Bye Ben!

Well, that's the end of that.

According to TV Tonight, Ben Elton has debuted to a paltry 455,000. In television terms that's a big Sayonara.

In isolation, that's a crap figure, but coming off the back of Top Gear's 939,000- a handy lead-in- it's just awful. For a premiere with quite a bit of promotion, coming off a strong lead-in, even in its late-ish timeslot 600,000 would've been the BARE MINIMUM expected.

And even that would have been a big F.

You'd have to imagine most viewers turned off at the first break, dismissing it as more of the same.

It is still a bit of a shame, as the performers were all great and enthusiastic. The writing just suffered from being trite and obvious.

Certain elements almost broke away from the tedium, such as Genevieve Morris' interviewer character, but by then it was too late.

It is just another sign from viewers that they expect much, much better and are sick of writers and producers insulting their intelligence with fart jokes and the like.

It's hard to imagine with feedback like this (mirrored in stronger terms in the comments on my review), that word of mouth would bring any new viewers to the show next week, but rather erode viewers.

It is now officially uncool to watch this- the next laughing... stock of Australian TV. Planet Earth, please find your seat in between Let Loose Live and Warnie.
NEXT!