Nine's heavily promoted new show Excess Baggage is staring down the barrel of cancellation after less than a week on air, following a losing battle with Ten's The Biggest Loser.
Crisis meetings were held last night at Nine following almost a week of lacklustre ratings for the program, which premiered on Monday 30 January with 880,000 viewers. Four nights later, that viewership had dropped to 555,000, a precipitous 37.3% decline.
The scuttlebutt in the Nine corridors is Excess Baggage will be removed from the network's primetime schedule but whether it lands in a late night slot, a digital channel or on the cutting room floor is unclear.
The show has been locked in direct battle with longer-established The Biggest Loser, now in its seventh year, with the Ten show outweighing Excess Baggage every night this week except on Monday. Across the week, The Biggest Loser has averaged 725,000 viewers versus Excess Baggage's 683,000.
Nine has invested heavily in Excess Baggage and secured the participation of well known figures including singer Christine Anu, Britney Spear's ex-husband Kevin Federline and sports personality Robert “Dipper” DiPierdomenico.
Industry figures are speculating how soon the changes will occur, with Nine potentially replacing the show with episodes of the popular US comedy The Big Bang Theory or bringing forward its high rating renovations series The Block. However, Nine has not kicked promotional activities for The Block into high gear yet.
It's a reversal of fortunes for the two networks when last year The Block and Ten's The Renovators were locked in a similar head-to-head war, with The Block coming out on top.
Nine has not returned calls for comment.
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