Big Week gets big audience
RTÉ One’s Big Week on the Farm was a hit with viewers with 1.5 million people tuning in across a week of live shows broadcast from a farm in the midlands.
The show had an average audience of 326,000, up 17 per cent on RTÉ One’s typical average viewership for the slot. The programme achieved an average share of 26 per cent, a 27 per cent increase on the slot average.
Big Week on the Farm, presented by Áine Lawlor and Ella McSweeney, was broadcast live every night at 7pm from John Fagan’s farm on the shores of Lough Derravaragh in Co Westmeath. The show aimed to give viewers a real insight into the activity at farms across Ireland as spring brought them to life.
Over the course of the week, 60 lambs were born on Fagan’s farm, including a live birth with Ella McSweeney lending a hand. Country music star Nathan Carter also played mid-wife to twin lambs when he co-hosted the show. Throughout the week viewers were shown the secret lives of pigs, horses, hens, goats and cows. There were also stunning wildlife films on frogs, swans, swallow murmurations and badgers.
Viewers saw celebrity co-hosts battle it out in the Pull the Udder One challenge to milk a cow with Met Éireann’s Gerry Murphy emerging victorious and taking home the coveted Golden Udder trophy. Big Week on the Farm host Áine Lawlor bested camogie star Anna Geary in the battle to find the fastest chicken plucker. The show also broadcast live from other farms around the country with co-presenters Helen Carroll and Darragh McCullough visiting ten farms across the week – from a fish farm to a bee apiary.
And a new world record was set when Donegal man Ivan Scott shaved 1.41 seconds off the existing Guinness World Record for shearing a mature sheep, live on air.
RTÉ One channel controller Adrian Lynch said: “I am delighted to see that viewers really connected with Big Week on the Farm. Farming is hugely important to Irish society and one of the backbones of the Irish economy. We wanted to create a special week of programming around farming that was engaging, entertaining and highlighted the role science and technology play in Irish farming. Big Week on the Farm absolutely delivered this.'
Big Week on the Farm's popularity continued on RTÉ Player. One of the top five programmes on RTÉ Player last week, Big Week on the Farm has attracted 42,150 streams to date for the main show and web exclusives: Big Week on the Farm Extras.
The show also proved very popular on social media. Interaction on social media was a key element of the programme and each night the show shared some of the thousands of images and videos sent in via Snapchat, Twitter and email showing what 'life on the farm' was like in all corners of Ireland.
The engagement on social media was unprecedented with #OnTheFarm trending on Twitter most nights, thousands viewing the daily snaps posted by 'rteonesnaps' on Snapchat and between 50-120,000 viewers tuning in for the the regular RTÉ One Facebook Live broadcasts across the week.
Big Week on the Farm was co-funded with RTÉ by Science Foundation Ireland. Science and technology are increasingly part of modern farming and food production. Science Foundation Ireland, both through the scientific researchers and the public engagement activities it supports, wants to help inform, and broaden everyone’s understanding of the developments in this key sector of our economy, and its potential impact on our everyday lives.
Big Week on the Farm was produced with the support of incentives for the Irish film Industry provided by the Government of Ireland and also funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.
The series was produced for RTÉ by Independent Pictures.