House Rules: High Stakes and Rebel Wilson’s Pooch Perfect plummet in the ratings


Seven’s rough night: House Rules: High Stakes and Rebel Wilson’s Pooch Perfect plummet in the ratings as they’re soundly beaten by Gogglebox and even The Project

Has Channel Seven lost its knack for creating popular entertainment television? 

On Thursday, the network suffered yet another rough night in the ratings, a trend that has been persistent all year. 

The revamped House Rules: High Stakes stumbled for the first time since premiering on Monday and Rebel Wilson’s Pooch Perfect continued to struggle.

Seven’s rough night: On Thursday, Channel Seven suffered yet another rough night in the ratings, a trend that has been persistent all year. Pictured: Kyly Clarke on House Rules

House Rules – a renovation show in the mould of The Block – returned with a new format and higher profile hosts this year in an attempt to bolster ratings.

House Rules: High Stakes garnered just 478,000 viewers across the five major capital cities on Thursday, down 29 per cent from Monday’s premiere.

That was good enough for twelfth overall on the night and fifth in non-news programming. 

It lost in the time slot to Channel 10’s The Project (542,000), which is often the subject of cancellation rumours due to its low ratings. 

High stakes, low ratings! House Rules: High Stakes garnered just 478,000 viewers across the five major capital cities on Thursday, down 29 per cent from Monday's premiere

High stakes, low ratings! House Rules: High Stakes garnered just 478,000 viewers across the five major capital cities on Thursday, down 29 per cent from Monday’s premiere

The program did manage to topple the premiere of Channel Nine’s Accidental Heroes, with 438,000 viewers tuning in for the viral video clip show hosted by Sophie Monk.

But Accidental Heroes is far cheaper to produce and was promoted as filler content to tide viewers over during the coronavirus pandemic.

In stark contrast, House Rules: High Stakes was promoted as a flagship offering. 

Who's laughing now? It lost in the time slot to Channel 10's The Project (542,000), which is often the subject of cancellation rumours due to its low ratings. Pictured: host Waleed Aly

Who’s laughing now? It lost in the time slot to Channel 10’s The Project (542,000), which is often the subject of cancellation rumours due to its low ratings. Pictured: host Waleed Aly

House Rules: High profile? It comes after Seven revamped the renovation program, bringing in Jamie Durie (pictured) and Kyly Clarke, neither of whom has managed to improve ratings

House Rules: High profile? It comes after Seven revamped the renovation program, bringing in Jamie Durie and Kyly Clarke (pictured), neither of whom has managed to improve ratings

House Rules: High profile? It comes after Seven revamped the renovation program, bringing in Jamie Durie (left) and Kyly Clarke (right), neither of whom has managed to improve ratings

Outgoing host Johanna Griggs was replaced by a household name in Jamie Durie, who regularly drew millions of viewers as host of Backyard Blitz in the early 2000s. 

Former WAG and lifestyle influencer Kyly Clarke was also added to the judging panel.

But it seems neither of them has managed to boost the show’s numbers. 

Compounding Seven’s rough night was the continued failure of Rebel Wilson’s dog grooming show Pooch Perfect, which had just 259,000 viewers.

That was good enough for dead last in the 8.30pm time slot, beaten by Channel 10’s Gogglebox (759,000), a Nine News COVID-19 special (330,000) and Grand Designs Australia on ABC (309,000). 

Pooch imPerfect: Compounding Seven's rough night was the continued failure of Rebel Wilson's Pooch Perfect, which had just 259,000 viewers and came last in the time slot

Pooch imPerfect: Compounding Seven’s rough night was the continued failure of Rebel Wilson’s Pooch Perfect, which had just 259,000 viewers and came last in the time slot