TEN trailing as Seven pips Nine

It was the week in which the value of television licenses dropped, a Seven reality judge and a former Nine reporter were in court, an Underbelly actor met the law, a fashion guru came to makeover (or is that ‘rescue?’) Big Brother, TEN’s boss had a shot at Seven, Nine’s boss apologised for the “C” word, a reality show got free press over bullying, America axed a number of our favourite shows, and Melbourne said a sad farewell to a rising actress.

As they went into Saturday night, Seven and Nine were neck and neck, but Week 20 has gone to Seven again.

It won with a 28.3% share ahead of Nine’s 27.7% and TEN’s 21.8%. As TEN slips back each week from the highs of a “super-reality week”, Week 20 was its lowest survey figure since early March.

The ABC had 16.6% and SBS 5.6%.

Seven won Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, Nine won Sunday, Thursday and Saturday.

Seven’s biggest audience for the week remained its repeat episode of Border Security on 1.57m viewers. Also performing strongly were Seven News, Today Tonight, Australia’s Got Talent, Surf Patrol, Today Tonight, Desperate Housewives, Better Homes and Gardens, Grey’s Anatomy and Gladiators. Seven has problems on Thursdays with poor returns for Trinny and Susannah (793,000) which dragged down Lost to an appalling all-time low of just 392,000. Dogged by the writers’ strike the show which was once a flagship programme for the network has also languished under Seven’s dreadful scheduling this year. Ugly Betty has also fallen under the 1m mark in only its second year. Seven also needs to rethink its Sunday 7:30pm slot -traditionally the premier slot of the week.

60 Minutes returned to glory as the top show of the week with 1.7m no doubt reaping the benefits of slight choices from TEN and Seven. Along with Nine News (Sun) and CSI Nine kicked off the week well. Even without Underbelly it went toe to toe with Seven right down to Saturday night. Its other performers were Life in Cold Blood, Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen, Sea Patrol, Getaway, A Current Affair and Australia’s Funniest Home Videos -still doing good business under a new host, and giving The Great Outdoors headaches. Nine’s observational series Animal Emergency and RFDS did very well against Gladiators and Search and Rescue continues a strong debut. Since Kate Ritchie has left Home and Away, repeats of Two and a Half Men have improved well enough for Nine to hold off a return of Temptation. If Nine hadn’t slated another repeat of Shrek on Saturday and the movie Hitch on Wednesday it might have won the week.

American dramas House (1.43m) and NCIS (1.38m) were TEN’s biggest shows all week. The Carson Kressley Big Brother stunt also paid off so well that TEN will return to the idea this week. The first live eviction barely scraped into the 1m mark, and as daily shows struggle around 900,000 the franchise is now in danger of attracting attention more for its stunts than its cast. On Tuesday even the Budget outrated it. And Big Mouth will be lucky to survive on 660,000. Producer Stephen Tate defended the franchise saying, “In a fragmenting (TV) market, I think it’s been a stellar performance.” Hate to see a bad performance then…..There were better returns from Bondi Rescue, How To Look Good Naked and Law and Order: SVU. Also disappointing were Don’t Forget the Lyrics and Rove. Meanwhile I’m a Celebrity is tanking (who are these people anyway?) and 9AM with David and Kim hit a low of 59,000 on Monday. It is down to four advertorials a day against its rivals which average seven.

Without competition from those gangsters Spicks and Specks reaffirmed with 1.27m viewers for the ABC. A new series of Silent Witness (1.1m) was also strong. Australian drama Bed of Roses had mostly good news, losing 120,000 viewers in its second outing but remaining high at 951,000 viewers. Elsewhere ABC News, The New Inventors, Spooks and Collectors did well.

Saturday was best for SBS.

Week 20