MKR in mix for C7's ratings success
Channel 7 has tonight unveiled its assault on the official TV ratings season, which will get off to a strong start with the launch of reality cooking juggernaut My Kitchen Rules and the locally-produced crime drama Winter.
Held at trendy inner-city bar The Flour Factory, the network’s glitzy Perth program launch was abuzz with local personalities and big-name TV stars including Gold Logie-winning actress Rebecca Gibney and My Kitchen Rules’ Pete Evans and Colin Fassnidge.
Marking her first return to Perth in four years, Gibney is in town to spruik her six-part series Winter, a follow-up to the hit telemovie The Killing Field where she reprises her role as detective Eve Winter.
As a producer and lead star in the series, Gibney has spent the past week travelling the country to promote the series ahead of its launch next week.
But it will be a short pit stop in Perth, with the actress due to fly back to Sydney tomorrow to begin rehearsals for Seven’s upcoming biopic, Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door.
Gibney will portray Allen’s mother Marion Woolnough and will star alongside up-and-coming WA-raised actor Joel Jackson who has landed the coveted role as the iconic entertainer.
“I feel very lucky, I seem to keep working which is brilliant,” Gibney said.
MKR judge Evans was sans fellow judge Manu Feildel, who is back in Sydney awaiting the birth of his child, instead joined by Irish-born guest judge Colin Fassnidge.
The pair mingled with media and guests, which include this year’s WA contestants, workmates Debra Ch’ng and Eva Lean and engaged couple Kat Donald-Hill and Andre Pagano.
Evans teased that season six will showcase some of the best cooks the show has ever seen.
“The standard we’re seeing is getting better, I think we’ve seen more 10s this year than we have any other year,” Evans. “It feels like this series is a real competition.”
Also making an appearance at the launch were a raft of former reality TV contestants, including House Rules couple Carole and Russell Bramston, 2014 My Kitchen Rules finalists Chloe James and Kelly Ramsay and The Amazing Race Australia’s Sally and Tyson.
With the official ratings season to kick off on Sunday, February 8, Seven has joined the TV race early with My Kitchen Rules premiering on Monday and Winter on Wednesday.
In the coming weeks, the network will launch the highly anticipated locally-made documentary drama Australia: Story of Us as well as a string of top US dramas including the critically-acclaimed How to Get Away with Murder and the Katherine Heigl political drama, State of Affairs.
