Is Alone Australia Coming For MAFS & Survivor?

Alone Australia has cemented its place as one of the standout TV hits of 2024, with a Total TV reach for the series to date of more than 3 million Australians.

Alone Australia continues to deliver for SBS, with growing SBS On Demand viewing leading to episodes 1 and 2 of the series, surpassing 1 million in Total TV reach in the 28 days since airing. For the series, the Total TV reach is more than 3 million.

“Following the enormous success of the launch of Alone Australia last year, the second series is also drawing significant audiences on TV and SBS On Demand, and we’re delighted the show has once again positioned itself as a standout hit of the year. It’s also proving the power of word-of-mouth, as we see audiences for each episode continuing to lift, week after week – as well as new audiences coming to Alone for the first time – driven by BVOD viewing,” said SBS director of television, Kathryn Fink.

But does the show have what it takes to compete with the big guns of Australian reality TV? SBS’ director of media sales, Adam Sadler, believes so. Sadler sat down with B&T to discuss the latest ratings and what has made the program so successful.

“It’s become one of our largest breakout hits, if not our most successful original show in SBS history. It definitely dominated all the digital ratings and was one of the top digital performers. I would even go as far as to say that it’s one of the biggest TV franchises now in Australia – joining the likes of MAFS and Survivor,” Sadler told B&T.

The latest figures position the show as SBS’s most successful commissioned series of the year and one of the hit TV shows in Australia for 2024. According to Sadler, audience numbers will continue to grow as more Australians watch the program on SBS On Demand over the coming weeks, as the series enters the home stretch with four episodes remaining.

“People are coming in for Alone Australia and are also sampling some of the other amazing content on offer on the SBS On Demand platform. With a number of weeks to go, we can’t wait to see the numbers and audiences build as Australia tunes in to see who will survive the longest”.

Alone Australia was a breakout hit in 2023, highlighting how Australian TV viewing has dramatically evolved. Each episode of the show draws more than 1 million viewers, with almost half of that audience coming from digital. Sadler puts this success down to the program’s format, which is “unique and appealing to all Australians.”

“It’s about survival. It’s about isolation. They are in one of the most dangerous countries in the world, one of the most picturesque islands in the world, the South Island of New Zealand. It’s mountainous terrain, filled with snow-freezing winds. And it really talks to the human experience; it really talks to resilience. Resilience has been used in a lot of our corporate language today, and this show has something in it for everybody,” Sadler said.

Crucially, Sadler believes that the program’s success reflects the true power of television as a medium when broadcast and digital are combined and is excited about the future of the network, given the success of homegrown content like this. “We have really started to build a consistent spine in the content year after year that gives advertisers and audiences confidence in our network”.

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