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Monday surge for SBS and ABC

We must be getting ready for summer. Viewers swarmed to the public broadcasters on Monday.

Maybe it’s a sign of things to come over summer. SBS and ABC had a strong Monday.

The return of the British Top Gear came racing down the ratings freeway, attracting a whopping 1.06m viewers -third in its timeslot. Last week’s Aussie version was further down the road with 662,000 viewers. As if it didn’t already know it, that’s a clear message to SBS about the popularity of the Clarkson, Hammond and May.

SBS managed an 8.8% share for Monday, it’s best in quite a while.

ABC had some strong wins with The Howard Years, now really beginning to tighten the screws on the Howard / Costello differences. With 1.080m viewers it almost tied City Homicide‘s 1.089m for second place. Enough Rope‘s Angelina Jolie / Clint Eastwood interview won its slot with 1.06m viewers. ABC ended in third place overall for Monday.

The top show for the night was Today Tonight, with the ‘final’ interview with Barbara Williams, on 1.59m nationally while A Current Affair with a Roberta Williams interview in East Coast editions took 1.02m. TT won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

TEN’s good news was Good News Week at 877,000 viewers across its two hours. That was light years ahead of the supposedly-missed 90210. Just 480,000 viewers. That spells doom for its 7:30 Sunday slot next week. Expect a change before then…. Meanwhile humble Out of the Blue impressed with 477,000 at 10:30pm, suggesting TEN programmers are either brilliant at getting the mood and timeslot right, or complete fools in wasting it so late. You decide.

Finally, have we seen the last of Out of the Question? It took 461,000. It can’t be too expensive to produce, and Seven seems happy to put money into Andrew O’Keefe’s new venture on 7HD (it premieres on Sunday). Will they be prepared to give Glenn Robbins another season?

Week 48

7 Responses

  1. I too watched Brit Top Gear and loved it. I can’t love the local version. Case in point. Aus version had a petrol versus diesel story, but didn’t give us a result. They showed us pretty scenery and some shenanigans … but made no conclusions so it was meaningless. They keep doing these comparisons like Holden versus Ford but then squib it and call it a draw. So many stories go nowhere.

    Brit Top Gear had a petrol economy comparison with supercars, which was funny already because it’s such a crazy idea. The story had a point – they showed which supercars guzzled the most fuel because we saw them conk out, one by one, on the race track.

    It’s all car porn, but the British Top Gear has a plot.

  2. ‘As if it didn’t already know it, that’s a clear message to SBS about the popularity of the Clarkson, Hammond and May.’

    and/or the unpopularity of the cynical choices of presenters made by the local producers. And the dull stories, lack of narrative etc etc. I think it’s more than just Messrs Clarkson, Hammond and May.

  3. What a terrific final for GNW. Looking forward to seeing them embrace the screen next year.

    All I can do is laugh at 90210 and its ratings… why even bother… seriously (no pun intended).

  4. As if no one knew the real Top Gear’s return wouldn’t be big – especially after the awful Aussie version.

    You think maybe 90210’s fans went and downloaded the rest of the eps after Ten axed it prematurely? Maybe that’s why the rating was low…

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