Slight ratings rise for Big Music Quiz

Seven’s The Big Music Quiz arrested its two-week ratings decline last night. It brought in 873,000 overnight metro viewers for its fourth episode. Last week its figures had slid down to 841,000.

The format still seems to be appealing to a wide demographic, most popular with the 16—39 age group where it rated third last night.

Viewers were treated to Melbourne musician Miles Brown, of dark-psych-space-trance cult band The Night Terrors and regarded as Australia’s premier thereminist, performing Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely and The Cure’s The Lovecats on the theremin for the guest panellists to identify.

In a case of just desserts, radio’s Em Rusciano won the nightly Golden Record award after host Darren McMullen claimed she’d been a “nightmare” during taping, extending the filming because her comedy patter went off in “bizarre tangents” and had to be told these could not be used during the family-friendly timeslot.

After winning the Gold Record, Rusciano held it aloft and declared, “I just want to say I really earned this, I really deserve it!”

Immediately after was a Bruce Springsteen interview on Seven’s Sunday Night, which drew 693,000. Set up for the release of his autobiography and tickets for his Australian tour going on sale this Friday, The Boss recalled his teen days when he was bullied because he (and childhood buddy Steve Van Zandt) were considered as outcasts, and his hungering for his father’s affection and approval, set him up to strive for superstardom.

On ABC-TV, Spicks And Specks brought in 164,000.