Recipe to Riches debut falls flat for Ten
Recipe to Riches mentors: Darren Robertson, Carolyn Creswell and Nobay
Channel Ten’s debut of cookery show Recipe to Riches had a disappointing first outing last night, with just 616,000 viewers across the five capital cities, preliminary overnight ratings from OzTAM show. Recipe To Riches was fourth in its timeslot and 18th for the night.
The show featuring Droga5 creative chairman David ‘Nobby’ Nobay, who offers marketing advice, saw a battle between three amateur chefs who attempted to produce their home cooked recipes for a mass market. The winning product, Concetta’s Croqs, made by 48-year-old Connie Tavella, will today go on sale across Woolworths supermarkets.
Ten launched the show at 8.30pm, pushing American drama Under the Dome back from its usual time slot to 9.30pm. But after inheriting an average audience of 814,000 from Masterchef, the audience for Recipe To Riches quickly fell away despite a relatively uncompetitive lineup on rival channels.
And I loved watching Nobby eat.
Genius.
I watched it – but I wouldn’t sit through another episode of it.
Isn’t this just an overlong ad for a muesli company anyway?
Perhaps viewers are just sick of and can see through programs that are nothing more than one bloody long ad…in this case its a just a blatant plug for Woolworths.
Ohh sorry…correction…we are all meant to say branded content and salivate at the sight of it. I’ve totally lost my appetite for shows like this but applaud the return of Aussie drama.
Men 18-49…. SERIOUSLY TEN…I doubt that was the target audience when green-lighting the show
“I’m seeing a theme here – Italian”. Gold from Nobby
They annoyed a lot of people when they put the first episode online without the winner revealed at the end of it. But failed to disclose that at the start.. The facebook responses were hilarious.
When the concept was first introduced I thought it was a mid afternoon type show (like Ready Steady Cook) … not a prime time program. An unusual choice for prime time I would have thought.
It is hard to believe that Woolworths would think this concept would work for them. Apparently yet another reformatting of a foreign idea. Nothing wrong with branded entertainment but it will always fail if the entertainment element fails. Ten may better off to put some money into employing a really hot format creator in house who could work up a few concepts with indie producers and product makers and try a pilot or two or develop a show and trial it over summer. A lot cheaper than one foreign turkey series which you’re stuck with.
First task for the new ‘generate’ department is to ‘generate’ some audience for this very loooong advertorial! Good luck.
It is a case of Woolworths jumping on the Coles bandwagon re: Masterchef, to sell their produce and get people into their stores. I think the judges made a mistake in the first episode. CaseyTato IMO would have a more mass market appeal and is easier to prepare – one step cooking in the oven as opposed to the two step method with the croquettes.
Unrealistic? What about funding, the contract with Woollies, payment terms, the complexities of large scale food production, costs, margins, time-span..? It’s as though it’s all magic. It’s hardly home-cooked food.
Poor excuse for a prime time program. Bad scheduling and execution.
I actually really enjoyed it. More to it than any of the cooking shows.
Ten would not have gone ahead if the answer from Woolies was a resounding ‘no’. These shows are only feasble if the corporate dollars are up-front. Sponsorship first, then base the content around the sponsorship. Thank God for ABC1!!!
I fear that this is just the beginning. The secret ( no secret really) is to come back to good television, not more of the same and/or more of the same repainted.
There is a fear of adventure, a fear of change and a “dummy sucking” reluctance to leave the ratings game behind and venture into good quality individual television production. Remember sale of the century? remember the mobile phone? remember email? remember little house on the prairie?
The magic pudding is a fairy story, but it is true that “ice will not suffice”
I didn’t watch it. Didn’t know it was on.
I love the comment “nothing wrong with branded entertainment”
That’s what’s wrong with Australian commercial television, shows produced for advertisers and not for viewers. I’m sure Safeway.. Sorry Woolworths think it’s a wonderful idea, but for the vast majority of viewers it’s self indulgent crap devoid of any real entertainment value.
Here’s a tip… You want to attract viewers back to FTA TV? Give them entertainment. You will of course need to employ talented, creative people to do that.
I thought it was great – awesome production qualities. Looking forward to the next………
Woollies got there hand on a great concept and have all but strangled it with over-control.
I found it interesting, engaging and informative. Yes there was a lot of Woolworths branding, but it was no more excessive than the Coles branding in Masterchef…I will definitely be watching it again.
I actually really enjoyed the show, and went out and bought 2 boxes of the final product (delicious, may I add!) I agree with CC – it was no worse than the branding in Masterchef… this time however it has a more interesting story line to follow. I loved it
missed 2nd show unintentionally enjoyed 1st @ submitted an email with a recipe to woolies on my woolies reward card call me and keep up good work
I really wished Carolyn Creswell had more influence in the show. She has gone through the challenges of getting the retail giants to take on her product which should be part of the show, pose these same challenges to the contestants, get them to pitch the product to woolies buyers, negotiate the margins, go through the same processes. It’s not that easy to get your product into Woolies or any retail giant for that matter as the show suggests, impress a bunch of people and boom, it’s on the shelves. It seems it’s concept is dumbing the audience down. I liked the idea but it’s completely missed the mark.