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You better smile -it’s Nine.

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It was the week that WIN sacked its Adelaide boss, community TV in Perth sent out an SOS, TEN blamed the economy on a drop in projected revenue, A Current Affair was hosted by its former CEO in the same week ACMA found it breached the industry code and WIN dropped its national edition, the health of a veteran entertainer made news, Pay TV got wind of a re-think over local content rules, and (as revealed exclusively on TV Tonight) TEN was found to be dropping television credits for Aussie crews.

But it was a week that would eventually leave Nine smiling with another ratings win over arch rival Seven in Week 24. Nine had a clear lead, 28.5% to Seven’s 26.7%.

TEN had 20.5%, just 0.1% higher than the previous week. The ABC had 18.3% and SBS 6.0%.

Nine is now just one week behind Seven’s lead in weeks won for 2008.

Nine won Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and weekly wins in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven took Tuesday and Friday winning Adelaide and Perth.

The State of Origin was top show for the week, with just under 2.1m viewers –a record since the introduction of OzTAM people meters. Also scoring for Nine was Sea Patrol, 60 Minutes, Domestic Blitz, CSI, Lion: A Spy in the Den, State of Origin (pre-match), Getaway, Two and a Half Men, Nine News and A Current Affair. With a public holiday, temporary host Eddie McGuire and gangster videos, Nine had its best ACA figure for the year on Monday –won’t Tracy Grimshaw be happy about that? It ignited several misleading newspaper stories that suggested McGuire was a shot in the arm for the show. He was and he wasn’t. By the end of the week, when the novelty had worn off, it was attracting exactly the same figures as those hosted by Grimshaw, who returns tomorrow. The strength of Sea Patrol will give the network heart –now our most popular locally-produced drama (standby for season three announcement?). Nine will also be pleased by the performance of Domestic Blitz, now well ahead of Gladiators and BB. The Gordon Ramsay frenzy has now simmered, hovering between 1 – 1.1m. But Nine’s real woes are with Million Dollar Wheel of Fortune. The network has spent a fortune on a much-needed 5:30pm rival to Seven’s Deal or No Deal. It’s currently performing lower than Antiques Roadshow did, a cool 400,000 behind Andrew O’Keefe’s mystery cases. As a result, National Nine News is heading southward –except in Melbourne, where it has just won the 5th week in a row despite the low lead-in. Word of mouth on the show has not been stellar. If Nine pulls the plug don’t be surprised if Temptation finds a new home…

Forget about Gladiators and airport crims, Seven News is the star performer of the Seven Network this year. On Tuesday it hit a staggering 1.72m viewers –and that wasn’t even the public holiday. Unlike Nine, Seven clearly benefits from being a nationalised network where it controls all its affiliate stations. Better Homes and Gardens goes from strength to strength for Seven, also strong were Today Tonight, Australia’s Got Talent, Border Security, Surf Patrol, Desperate Housewives, All Saints, My Name is Earl, Home and Away and How I Met Your Mother. The return of The Amazing Race didn’t win its slot but remained competitive. Medical Emergency, probably wasted in a 9:30 slot, was thumped by a repeat of NCIS. Seven has on-going problems with its 7:30pm Sunday slot, giving 60 Minutes, and even Wild China, something of a free ride. Tonight it launches Battle of the Choirs aimed fair and square at family viewing. Earl did far better in its new Thursday slot than Sundays. Ugly Betty isn’t getting any surge in its second year. And as older viewers flock to the ABC on Saturdays, family viewers turn to Nine –leaving Seven floundering. It was third for the night.

The good news for TEN was all on Tuesday, with NCIS (1.57m) its biggest show of the week. Even the repeat did better than locally-produced shows. Law and Order: SVU and new Simpsons were its only other star performers, and SVU is about to wind up. TEN was hit hard by the long weekend with younger viewers out socialising. Sunday night it was fourth behind the ABC with its lowest ever audience for a Big Brother eviction. Only Friday Night Live remains consistent. Rove and Supernatural sunk. And on Monday when Nine and Seven boomed, TEN was a long way behind. On Saturday the network was fourth behind the ABC.

ABC News is a quiet achiever for the public broadcaster, clearly benefitting from a later timeslot and not competing head to head with Seven and Nine. But Spicks and Specks takes the prize as top show, just elbowing Wild China aside. The Gruen Transfer, Persuasion, Australian Story, Silent Witness, Spooks and the final Bed of Roses were all solid. The local drama effectively held its audience across all 6 eps. Saturday was so strong the ABC came second for the night. It may have been smart to move The Bill to Saturdays, but the replacement shows on Tuesdays have not fired. It was the network’s weakest night.

Buoyed by the public holiday and Top Gear (897,000), Monday night was SBS’ best.

Week 24

18 Responses

  1. Hmmmm….ABC and SBS’ Ratings are improving more than that of the Commercial Networks….

    It seems that the combination of both Public Networks are more viewable than Channel Ten.

  3. Thanks for the Olympic info David. I want to watch them but I feel I’d get boarded quickly, is it likely the other networks will have quality shows up against them?

    I’m watching Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach and love it, very original.

    I’m note getting much from ch9 apart from Sea Patrol, I hate most reality shows! and the US/UK shows I like for the most part I’ve already seen ’cause I don’t trust them to be aired locally in a timely manor!

  4. Nine has quite a few good shows at the moment so it is not surprising that it is doing well the ones I watch are

    Ramsey’s kitchen nightmares
    Domestic blitz
    Fire 000
    Search and rescue

    As for seven they haven’t really got anything worth watching I wish they would actually show new episodes of border security and as for ten the only show I watch on that is wait for it yes it is BIG BROTHER I love it

  5. yes neonkitten i’ve also noticed ads for things like the lazypatch and salad dressings which i have only ever seen on 10HD. so if thier sales spike that will give them some indication of how many people are watching 10HD, of course they’d have to extrapolate for all the people who saw the ads and didn’t purchase but still. ten may lose out to 9 and 7 on the normal channel but with HD channels it far surpasses them, the launch was planned and advertised unlike with 7, they had advertisers secured from the start, although they replay the same ads every ad break, they still have a decent number, 7 only showed ads for themselves at first and 7 and 9 still have far shorter ad breaks than usual. and the programs 10HD offers may have been cancelled from the regular channel but they are still better in my opinion then what they chose to keep. 10HD actually offers real alternative programming, it is not perfect but it far surpasses 9HD and 7HD, maybe when they start measuring ratings for this 10 will become more competitive.

  7. I notice in the last couple of weeks that Ten HD seems to be attracting a good number of advertisers now, with a few niche products in there amongst the standard fare.

    Just goes to prove that the almighty ratings numbers aren’t everything to advertisers. That’s something the whole industry might want to consider. Certainly the only losers from the whole silly addiction to ratings numbers are the viewers.

  8. Re Sea Patrol apparently it qualifies for a govt rebate to help cover costs and McElroy has said we would see Sea Patrol 3-6 at least. The ratings certainly justify a few more seasons.

  9. You are indeed correct! Oh for the days when everything was simple, lol.

    At any rate, ABC has never issued me with any figures for ABC2.

  11. The FFC funded the first two seasons of Sea Patrol on the basis that they were mini-series. It would be doubtful that the new Australian Screen Authority would fund a third series.

  12. Cheers Dave, thanks for clearing that up, the HD channels seem barely utilized, it will be great when ratings kicks in for them and some dollars come through. So much potential in these extra channels and 85% of the time they are just playing exactly the same thing. ABC 2 defiantly knows what the deal is, last week I was happy as larry when I saw Dr.Strangelove on and even today switching over and seeing Red Dwarf on and some great old classics is what these new channels is all about.

  13. Almost, they are official survey weeks so in this sense they are included.

    However, industry practice sees Olympic and Comm Games weeks put to one side. As ‘abnormal’ events they are of little use to advertisers in tracking national trends. They are viewed as something of an island.

    We should expect to see a figure without Olympic weeks to determine the true 2008 winner.

    OzTam is planning to survey HD channels, but there is nothing official yet. This is part of the reason The Night Cap was dropped. No ratings, no revenue, no show…

  14. lol Richtob, i think the people feel different. Its a couple of homegrown shows, sport/60 mins as well as Ramsey and Attenborough that are working.
    There are a lot more shows on TV than American sitcoms and series.
    Lancer I believe David said earlier that the Olympics aren’t included in the ratings system.

  17. Thats disgusting. There’s absolutely nothing worth watching on Nine while Seven has gem after gem in the likes of brilliant shows like HIMYM, Boston Legal, DH, LOST, and many many others. I guess this nation are suckers for mundane CBS cop shows and Ramsay.

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