Standard Def week upstages High Def launch

Week 42 saw Seven slip its High Definition Channel under the radar with an all-but-silent launch on Monday evening as a way of trumping Nine and TEN’s plans.

But if the programming is indicative of what’s to come we might as well save our money on upgrades. A bunch of tired movies and a forgotten US series does not a launch make, and it’s hard to see what CEO David Leckie got so excited about. This was the television equivalent of one network’s dad trying to look bigger than another.

Seven didn’t need to get so excited about High Def, when its Standard Def programming won the week anyway. Seven won with 30.0% over Nine’s 25.7%, TEN’s 20.8%, the ABC’s 18.4% and SBS on 5.1.

Kath and Kim‘s finale was its best since its season premiere. No doubt Shane Warne’s appearance helped it score 2.3m viewers, making it one of the year’s top shows. Also tops were Border Security, The Force, Dancing with the Stars, City Homicide, My Name is Earl, Better Homes and Gardens, All Saints, Seven News, Today Tonight, and Home and Away. But Las Vegas has let down the network on Wednesdays and continues to plague Prison Break. The casino drama is about to be replaced. Bionic Woman is just hanging on to its audience, but Heroes, trumpeted as one of the year’s hottest new shows, is now under the 1m mark. It should also be noted that Seven’s shares on Monday and Tuesday well and truly thumped Nine and TEN.

It was another awful week for Nine. The best audience it could manage for the week was 1.25m for National Nine News on Tuesday, when the Ben Cousins story broke. All of its best performing shows trailed behind figures achieved by Seven, Ten and the ABC. Hanging in there for Nine were the movie Mr & Mrs Smith, McLeod’s Daughters, A Current Affair, 60 Minutes, Temptation, Missing Persons Unit and Funniest Homes Videos. Some better news came on Wednesday when the return of Without a Trace over Damages saw Nine finish the night ahead of Seven. Mondays aren’t worth talking about until Nine test drives its new line-up tomorrow.

TEN managed to win Wednesday without having Thank God You’re Here on air -quite a feat. Why? Because the ABC hijacked everyone else away from poor offerings on Nine and Seven. House was its top show. Next up was Australian Idol, The Simpsons, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, NCIS and So You Think You Can Dance. Life beat alternatives on Seven and Nine, will it go up when Chris Lilley ends on the ABC? Despite these the network is going backwards.

This week the ABC was all about The Chaser‘s “Eulogy” song, again its most popular show. Spicks and Specks, New Tricks, Summer Heights High, Rebus, ABC News and Four Corners were all strong. Compass: The Abbey attracted its biggest ever audience of 829,000. And Saturday’s audience proved the commercials are all but off the dial when it comes to programming properly.

SBS will be pleased the second audience for Newstopia went up on a tough night.

Ratings Week 42