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Utopia, MasterChef dominate on Wednesday.

Ratings: Best ever numbers for ABC comedy, while TEN cooking show is closing in on its 2017 champ.

The return of Utopia landed in a blaze of glory last night, winning its timeslot and pulling its biggest ever audience at 842,000 viewers.

That was higher than any other entertainment show on a commercial channel all night with the exception of MasterChef.

It proved to be a good night for ABC, with Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell winning on 724,000… even stronger than Nine and Seven’s 7:30 offerings.

MasterChef‘s final 4 proved dominant for TEN at an impressive 955,000 -up by over 200,000 on last Wednesday against Origin. Offspring was also well up.

Nine and Seven wins were confined to earlier slots in news, current affairs and game shows, but they held stronger through the night overall to remain in front.

Nine network won Wednesday with 26.5% then Seven 25.5%, TEN 20.6%, ABC 17.9% and SBS 9.4%.

Nine News was #1 for Nine with 1.07m / 1.06m then A Current Affair (869,000), Britain’s Got Talent (609,000 / 371,000) and Hot Seat (573,000 / 359,000).

Seven News (1.06m / 987,000) led for Seven then Home and Away (749,000), The Chase (645,000 / 419,000), Border Security (630,000) and Criminal Minds (455,000 / 360,000).

MasterChef Australia (955,000) was strong for TEN then Offspring (646,000), The Project (557,000 / 373,000), TEN Eyewitness News (472,000) and Family Feud (354,000). NCIS: LA was 208,000.

Utopia (842,000) topped ABC then ABC News (752,000), Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell (724,000), 7:30 (602,000), QI (465,000) and Growing Up Gracefully (435,000).

On SBS it was Flying Scotsman with Robson Green (256,000), Tour de France (247,000), SBS World News (139,000) and River Cottage Australia (95,000).

Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom ruled multichannels at 249,000.

Sunrise: 288,000
Today: 272,000
News Breakfast: 106,000 /

OzTAM Overnight: Wednesday 19 July 2017

19 Responses

  1. I’ve been seeing Utopia advertisements around Melbourne at tram stops, normally I never see ABC promo’s around the place, so it seems ABC knew they had something for the mainstream.

  2. Hi David, I was just wondering in regards to the promos been released by channel nine of Kath and Kim, is this a new series or are these repeats of the original series. Also some follow up questions, does this mean channel nine now have the rights to the show and when will this air and for how long?

  3. With MasterChef, apart from my earlier comment that this year has been all about ice cream, broth and fennel, I still think that there should be some kind of monetary limit on what the contestants can cook.
    In the Japanese section, one of them was shown to use Kobe beef – at very least $200 worth. And they didn’t even win.
    Put me in MasterChef and I will make you a gold leaf, foie gras and truffle ice cream that will probably taste crap, but at least I’m not paying for it

  4. I am still enjoying MC in it’s 9th season, still very good. Utopia..love this show and is the very best advert for never letting the lefties (and the watermelons) a free run at anything…incompetance abounds…great stuff

  5. Masterchef as a format is dull and in desperate need of a revamp if it is going to get another series. It will be costing Ten a heap in revenue and make goods at a time it can least afford it. After Ten’s firesale – SBS Food in 2018 maybe

    1. It has been on for 9 seasons. All shows lose ratings over time, especially reality shows as they get repetitive. Look at MKR this year, it was down 295k on average from last year. Expect the same to happen to Ninja Warrior.

      1. Yes Masterchef has been going for 9 seasons but it hasn’t been going down every year. Some years it’s a better produced series and it surges up in ratings. Other years, in my opinion, when it’s a bit dull, it loses viewers. This is one of those years. Just my thoughts.

        1. Rises and falls are due to a number of things: fatigue, competition, casting, production, marketing, lead-ins, news stories and more. Having watched all of this season I am not spotting any diminishing in either production nor casting, but that’s just me. Matt Preston comments that the show should shift to home-style meals would be a disaster in my view. If there is anything ripe for a reset it is in the judges and location. I’m not necessarily recommending such, but they would be top of any discussion list.

          1. I’m enjoying masterchef and i agree with you David I don’t think its diminishing at all i like the judges and don’t think they should change them and definatly not what Matt preston suggested that it should change to homestyle meals i think that would be the death of the show they need to change location and a totally new kitchen but apart from that nothing else needs to change but that’s just my opinion

          2. No way should the judges go! They make Masterchef, it’s like Gretel who was Big brother, they replaced her and no one wanted to watch

        2. I still enjoy it much more than those fake scripted shows like MKR or House Rules! I have noticed though this year their production values have dropped probably because of cost cutting and you can tell.

    2. And overall, live TV viewing has been dropping rapidly the last few years – one figure I saw the other day was (I think) 22% over the last 3 years.

      Oddly enough, if you compare last night’s MC numbers to the same night in 2014, overnight viewers dropped by about 21.5%…

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