★★★★★ 0/5

Seven packed with hits

Buoyed by its big new drama, Seven won the week with 29.4% ahead of Nine's 26.7% and TEN's 21.1%.

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It was the week ASTRA and Seven got into a stoush over AFL, gardening gurus came out fighting, SBS took its funding campaign to the people, Today Tonight apologised to a dating a dating agency and Lateline apologised to the Corbys, WIN TV sacked a news chief, David Koch stumbled over the marvels of “fasttracking v downloading,” we lost a veteran actor with a huge list of credits, and our first gardening celebrity, while actor Mark Priestley was laid to rest.

And it was another win for Seven, with 29.4% in Week 36 of ratings ahead of Nine’s 26.7% and TEN’s 21.1%.

The ABC had 18.0% and SBS 4.8%.

Seven’s win continues a push from Olympics momentum with its newest drama, Packed to the Rafters, the highest-rated show of the week with 2.04m viewers. It led an embarrassment of riches with Border Security, RSPCA Animal Rescue, City Homicide, Seven News, The Force, Criminal Minds, Home and Away, Today Tonight, Find my Family, Crash Investigation, All Saints and The Outdoor Room. But the move to Sundays for Dancing with the Stars has not come without some losses. A younger-skewed season premiered in skimpy skirts to 1.33m viewers against tough competition. Make me a Supermodel continues to struggle to find a decent audience on Thursdays -it is the network’s weaker night. The other show which didn’t benefit from any Olympics promotion is Alan Sugar: The Apprentice.

Nine’s best for the week remains its perennial 60 Minutes at 1.56m viewers -no doubt helped by Seven and TEN fighting for a similar variety audience. Its other strong performers were Domestic Blitz, Two and Half Men and Getaway. The Strip had an impressive 1.45m launch, better than the 1.1m viewers who came to the one-off telemovie Scorched. Sadly, Australian drama was beaten by British on the ABC. Mornings with Kerri-Anne Kennerley is making good inroads into The Morning Show, including a win on Tuesday. But numbers are dropping for Wipeout, Hole in the Wall and David Attenborough. Nine’s decision to drip-feed new shows out of the Olympics as opposed to a brash, head-on fight may ultimately cost it dearly.

Australian Idol held against Seven’s dancers to nab 1.31m viewers -a good result on a tough night. An average of around 1.2m viewers for its semi-finals shows TEN was right to power through these and get to the finals. But the real interest was in their two new shows. Rush premiered to 1.16m viewers in a 9:30pm timeslot, against obvious interest in All Saints this week. It was a good start, and better than Taken Out has had in its premiere week. It started with 851,000 viewers on Monday but ended with 672,000 by Friday -miles behind Seven and Nine. There were better results for NCIS, Rove, and both Law & Order franchises. TEN’s Sydney V Kangaroos match also topped 1.1m viewers. The real disaster was Friday when TEN couldn’t peak past 684,000. Does anybody really care about America’s Next Top Model?

Midsomer Murders was best for the ABC at 1.31m, just ahead of Spicks and Specks on 1.30m. Elsewhere, Doctor Who, Wire in the Blood, Four Corners and The Hollowmen did well. New comedy Very Small Business did ok at 9:30pm with 735,000. The ABC also beat TEN on Monday night.

SBS’ share for the week is a disappointment given it returned several popular shows.  Top Gear series 2 hit 907,000. The Aussie version should attract big interest when it launches later this month.

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Week 36

12 Responses

  5. spunkeymonkeycaesar, primeval shouldn’t be on that list, it is an english show and aired in america in january and february, nine didn’t have to wait for it to air anywhere, they could have shown it ages ago. infact the dvd was supposed to come out last week but nine pushed it back a month coz they still haven’t aired it, not that a month is enough time to air 7 episodes, but maybe they’ll push it back yet again coz there is still no sign of it getting an airdate.

  6. 9 has definitely been pitiful the last few weeks. This week will be quite a test for them, with somewhat decent programing. I dont think they should be relying so heavily on fast tracked shows as well, im tipping Fringe to be a massive bomb here.

  7. taking mcleods off air was a massive mistake, But nine are like that these days, it seems they panic all the time about shows. Just give them a decent run and raitings will pick up. Nine is going down hill fast. Not the station it used to be. Kerry packer would be outraged!

  8. Nothing for channel 9 to show for another few weeks? Did you have a look at the old missing in action list? They had the most unaired shows in total. If they really wanted to, they could erase some shows from that list by airing some of them for the next few weeks ’til the rest come from the US. A lot of their movies have been doing rather bad in the ratings, worse than those other shows did before being taken off the air.

  9. ch9 is stuck until some of it’s new US shows start up over there, it doesn’t seem to have much until the end of the month, maybe they should have stuck with McLeod’s Daughters for a few more weeks or bought on some of the shows it’s been holding onto for the last year to fill the gap? Showing movies mid week is not cutting it. For Gods sake show the final two Canal Road episodes, please!

  10. I must say I have to disagree with you both David and Craig, as Nine really have had pretty much no choice but to “drip feed” us their new shows post Olympics. Many of their new shows; The Mentalist, Fringe, Primeval, Hell’s Kitchen and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA they’ve been waiting on the US to air them before they can be Fasttracked.

    As for their other shows which are locally produced, which Nine has control over they’ve already premiered; The Strip, Scorched, Hole In The Wall with Battlefronts to come next week, and The Chopping Block, and The Waiting Room to come soon.

    Consequently, as a result of Nine having no control over this matter whatsoever yes they have given Seven new shows time to find an audience, and I’m sure Nine is well aware of the situation at hand, however can’t do anything to prevent that from occuring.

    As for Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, it will be an interesting test to see how it rates against City Homicide.

  11. Makes you wonder why Samantha Armytage would consider leaving Seven for Nine. Although 60 minutes would be a plum job for her. Though Nine have a tendancey only to care about their female reporters until they lose their looks. If I were her I’d give nine a miss and get the TT job she is too nice for those back stabbers at nine.

  12. I really dont know what Nine were thinking drip feeding us their new shows out of the Olympics, all its done is given sevens new shows a couple of weeks to find an audience, Nine should have tacked seven head on that Monday night after the Closing Ceremony, I think come the end of November when the year is being analysed they will regret not doing that….big test tomorrow night with the return of Gordon Ramsay to see whether they killed the goose that laid the golden egg by exposing him so much in the first half of the year…

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