‘The Beautiful Lie’ finale spoilers by Sarah Snook may have caused low ratings

Directed by Peter Salmon, “The Beautiful Lie” finale aired on ABC on Nov. 22 with 425,000 viewers. This means it did not perform better than its pilot episode, which was directed by Glendyn Ivin and aired on Oct. 18 with 540,000 viewers.

It is common for TV series to have its finale as the most watched episode. Apparently, “The Beautiful Lie” was not the only series that had its pilot episode attract more viewers than its finale this year, as "The X Factor Australia" also suffered the same fate.

The grand finals of “The X Factor Australia” Season 7 aired on Nov. 24, attracting 1.2 million viewers only, while its first episode that aired on Sept. 13 managed to garner 1.5 million viewers. The show's finale failed to attract more viewers although it featured the performance of Kylie Minogue and Danii Minogue, who had not performed together on stage for almost three decades.

In the case of “The Beautiful Lie,” one of the possible reasons why its finale failed to attract more viewers is the spoilers revealed in its opening voice-over. The finale started with the narration of its main character Anna Ivin (Sarah Snook) communicating from the afterlife and admitting that she was going to die at the end.

“The Beautiful Lie” is a contemporary re-imagining of “ Anna Karenina,” a classic novel by Leo Tolstoy. The drama series also starred Rodger Corser as Xander Ivin, Alexander England as Peter Levin, Dan Wyllie as Nick Levin, Sophie Lowe as Kitty Ballantyne, Robert Menzies as Phillip Ballantyne, Gina Riley as Catherine Ballantyne, Benedict Samuel as Skeet Du Pont, Catherine McClements as Tess Du Pont, Celia Pacquola as Dolly Faraday and Daniel Henshall as Kingsley Faraday.

A day after “The Beautiful Lie” finale, Snook co-hosted the first Casting Guild of Australia Awards with Ewen Leslie. The awards-giving body recognised the casting directors’ unique contribution and skill to foresee and identify the future stars of the film and TV industry, according to Inside Film.

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