Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings: will The Voice Kids bomb?

Comedic great WC Fields once warned performers, “never work with animals and children”. Last night’s edition of The Voice Kids on Nine proved that to be wrong for metro viewers for about an hour, but not in regional areas, where viewers gave the program of warbling tweenies a far more sceptical reception. The program did well with 2.275 million national/ 1.652 million metro/ 623,000 regional viewers. But that strength couldn’t help Nine to win the night anywhere but in Sydney. In regional markets Seven dominated by 18 points.

Seven’s House Rules (million 2.458 national/ 1.515 million metro/ 943,000 regional viewers), Sunday Night and Seven News also had 2 million-plus national audiences. And A Place To Call Home, axed as it is, won the mid evening battle easily with more than 1.5 million national viewers from 9.15pm, after Sunday Night. The Voice Kids just didn’t resonate well with regional viewers and it finished  with 623,000 viewers, 320,000 behind House Rules’ regional audience of a huge 943,000. 60 Minutes was also flogged in the regions — Sunday Night winning by 438,000 viewers, or more than double 60 Minutes’ audience of 395,000. All of Seven’s programs enjoyed significant boosts from high regional viewing levels last night.