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Seven wins as TEN is taken out

TEN tried 4 new formats last week with mixed results. Both Nine and TEN lost ground while Seven keeps surging from the Olympics.

It was the week that Ernie Dingo and Kyle Sandilands had a spat on radio, the ABC renewed its push for a kids’ channel, Access 31 was put on the market, TEN picked up women’s netball from FOX Sports, GTV9 won a Heritage listing, Nine axed its Euro correspondent, Underbelly won the right to start screening in Victoria (sort of), TEN and Seven fought over AFL sponsors and a 17yo reality contestant took a stand on her show’s conduct.

And it was another big win for Seven with 29.9% in Week 37 over Nine’s 25.4% and TEN’s 20.6%. The ABC had 18.9% and SBS 5.3%.

With a convincing lead, Seven won in all cities. In weekly wins, the network is moving toward an unassailable position which will soon be hard for Nine to topple.

Packed to the Rafters was again the top show for the week with 1.96m viewers, a huge vote of confidence for Australian drama. It was closely followed by Find my Family on 1.91m. But it was Seven’s renewed Sunday that gave the network smiles, finally toppling Nine’s big night. The AFL lead in sure helped, but can it do the same with Underbelly screening in Victoria? Other winners with Seven were RSPCA Animal Rescue, City Homicide, The Force, Border Security, Seven News, Today Tonight, The Outdoor Room, Criminal Minds, Dancing with the Stars, Medical Emergency, Crash Investigation Unit, Home and Away and All Saints. The debut of Outback Wildlife Rescue managed 1.1m viewers, beaten by Domestic Blitz. Controversy for Supermodel managed to do what tried and true storytelling can’t sustain –regular audiences over the 1m mark.

Nine’s best for the week was the show it once dumped after one night of lousy figures –Two and a Half Men on 1.4m. It bettered 60 Minutes, Domestic Blitz, Wipeout and The Strip –which dropped to 1.24m in its second week. Nine also watched as interest in David Attenborough and Gordon Ramsay waned. But Nine’s kneejerk reaction in moving Kitchen Nightmares USA may have been too reactionary -he returns to new restaurant makeovers this week. Hole in the Wall is hanging on with 1m viewers, but it would seem its 1.55m debut was merely a curiosity factor for many. The debut of The View and Ellen trailed Dr. Phil and Oprah (The View doesn’t air in Perth or Adelaide) but likely to build and give TEN some headaches.

TEN unleashed 4 new formats this week with a disappointing weekly share for the network. Nothing on TEN went over 1.2m. No doubt the network will view the week as something of a period of change. It was Australian Idol that just inched to the top of the pack with 1.19m viewers. It dropped from the previous week’s 1.31m –the weekly live sing-offs begin tonight. Just behind Idol were NCIS, Kenny’s World, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and TEN’s AFL: St Kilda V Collingwood. Broadly speaking numbers were soft for Rush, Bondi Recue: Bali, Rove, 90210 and even The Simpsons. But the real problem remains Taken Out, losing traction from Neighbours, and down to 581,000 on Friday. In brighter news, TEN actually won Saturday thanks to AFL.

Spicks and Specks’ 1.35m was best for the ABC, which beat TEN on Monday and Wednesday. Midsomer Murders gave the commercials considerable grief, even beating CSI: Miami. Doctor Who maintains a loyal audience every single week. Elsewhere ABC News, Four Corners, Australian Story, Enough Rope With Andrew Denton, Wire In The Blood, The Hollowmen, The 7.30 Report, The New Inventors and The Bill were all strong.

‘Classic’ Top Gear did well for SBS with 865,000 viewers, beating David Attenborough and The 7:30 Report on Monday.

Week 37

11 Responses

  1. I was looking forward to seeing the Netball International Series. I’m angry that it is going to be on Channel 10 – and they can’t even show it live. Like a lot of other people in regional areas, we don’t get Channel 10. We have WIN which is choosing not to show the netball, at least not on Saturday 20th – and I’m guessing we won’t see any of it. Another case of those people in the bush being forgotten about. Thanks for nothing Channel 10.

  2. Will be quite interesting to see the impact Underbelly has on 9’s shares this week. I suspect s stronger figure in Melbourne, but nationally it could be quite similar.

  3. I love your Sunday rating recaps David and ITA that it’s looking like Seven has this year won, it will be interesting how the new fasttracked US shows go on all networks.

    For the year is ch10 behind the ABC?

  4. You would think with the poor broadcasting of the olympics and the controversy with the AFL taking priority, people would stop watching Seven but clearly they don’t. In my opinion the controversy along with the untruthful Today Tonight stories was just as negative as the publicity of the changes at nine in 2006/ 2007.

    If we saw the total shares for the 55+, I wouldn’t be surprised if Seven had more than 60% as Seven is the oldies network now. They don’t really seem to warm to Nine’s new shows which are doing well with younger people. As far as I know Nine is beating Seven in all demos under 55 for year to date (excluding olympics and easter) and winning 18-49 and 25-54 with TEN taking out 16-39. Most of the top programs in the 16-39 and 18-49 age groups are 9 and 10 dominated which would be keeping the networks happy especially for advertising. Both networks need to fix Mondays and consider skewing more older viewers especially Nine. Nine wanted younger viewers and now they have them.

    Of all Seven shows currently on air, I like Packed to The Rafters and still watch City Homicide and Home and Away as well as some disney ones but my other favourites are off-air for the time being. There are too many factual programs on Seven and DWTS is on the wrong night.

  5. Ten Picked Up Netball from Fox Sports? There was no confirmation of this, only that Australian Matches (which have never been on Fox Sports) will be on Ten – unless you have heard otherwise.

  6. The olympics have really helped Seven in a huge way. Pre olympics they were struggling. Thank goodness they won’t have them again for a long time. Anyway looks like thanks to the games Seven will win the year although Nine may win in the younger demographics which will be a great stepping stone for 2009.

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