Summer Heights High: articles


Chris Lilley

Winner Š Ja'mie played by Chris Lilley in Summer Heights High.

ABC hits new heights

A MALE comedian with a penchant for wearing frocks and a posse of mischievous political satirists sent the ABC into television ratings heaven on Wednesday night, handing the national broadcaster its strongest midweek performance of the year.

The debut of Chris Lilley's colourful Summer Heights High and the return of The Chaser's War on Everything had the ABC snapping at the heels of the commercial networks with 20 per cent of the audience across Australia's five capital cities and 22 per cent in Sydney.

The audience for Summer Heights High, in which Lilley plays three extravagantly dysfunctional characters at a suburban high school, peaked at 1.6 million - the highest of any comedy series launch on the ABC since Mother and Son in 1992.

The success of the new comedy was partly the result of a flow-on effect from Spicks and Specks - which continued its strong results - and the return of The Chaser.

The controversial crew may be in serious trouble over their tongue-in-cheek attempt to breach APEC security yesterday, but they got a big vote of support on Wednesday night when 1.494 million viewers tuned in to watch the series return.

The Chaser was the second most watched program behind Channel Ten's Thank God You're Here, providing a clear answer to those who suggested that the show had lost some of its spark.

The success of the three ABC programs was not quite enough to unseat Channels Nine, Seven and Ten from the top three positions overall, but the gap of just 7.2 percentage points between first and fourth suggests that the race for midweek supremacy is becoming tighter.

A media commentator, Peter Cox, said the ratings demonstrated that people watched the programs they wanted regardless of what channel they were on. "I don't think people care that much about channels, they care about good programs," Mr Cox said. "There's clearly a demand for comedy. The Chaser had a very good ABC audience for a long time and now it's got a mainstream audience. It makes you wonder why the ABC doesn't make more Australian programs."

By Paul Bibby
September 7, 2007
Sydney Morning Herald