Today, Campbell Live tweeted a clip of a song ‘Love lifts us up where we belong‘ to celebrate the fact that it was the number one show on TV3 once again last night. Despite its recent ratings boost, the show is still under official review by MediaWorks, but the team is regularly showing its gratitude to the viewers for supporting it and making the decision to get rid of it more difficult for the powers that be. It’s also maintaining its competitive streak and trying to beat the opposition, which it did in entertainingly petty fashion last night.
As it explains: “Last week on Campbell Live, John Campbell crossed live from a Greenwoods Fresh Catch Fish & Chip Shop in the Auckland suburb of Epsom, where owner Thomas Ng has been running the shop for four and a half years. Two and a half years ago, Seven Sharp came to his shop to run a story on Mr Ng and his shop, and ever since, that story has been playing on a loop on a television for all waiting customers to see – he is very proud of his shop and his staff. Thomas told John that if he featured his shop on Campbell Live, he would switch out that Seven Sharp story for the new Campbell Live one. So tonight, John paid Thomas and his shop a visit with a brand new DVD to show on his television.”
- Watch the clip here.
As Vanity Fair reported, the ‘media culpa’ is proof of a love of schadenfreude among competing media companies. But Campbell, who was recently listed as second favourite for the Auckland mayoralty and is enjoying a surge in popularity (you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone), managed to claim the victory with a twinkle in his eye.
As he said with great gusto, a fist pump, much laughter and the powerful ‘repeat the phrase for greater effect’ technique: “Whatever it takes ladies and gentlemen. Whatever it takes.”
As for the ratings, the charts above show the shifts. And the Herald also summed it up:
In the five days before April 9, 66,760 people aged 25 to 54 watched the show, with 194,760 viewers overall. In the following three days, ratings increased by 70 per cent (to 113,800) and 58 per cent (to 308,000) respectively.
Last week Campbell Live out-rated TVNZ’s Seven Sharp among 25 to 54-year-old viewers, with an average of 131,120 people in the demographic that is used by television bosses to lure advertisers, compared with the 123,340 who tuned in to Seven Sharp.
Meanwhile, among all viewers aged 5 and older, Seven Sharp was the clear winner of the ratings battle for the 7pm weeknights slot – with an average of 479,020 people tuning in last week, while 355,180 watched Shortland Street and 336,560 flicked to TV3 for Campbell Live.
