnight metro ratings from OzTam.
Last week Iron Chef opened with 1.129m, which was seventh for the night. But last night it was 12th, with audience numbers down nearly 20% on its opening.
Menawhile the second Australian episode of Top Gear delivered 1.078m for Nine, seventh for the night.
Well, wasn’t that unpredictable? That an Australian network makes a half-arsed populist rip off of an idiosyncratic show and it doesn’t stick. It’d be nice to see some guts from Australian networks and see them create some truly original programming of their own. Probably unlikely in today’s risk-averse media culture. Sad.
The Australian producers just totally didn’t get it.
Iron Chef was never really about the cooking – it was about the kookiness of the Japanese chefs (esp Sakai), the comedy of the American voiceovers, and the other-worldiness of the bizarre Chairman Kanga along with the cavalcade of B-grade Japanese stars and politicians giggling away on the judging panel.
Neil Perry, Grant Denyer and a bunch of MasterChef rejects just wasn’t going to cut it.
Iron Chef is theatre, not food.
The Australian nod is way off of the formula that made the show what it was.
Misses the point entirely and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t get axed, let alone a second season.
Have to agree with the comments before me.
Japanese Iron Chef is fun because it’s just bonkers.
“People in the west get mad if we eat whale, so tonights ingredient is … cod!”
After all these years it’s still one of the most refreshing shows on TV.
The original Japanese series was kookier than manga cartoon show with robots. I am sure the Fennesseys at Shine nor tried to replicate this. I am a bigger fan of the American series than the dubbed Japanese series.
What they managed to do with this series was cool because of the charisma of the chefs, contestants, hosts and judges.
The Usa had the cool Bobby Flay, the larger than life Mario Battali etc… And some real top challengers.
The nuances were subtle, but that seems to be missing from the Oz version.
Bland presenters, bland judges, Iron Chefs with no charisma, contestants without a chance of winning, and really stilted performances.
I was so disappointed, dull as dish water. They should all be water boarded with truffle oil.
Who said Grant Denyer was a TV host hes not and should go back to driving cars or doing the weather…This show is crap and if its possable even crappier with him…They haven`t got it right as the above statements say.
Can we just think like a viewer for once and focus on probably one of the main reasons why audience dropped………..IT WAS TOTALLY RIGGED!
How much did the network pay Neil Perry to come on board with the proviso that he wins the first challenge?????
Come on people everyone knows that if the underdog rightfully won people would have come back to watch.
Don’t bother airing a show if you are going to tread on egg shells.
I watchedthe first ep out of pure curiosity to see how Australia’s version would destory the Japanese one. Completely agree with the above comments, the success of Iron Chef Japan is the pure theatre, fun and ridiculousness that has failed to be reproduced here.
Not to mention that the judges in the first episode ovbiously and emphatically preferred Matt Stone’s food during judging, yet Neil Perry was named the winner. Undoubtedly a young upstart couldn’t beat the Iron Chef in the very first episode. I won’t be watching again.
Yes it is all pathetic stupidlymaking Aussie Iron Chef but please tell me the audience for The Event now it was booted to 10.30pm, I told you so last week.
Oh look, people do watch SBS, even if it is the Japanese version of Iron Chef!
Agree with the comments above on why the original worked and this doesn’t. My suggestion? Before putting the show to air, dub the whole thing into Japanese, THEN send it to the yanks to re-dub it back into English!