Alone: Australia a ratings hit for SBS
June 13, 2023
A+E Networks has announced that Alone: Australia, the first iteration of the company’s hit format produced in the region, is now the most watched SBS-commissioned series in the network’s history, averaging over 1 million viewers per episode on linear TV and On Demand. This ratings success was announced by A+E Networks’ Director of International Format Production and Acquisitions Crispin Clover.
Produced locally by ITV Australia, Alone, the self-shot, ultimate survival competition format that finds contestants dropped into the remote wilderness, where each must survive entirely alone, has been a critical and ratings hit in every territory where it airs. Alone: Australia premiered as SBS’s highest-rated programme of 2023 to date, with the premiere episode more than tripling its audience via OnDemand and catch-up viewing in just two weeks.
By the end of its 12-episode run, Alone was the number one show across all Australian Broadcaster VoD platforms, rivaling long-running formats on competitor commercial networks, and more than quadrupling the SBS prime average among total viewers. Since its launch, a quarter of all new accounts on SBS On Demand have watched the series.
“A+E Networks is incredibly pleased that viewers were so riveted by Alone: Australia, especially since we were able to partner with SBS and ITV Australia to create a true phenomenon that rapidly became water-cooler TV,” said Clover.
SBS’ is only the latest success for Alone, which has become a ratings hit over seven seasons in Denmark, winning the TV Prisen Awards for Best Reality Programme in 2020, and boasts successful franchises in Norway and Sweden. Channel 4 also ordered a UK iteration of the format earlier in 2022, to be produced by The Garden and released later this year. Alone first premiered on The History Channel in the US in 2015, with a tenth season premiering this June.
A+E Networks also announced multiple recent commissions from other hit shows on its growing global formats roster, all for brand new hours of returning series including The Rap Game, The UnXplained and Top Dog.
“It is through deep collaboration with our treasured partners that we’ve been able to garner a fantastic track record in finding formats that transcend cultures and borders and truly tap into the zeitgeist of the moment, as evidenced by the latest commissions from our industry-leading partners,” continued Clover. “Each of these formats has continued to attract strong audiences in vastly different territories worldwide, and those audiences continue to grow season after season.”