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Nine’s Sunday touchdown

The Storms v Warriors match was pivotal in Nine's Sunday win over Seven. And Melbourne flocked to Underbelly.

‘Thankyou Rugby League’, is what Nine will be thinking today after a decisive Sunday win over the Seven Network.

The Storm v Warriors match gave Nine a perfect lead-in to its evening line-up and managed to snatch back the night it lost to Seven the week before.

Nine’s 29.8% share was a triumph over Seven, which came third on 22.5% behind TEN’s 22.8%.

Buoyed by the NRL, National Nine News hasn’t enjoyed figures of 1.63m for longer than many care to remember. That didn’t stop Seven sending out a Press Release today reminding media of Seven’s extensive lead in News and Current Affairs for 2008.

Those figures helped Battlefronts to a good launch with 1.28m ahead of The Outdoor Room‘s 1.18m. Next week will be tougher. But it was the perennial 60 Minutes that won the night with 1.71m and a favourable response to some of its better stories this year.

Melbourne flocked to Underbelly, the top show of the night. An average of 584,000 was a strong performance given many had already seen the show illegally. It dented the audience of Seven’s Dancing with the Stars, and even the ABC’s Midsomer Murders. Doctor Who fans are loyal regardless -it gets 1.1m every week.

Australian Idol managed to retain more of its audience than Dancing did, at 1.22m. Viewers saw Kyle Sandilands hijack Mark Holden’s “Touchdown” catchphrase, which caught producers so off guard that there was not even a title card at the ready. Holden told the radio host today, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but a cheque would be better.”  Following Idol, not everyone stuck around for Rove at 825,000.

Seven has already responded to the softer Sunday figures, hurriedly scheduling double episodes of Private Practice for September 28.

But wins are fleeting in television, with Seven poised to topple Nine’s Monday line-up tonight. What was Nine thinking scheduling a 2003 Jack Nicholson movie?

Week 38

5 Responses

  1. “What was Nine thinking scheduling a 2003 Jack Nicholson movie?”

    Hey it’s not like Nine has much material now that Ramsay has tanked. Plus ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ is a great movie. I’ll be watching it.

  2. Yes, but how ridiculous was the pixilation of… are we allowed to say who? I felt sorry for those that hadn’t seen the show at that point. Missing the characters inflections that were impotant to the scene.

  3. I would have thought 584.000 was a pathetic figure for Underbelly, given its notoriety and the fact that it was a Sunday night. Though as I’ve always maintained, most who wanted to see it saw it long ago. Downloads have well and truly gone mainstream.

    The other turn-off factor for Underbelly was the double-whammy that it was already well known that it would be censored… err “edited” (sorry, but pixellating a character’s face, that’s going further than just “editing”… it was more like COMEDY actually 🙂 and that only five episodes would be screened. The “what’s the point” factor would have been high.

    I think it was a stupid move by Nine to air it under these circumstances and in that form.

  4. They were thinking we give up! Same as Seven did against Underbelly.

    Shame about rove I’ve just started watching again recently and last nights was pretty good fun.

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