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Ratings winners upstaged by Nine stoush

Seven again won the ratings week and TEN had some superb gains. But the story that had everybody talking last week was a brawl within Nine.

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tgaca11Controversy continued to dominate television for the second week in a row, this time as a public stoush between two Nine personalities reached fever pitch. While it saw audiences flock to the coverage, it wasn’t enough to stop Seven from winning the week with a routine week of strong programming. Yet it was TEN that continued significant gains.

Seven won Week 24 with 27.6% ahead of Nine’s 25.5% and TEN’s 24.5%. The ABC had 17.4% and SBS 5.0%.

For the third week in a row TEN won 3 key demo groups 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.

Strictly speaking TEN also won three nights this week: Sunday, Tuesday and Saturday (the latter was a ‘win tie’ with the ABC). Seven won Wednesday, Friday and  Nine won Monday and Thursday.

Seven won all cities except for a tie in Brisbane with Nine.

Seven News had a triumphant week with its Sunday edition taking 1.76m as the top show of the week. Its Monday – Friday edition averaged 1.69m (and nearly 2m on a public holiday). Its other top performers included Thank God You’re Here, Today Tonight, The Zoo, Find My Family, Desperate Housewives, Sunday Night, Criminal Minds, Better Homes and Gardens and All Saints. The return of Prison Break is now a fan-only affair at a slim 226,000. Brothers and Sisters is a quiet achiever, putting in a strong 954,000 for 9:30pm. Weekend Sunrise thrashed its Today rival at 446,000 -the highest of its kind all week. The network’s female-skewed Thursday line-up remains its weaker night with some shows due to conclude soon. Home and Away still has a fight on its hands, but surely after 21 years it has faced bigger threats.

Nine News Sunday was again #1 for Nine with 1.4m but it was the Gordon Ramsay and Tracy Grimshaw feud that propelled its weeknight News and A Current Affair, with the latter enjoying its best figures this year. On Tuesday, following Grimshaw’s defiant broadside the night before, it finally beat Today Tonight. Also strong were Sea Patrol, Getaway, RPA and a repeat of Two and a Half Men. A primetime Hot Seat did well with 1.22m. Nine’s Sunday and Tuesday line-ups took a beating -both of which feature homeMADE. On a public holiday eve, a once glorious CSI could only manage 809,000 -beaten by the ABC. The final Mentalist held at 1m viewers, but third in its slot.

TEN finished the week with the exact same share as the week before – but just 1% behind Nine. Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation is now unstoppable, at another 1.65m. So too is MasterChef Australia, hitting a high of 1.8m on a public holiday Monday. Two repeat eps of NCIS were also terrific, while Merlin and Recruits also performed. There are still challenges later in the week, that So You Think You Can Dance (US) is yet to remedy. Sunday’s The Biggest Loser is living up to its title, now barely hovering above what Harper’s Island was getting. Despite this, TEN still won Sunday (to think what it might have been…). Law & Order: SVU is still underperforming on a tough Wednesday night.

Another 1.42m for Spicks and Specks half of whom did not stick around without The Chaser to follow. ABC’s other big shows were New Tricks, Silent Witness, ABC News, Australian Story, The 7:30 Report, Catalyst and Four Corners. Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union premiered to 696,000. The network surged on Saturday when it tied for the night with TEN, quite a feat.

Top Gear Australia took another dip to 545,000. The new season of Flight of the Conchords was a modest 275,000. On Friday The Perfect Vagina‘s alert audience of 345,000 more than doubled its lead in of World News Australia 141,000, ensuring the late night timeslot for racy documentaries. Saturday was its best night with 397,000 for Richard Hammond: Engineering Connections.

Week 24

19 Responses

  1. I totally agree with mg.. as an Australian I am totally ashamed at the old cow chanel 9 has put on our TV screen. I doi not think she is pretty but that doesn’t realy bother me at all what is bothersome to me is that she is ugly from inside and is always unhappy and her lip curls on the floor. She is extrmely ruse and unfriendly to all who she interviews or talks about in general.. In other words she is a total B.

  2. Guys at 9 should wake up and realize that infact she is not a pig but an old and ugly cow which 9 has put as a host of a prime time telivision programm and me as a foreigner living in Australia wonder how has she got/kept that job, guys look at host of prime time tv overseas they are either brilliant or just great looking and She is neither.

    Ask her to get a job out of Australia in the same dept and you will realize what the people at 9 are putting the Australian public through which is a cheap crap.

    Thanks Gordan, you actually had balls to tell the truth the rest are of all are scared to mention we dont watch 9 because it is ugly looking

    9 you want to get back your ratings . think replacing her and may be guys will do well.

  4. just making a final post to say that, Neighbours is doing great things with the new characters of Donna & Callum, a few more characters like that, and the show wont have any more problems.

  5. Pressure seven
    if enough people ask why seven haven’t announced a launch date it will happen
    how else is it going to happen?

    As for 1 its just pathetic that only some of the country has it

    Freeview need to get their s@?t together if they really really really wanted to they could take pay head on but they dont do they

  6. I actually quite like the idea of seeing running like Desperate Housewvies 40ish/ 1 hour a year, it works well for D.Wives, I just dont think the Neighbours international sales would allow it to happen.

    as for a relaunch, I actually dont disagree, take it off for a 4-6 weeks, give the show time create new lasting characters, without having to do it on screen, its not always a good move for a show, but I could see Neighbours doing that, if the Ramsays dont lead to a large increase in ratings.

    However TBH if the Ramsays dont lead to a ratings increase I can see TEN giving up on it, there are only so many revamps a show can have, and still be on the air.

  7. off topic I know, but the pic reminded me. How awful is the ACA set/background? The 1980’s versions had a set almost idential, but it wasnt on green/blue screen.

  8. @ Pauli – i think its fairly obvious that we’ll never get a true indication of what people are watching, however as the industry are working off the current system, that is always going to be what influences network’s choices in terms of commissioning/replacing/moving shows.

    @ Michael – something we’re all wondering but posting the same comment on every story isn’t going to make their second channel come along any faster. Hell, half the country is still waiting for ONE to start in their region!

  9. Excellent result for Ten and Seven, not so much for Nine. Will be interesting to see whether Random Acts of Kindness can reinvigorate their Sunday night, or crash and burn like homemade.

    Michael, I think you’re flogging a dead horse there…

  10. Yer I can see what your saying about ditching the Friday episode. I’d still have it on for half an hour a day 4 days a week just not on a Friday. Maybe they could have two episodes on a Thursday instead and one episode at 7.30, after Home and away like Coronation street some nights in the uk.

    7.30pm- Coronation street
    8pm- Eastenders
    8.30pm- Coronation street

    We could have…

    6.30pm- Neighbours
    7pm-Home and away
    7.30pm- Neighbours

  12. I think Neighbours should be axed and a relaunch should be done. Like a Neighbours 2nd generation or something like that, In all seriousness, it could do a bit of a Desperate Housewives kind of premise, except without the whole prestine houses and housewife focus etc and of course in a half hour daily soap. Just glamour it up and set it in a prestige suburb in Sydney. Have 4 or 5 families living on the same street all of whom know eachother well. Have the ‘oldie’ resident like a harold or lou, or like Mrs Mckluscky from desperate housewives living in the street. Really Desperate Housewives could be called Neighbours, Neighbours is all over the place, bit of a mess

  13. @Geroge, some bold suggestions in your post, I dont think Neighbours would go 40×60, for the simple fact the international market (even more so the UK) is very happy to get Neighbours 5 days a week, and would do alot to make sure it stays that way, as it would leave them with alot of holes in the schedule.

    Neighbours ratings have picked up over the past month, but year on year there is not much growth, but a stronger TEN schedule will help it no question.

    Neighbours has been in a constant state of revamp for the past couple of years now, with a high cast turn over, I am hoping that the new Ramsays, can stick around long term and dont end up like the Parkers.

    Not sure about Sunday – Thursday, im not sure how well the Sunday episode would do, but for the reason I gave above, Neighbours does need to be 5 nights a week, I just wish the ratings for Friday episodes were closer to the other 4 days.

  14. @Wamdue:

    I reckon having Neighbours run Sun-Thu could work, but I reckon Neighbours will pick up soon with the increasing strength of the shows which surround it on TEN (with the exception of The Simpsons repeats).
    I reckon by next year Neighbours will be averaging ~950,000 again if TEN News gets moved to 5:30.

    Either way, Neighbours needs to be fixed up big time. I can’t stand watching it at all because it’s just absolutely cringeworthy. It looks extremely rushed. I personally reckon a 40×60 series each year would work much better than the weeknightly eps mainly because more time will be able to be put into the production of each episode, and they won’t need to cover as many storylines each year, which sadly is one of the problems of Neighbours – constantly repeated storylines.

  15. Everything dips ön a friday. I dont know if we are the norm but we are never home that night. Drinks after work, shopping, dinner out, clubbing. Thats the norm in this household anyways

  17. you have to wonder though- to what extent are these ratings accurate, sure they give us a basic view, but I think tv stations take them as solid fact, and as a result kick off some great shows, and replace them with copies of high-rating shows from other channels.

  18. I think congratulations are in order for TEN and the ABC. 🙂 I thought the demo wins by TEN were just a couple of flukes, but 3 weeks in a row must mean something now.
    TEN are much stronnger this year, and I have a feeling they may start regularly beating Nine as we approach the years end.

    Though ABC will probably stay in 4th position, I reckon their audience share will increase a fair bit.

    TGYH, BH&G and MasterChef are really coming neck-to-neck with eachother! As we come closer to the finale I reckon they will be surpassed by MasterChef.

  19. I have a question Monday – Thursday Neighbours shows some ratings growth scoring between 803,000 & 857,000, and then Friday it dips to 730,000.

    Ive said on a Neighbours forum, the best way for Neighbours to improve its weekly average would be for it, to ditch the Friday episode, because honestly this happens pretty much every week, the Friday episode drags the weekly average down.

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