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Nine wins ratings week

It was a close shave but Nine still won the ratings week thanks largely to Underbelly and the Logies, while TEN's new shows performed well.

ublThe Nine Network has won the week in ratings.

Buoyed by Underbelly and the Logie Awards, the network clinched the week with a tight 27.9% to Seven’s 27.7% and TEN’s 22.5%. The ABC had 16.7% and SBS 5.3%.

It is only the second ratings win for Nine so far this year versus nine survey wins for Seven. Nine won two key demographic groups 18-49 and 25-54 with TEN snaring 16-39.

Nine won Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights with Seven taking the remainder of the week. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with Adelaide and Perth falling to Seven.

Underbelly’s finale was the top show of the week with 2.07m for Nine, capping off a stellar performance of the drama for Nine with only two episodes under the magic 2m mark. No wonder Nine is looking towards a third series. The 51st TV Week Logie Awards was also strong for Nine, with the Red Carpet Arrivals managing 1.7m and the Awards securing 1.57m across its lengthy telecast. Also strong were Nine News Sunday, 60 Minutes (a clear winner over Sunday Night for its first head to head stoush). But despite the strong Sunday and Monday performances, Tuesday’s light entertainment night took a big fall. On Thursday the NRL Footy Show continues to struggle, even beaten by Q & A in the Sydney market. Nine also pulled You Saved My Life from schedule, replaced by more Two and a Half Men. Some good news for Hot Seat beating Deal or No Deal in Sydney and Melbourne and Friday as well as a national win for Nine in the 5:30 slot (including Extra).

A buy-in special A Lion Called Christian was tops for Seven with 1.58m, just ahead of Seven News (Sunday) and Thank God You’re Here. Better Homes and Gardens and Today Tonight continue to perform.  Sunrise took some big wins over Today which would be problematic for Nine if it gathers strength. Most of Seven’s post 8:30 shows are now taking under 1.2m viewers.

TEN had a number of reasons to smile again this week. Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation was the surprise hit of the week with 1.64m viewers and the #1 show for Tuesday. With NCIS the network nearly stole the night. Merlin’s 1.38m also debuted strongly. But the encouraging news was for MasterChef Australia which took some solid audiences in its first week of challenges. If it can hold them TEN will be delighted and validate the network’s faith in a format many were dubious about. Recruits also premiered well but didn’t hold the audience through to Good News Week.

1.25m watched Spicks and Specks and 1.21m for The Gruen Transfer. Weekend shows including Midsomer Murders and New Tricks also took big audiences, but Dirt Game was hit hard by the Logies. The 20th anniversary of Media Watch was impressive at 911,000.

Top Gear‘s repeat did brilliantly for SBS at 991,000 before the local version returns this week.

Week 19

9 Responses

  1. Ten doesn’t care about all people results – most of their shows are of little appeal to the over 55s which bring the big overall numbers to many of Nine and Seven’s offerings. Masterchef didn’t win the timeslot all people every night but was still coming first in the demos that matter to advertisers.

    Nine have to rebuild their schedule from the bottom up and find some new talent in programming – so many recycled and tired ideas. Big deal that another quiz show from Eddie got close to Deal or no Deal – they’re both losing to Ten’s news anyway…how about something we haven’t seen before in that slot?

  2. Considering 9 were at 38% on Sunday and still leading 7 by 8% after Monday, the win should have been larger. Unless something drastic happens at 9 with programming, they’ll be losing week after week from now on, possibly 3rd regularly. (They seriously need an overhaul. The programmers should be sacked and replaced with people that actually care about TV and satisfying viewers).

  3. 9 will not have Underbelly and the Logies this week, maybe they could put on more repeats of two and a half men seven days a week. Watch out for the ABC to get some good numbers soon.

  4. A very close win and a surprise to me but the telling tail is with 11 of the ratings weeks gone Seven leads 9/2 and Nine just doesn’t seem to have any answers with it’s current line up.

  5. Seven must be a little frustrated that they’re saddled with Monday Night Football this week. Desperate Housewives has been pulling a steady 1mil every week, but it’ll be interesting to see if it bounces back and reclaims a couple of hundred thousand viewers in the wake of Underbelly’s departure.

    Any idea what Nine has planned for the 8.30pm slot after this week?

  6. It was a win…of sorts.
    What must be a concern for 9 is without the logies they would of lost. Without underbelly they would of lost. This week sees neither. Homemade may help cover the loss of one of those shows, but not both. I think 9 is in trouble and how bad it is will be made clear this week.
    Not sure 10 can be that happy either, after all the hype of the last 2 weeks, they are still a very distant 3rd.
    Seems the safe, bland programing of 7 is unfortunately what people want. 4th commercial channel anyone?

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