Mrs Brown’s Boys and Top Gear dominate Thursday’s TV ratings

Tim Burrowes

April 12, 2013 10:15

A uncompetitive night’s TV schedule saw Seven’s triple bill of British comedy Mrs Brown’s Boys perform reasonably well, as did an episode of Top Gear for Nine.

Seven showed the Mrs Brown’s Boys episodes Mammy Christmas, The Virgin Mammy and Mammy’s Ass. The first episode rated 1.038m, third for the night after Nine News and Seven News, the next two rated 920,000 and 594,000. Mrs Brown’s Boys is a broad sitcom set in Ireland.

Meanwhile, Nine’s Top Gear journey to the source of The Nile averaged 927,000, eighth for the night, according to preliminary overnight metro ratings from OzTAM. Top Gear was also number one show in the key advertising demographics of 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.

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7 COMMENTS

Mike 12 Apr 13

Can we have some figures for top-performing shows on the other free-to-air channels, eg. Go!, Eleven, 7Mate? How is Survivor rating with this season being streamed just 6 hours after airing in the US?

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mumbrella 12 Apr 13

Hi Mike,

Survivor Caramoan did 219,000 for Go last night – fourth biggest digital show of the night.

Cheers,

Tim – Mumbrella

Dan 12 Apr 13

That Top Gear episode has already been shown at least three times on pay TV. How much is too much? (and not butchered by Nine’s ad placement either).

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offal spokesperson 12 Apr 13

Mrs Browns Boys?… really?

What did i miss… did “Iddiocracy” become true while i was sleeping?

Cant wait for “ow my balls” – celebrity edition, sure to be on screen this year?

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Irish 12 Apr 13

It’s Irish. As much as I hate the show, I absolutely hate the fact that many Australian’s don’t realise that Ireland is NOT part of Britian.

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Johnston McCaig 12 Apr 13

Nth Ireland is part of Britain

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Richard Moss 12 Apr 13

I don’t think many people confuse Ireland with Britain. The show is set in Ireland, but recorded in the UK. Certainly Brendan O’Carroll, the award winning artist behind the scripting and the leading character, was born in Dublin and has long been a performer in Ireland.

I am not a fan of Mrs Brown’s Boys in any way, and find it rather banal and even sometimes degrading. Looking at the show’s pure theatrical construction and execution however, I find the work funny and very well written, The characterization is shallow most of the time, but excellent nevertheless.

Many times our own comedies (so called) miss the mark for the want of theatrical construction of this type and discipline.

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