TV ratings: Nine runs back-to-back Elton John programs on Saturday night

Channel 9 had an Elton John heavy night on Saturday, premiering the biopic Rocketman, followed by the interview, Elton John Uncensored. 

Rocketman drew 278,000 metros, ranking it at #9 for the night.

It was also 5^th most watched by both the 25—54 and 18—49 demos.

The movie, directed by Dexter Fletcher with Taron Egerton, cost US$40 million to make, and ended up raking in $195.2 million worldwide and an additional $12 million from DVD sales.

In Australia it debuted at #2 spot with a $4.52 million take from 521 cinemas, beaten by Aladdin.

Elton John Uncensored, with Graham Norton in the interviewer chair, reached 187,000 metro viewers.

The piano man has always been honest and self-deprecatory with his public.

But in this special, conducted at his home in Nice, France, he went a step further.

Looking back over a lengthy career, chubby and balding and rejected by his father, the one-time Reg Dwight admitted he was no sex symbol, faced homophobia in the ‘70s when he came out, and went for a toupee because “I didn’t want to look like Shrek.”

He recalled playing a Vegas gig in 2017 two weeks after a prostate cancer operation. As he finished the show and took his bows, he was in pain from fluid under his colon and wearing a nappy.

“If only they knew,” he said, “at that moment I was pissing myself.”

In 1973 at his major California debut, the plan was for him to stride down the stairs onto the stage dressed in a white suit, while five pianos burst their lids open each spelling out his name, and doves flying out.

The piano lids worked but the doves were a no-show. “They’d gone to sleep,” he shrieked.