Weekend Ratings Roundup: The Netherlands

ADVERTISEMENT

PREMIUM: The local version of FremantleMedia’s The Farmer Wants a Wife pulled the biggest audience of any program on Dutch television during the week ending September 16, averaging 3.584 million viewers and a 48.6-percent share on Ned 3 on Sunday.

In second place in terms of the weekend rankings was RTL4’s singing talent show Voice of Holland, in its third season, on Friday night with 2.946 million viewers and a share of 41.6 percent.  

Soccer figured prominently with the Eredivisie (domestic league) highlights on Sunday on Ned 1 and the Dutch national team’s World Cup qualifier against Hungary rounding out the week’s top five (with the news on Sunday). The qualifier on Tuesday gave SBS6 a rare victory as the day’s top show.

SBS6 also did well on Saturday night with its original Sterren Springen (Diving Stars), in which young contestants compete off the diving board. Pulling 1.333 million viewers (third of the day behind news and soccer news), it easily outperformed imported the BBC format Strictly Come Dancing on Ned 1 (848,000).

Imported format Undercover Boss from the U.K. (Stephen Lambert/Channel 4) on RTL4 finished 14th on Sunday going up against Farmer Wants… on Ned 1.

Ned 1 won the week with an average share of 22.3 percent, according to advertising ratings agency KijkOnderzoek. RTL4 was second with 14.2 percent, followed by SBS6 with 9.5 percent. Those three were far ahead of the rest. Ned 2 (6.1 percent), Ned 3 (5.6 percent) and RTL 7 (4.4 percent) came next.

The top imported program of the week was Big Fat Gypsy Weddings from the U.K. on RTL 4 from the U.K. It was number four on Friday. RTL4 also makes its own Dutch version called Gypsy Girls, which was 15th on Thursday.

The top U.S. series was CSI: New York on RTL 4 on Monday, which came 10th. Episodes of Castle and The Mentalist (both SBS6), Criminal Minds (Veronica) and Golden Girls (RTL4) also cracked the daily top 25 during the week.

The most successful domestic drama show remains the daily soap Goede tijden slechte tijden (Good Times, Bad Times) airing in prime time on RTL4, which finished in second place four out of five weekdays last week (and third the other day). Originally inspired by Australian show The Restless Years, it has been on RTL4 since 1990, and the German version has been a hit for RTL since 1992.