‘All Together Now’ debuts strongly with 813,000 overnight metro viewers
The Australian version of the UK’s All Together Now made a strong debut last night, with 813,000 overnight metro viewers tuning in.
It was the 4th highest rater for the night. It was also the second non-news show, beaten by the insurmountable The Block at 1.13 million overnight metros.
All Together Now was third most popular in the 16—39 demographic, after The Block and Sunday Project
Produced by Endemol Shine and screened on Channel 7, the show introduced a new singing format to local screens.
Essentially, the contestant has to get as many of the 100 judges off their seas dancing and pressing their buttons.
The act with the most votes takes their seat on the podium, meaning that the act with the fewer votes either drops down a podium place or gets booted off.
The two with the highest score go off again at each other, and winner heads off to the grand final and the $100,000 cash prize.
Essentially, the songs with the greatest karaoke x-factor seemed to have the 100 dancing, bolted along by the irrepressible Julia Zemiro as host and Ronan Keating as “captain”.
Last night’s contestants were made up of a couple of amateur singers, a vocal coach, a performing arts lecturer, a bartender, a tribute band singer, a retail assistant and a draftsman.
The songs ranged from Bruno Mars’Forget You, Adele’s When Were Young and Sia‘s Chandelier to Aretha Franklin’sRespect, The Jackson 5’s I Want You Back and Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love.
There was a poignant moment when Dixie the WAAPA lecturer sang The Choirboys’ Run To Paradise – only to look straight at the band’s singer Mark Gable who was one of the judges.
Early in the piece, Melbourne’s Chantelle and Brisbane’s Lai landed themselves high marks and fended off all opposition.
When they had their sing-off at the end Lai – Fijian born, Afro’d, cool moves – landed 94 marks with the shrewd choice of Pharrell Williams’ Happy, and was the first episode’s winner.
Much of the show’s appeal came from comments from the judges, a happy mix of drag queens, cabaret singers, tribute, music theatre performers, opera singers, gospel choir directors, piano players, DJs, singer-songwriters and rappers.
The higher profile names included Rhonda Burchmore, Andrew De Silva, Dean Ray, Sylvia Paladino, Missy Lancaster, Jess & Matt, Kellie Crawford of Hi-5, Minnie Cooper, Shauna Jensen, Tarisai Vushe, Lucy Holmes and Maria Mercedes.