0/5

Cyclone Debbie leaves her mark on TV ratings too

Ratings: Regional ratings are not delivered today, and schedules were interrupted as networks switch to rolling news.

The natural forces of Cyclone Debbie have impacted ratings and schedules, as networks strive to keep viewers informed of the latest news.

RegionalTAM will not be delivering data to its clients today, due to polling issues in Mackay, although this does not directly affect OzTAM’s metro data listed here.

Seven, Nine and ABC all made amendments to their schedules yesterday including extended breakfast programmes, afternoon news and late news. This caused some numbers below to only be available in 4 cities.

Sunrise thumped Today by screening Live into Queensland despite the AEDT time difference.

Meanwhile it was another win for MKR over MAFS, with The Biggest Loser: Transformed slipping below SBS’ Great Continental Railway Journeys again.

But ABC was also well down with shows such as Todd Sampson’s Life on the Line failing to fire despite its host putting himself in front of an AK47. What do you have to do to get people’s attention these days?

Seven Network won Tuesday with 31.7% then Nine 29.5%, TEN 17.0%, ABC 15.5% and SBS 6.3%.

My Kitchen Rules was #1 with 1.24m viewers then Seven News (1.14m / 1.04m), Home and Away (757,000), The Chase (522,000 / 331,000). Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares was 483,000 and Bones was 193,000.

Nine News (1.05m / 989,000) led for Nine then Married at First Sight (1.03m), A Current Affair (836,000),  Travel Guides (671,000) and Hot Seat (417,000 / 238,000 in 4 cities). Schwarzenegger The Celebrity Apprentice was just 189,000 in 4 cities.

The Project (522,000 / 349,000) was best for TEN then TEN Eyewitness News (502,000), NCIS (407,000), NCIS: LA (388,000), Family Feud (327,000) and The Biggest Loser: Transformed (275,000).

ABC News drew 789,000 for ABC. 7:30 was 390,000 in 4 cities. The Indian Dream Hotel On Tour was 320,000, Todd Sampson’s Life on the Line was 281,000, and Foreign Correspondent was 228,000.

On SBS it was Great Continental Railway Journeys (333,000), Insight (210,000), Dateline (149,000) and SBS World News (122,000).

GO!’s coverage of the Socceroos World Cup Qualifiers topped multichannels with 256,000.

Sunrise: 378,000
Today: 304,000
ABC News Breakfast: 130,000 / 68,000

OzTAM Overnights: Tuesday 28 March 2017

33 Responses

  1. I so do not understand people standing out in shocking weather getting soaking wet …to report a story….Could they not be inside somewhere….with a window or open door to see what is going on…or a split screen??

  2. I’m pretty sure Today was live in Queensland on Tuesday…
    mediaspy-org-s3.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/original/3X/7/1/71eb80ff097796bd7b5e675cafa1db9b66877088.jpg
    (by TV.Cynic at Media Spy)

  3. I used to always watch 7.30. Totally bored with it now, no in depth interviews with Politicians, and any interviews show Leigh Sales cross examining intently all politicians except the ones from the Coalition. They are treated with kid gloves and allowed to ramble on indefinitely. Her body language tells the story.

    I notice the numbers getting lower every week, and last night was the lowest ever. 390,000. I think Leigh’s interviewing style has caused the fall in numbers and the lack of political contect, especially when Parliament is sitting.

      1. No, I didn’t realise it was a 4 city figure. Has had low numbers this year. I didn’t compare it with ‘The Link’ (Friday’s episode) Maybe the end of day light saving will give the numbers some bounce. Still don’t enjoy it as much as I used to!

  4. I think they have dragged MAFS out a week or 2 too long. They could have wrapped it up more naturally, but it just feels like padding and recaps now. Hopefully they learn their lesson for next year and…..who am I kidding, they’re a television network.

  5. Are you sure Today show wasn’t live in Qld? They definitely were on Monday because it was strange seeing all the usual things an hour earlier and a few people commented on it. Sunday Today has been starting live at 6am up here also since the Footy season started up again.

  6. Nice to have the world cup qualifier live on free to air last night.

    Bones was good last night. I liked how they advanced the storyline from the perspective of a different person each segment to the conclusion of the bomb blowing up the lab. Who will survive?

  7. Poor TBL I like it and bates motel was awesome last night the iconic shower scene but I sure wasn’t expecting to see it happen like that shame it’s not rating

  8. I really like Tom Samson, but this new show just seems like stunts for the sake of stunts. We know full well the laws of physics work, better people than Todd have tested and proven them over the last century or so.

    1. You just don’t quite like him enough to remember his name ?
      I’ve quite enjoyed his shows, not sure how he is still married though given his wife seems to tell him at the start of each series there’s to be no more!

  9. Surpsised Seven won despite 9Go! having the soccer.

    MKR had a bumper audience, no doubt Nine will blame their loss and Married’s fall on the cyclone 😉

    Massive win by Seven in QLD yesterday, especially Sunrise at the peak of everyone waking up and having breakfast before it really hit!

  10. “What do you have to do to get people’s attention these days?”

    Not being a smug, self-serving narcissistic helps. Sampson’s “I’m a god” attitude is a massive turn off that I think audiences are genuinely sick off.

    1. Not sure he quite takes that line, but I do think there is an element of people feeling like they have seen it before, which I raised with him. Todd is a good storyteller but may need to rethink how it is being perceived.

    2. I feel somewhat the same. I have enjoyed his input on Gruen but didn’t warm to him on that show he did on Ten and haven’t liked this one (which also feels like a Ten show). I only watched the first ep and found myself reading a book halfway thru because I was bored.

      The show takes an, at best, 15 minute premise and stretches it out to double that. How many times can Todd tell us that he might be injured or even killed if something goes wrong? Adam and Jamie do this sort of thing much better.

      1. His first “redesign my brain” series a few years ago on ABC was pretty good. The channel 10 series “Bodyhack” just wasn’t quite the same – seemed perhaps a little artificial and the new ABC series has unfortunately retained some of that feel. There’s probably a lot of stuff being cut out of the preparation/build-up phase of these projects that people would actually find interesting; a bit more fine-tuning in editing/scripting would be helpful too (… also my feeling on most Australian TV production…).

      1. I heard Ten played their usual daily repeat of Biggest Loser yesterday at 1pm – just as the eye was hitting land – I imagine that would also fall into the category “too low for me to see”!

        I actually know people who usually leave TEN on all day – from Studio 10, The Talk, Dr Phil, etc that now change channels as soon as the Loser repeat / encore comes on whereas in the past they’d stay with Ten (say for the Celeb repeat / encore) until 6pm… It would be interesting to see any daytime ratings effect based on the performance of TBL-T.

          1. Shows at 1pm on Seven, Nine or Ten usually do more like 100-150 don’t they? 60k not good there either! Thanks for the figure David!

    1. Would have anyone turned to TEN when they wanted news? Seven copping some flack in antisocial media re their reporters trying to outdo each other in a ‘who’s going to get decapitated first’ challenge by feeling some need to be out in it when all warnings were to not go out. Great example set.

  11. No excuse not to go live into qld . I had looked on the 7app Monday and could see sunrise still delayed but well done on going live yesterday . Ten also did good effort with studio 10 on from 6am with Matt white and Sarah Harris . Maybe a good option going forward just for a straight news

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