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TEN wins second historic week

It's been three years since TEN won a ratings week, and only the second time since OzTAM began in 2001. Meanwhile Nine comes third in a week with State of Origin.

msrNetwork TEN has won the ratings week for only the second time since OzTAM people meters started in 2001.

The last time it won was April 2006 on the back of a week with The Biggest Loser finale leading into Big Brother and Thank God You’re Here.

This week it again won with reality television, the king hit MasterChef Australia. The show was number one for every one of its six nights this week powering to 2.36m viewers on Thursday. Unlike 2006, its share also gets a modest boost from having ONE HD.

As a result it won the week with 26.4% ahead of Seven’s 24.8% and Nine’s 24.5%. The ABC had 15.6% and SBS 8.7%.

TEN stormed home in the key demo groups 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54. It won Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Nine won Wednesday and Saturday while Seven won Friday. TEN won Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth while Nine won Sydney and Brisbane.

MasterChef Australia was the week’s #1 show with 2.19m viewers. The show almost single handedly won the week for TEN, were it not for Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Recruits and Merlin. Also performing well were Rove, The Simpsons, NCIS and Melbourne International Great Debate. The season return of Rush was both promising and disappointing. Its 1.16m was a good figure for the network, but the huge switch off from MasterChef does not bode well for coming weeks. TEN quickly slated a repeat late on Saturday night as a result. Neighbours had a particularly strong week, buoyed by high stakes storylines and hitching a ride on Masterchef‘s success. On Friday it had a rare defeat over Home and Away (surely, the first in living memory?) on a night when it is traditionally low. A number of other shows failed to gain traction from big lead ins, a concern as its juggernaut concludes. Ironically, the weekly win for TEN comes in the same week that programmer David Mott said he could “not give a rat’s arse” about winning total people, but demographics. Thankfully, they were also very strong.

Seven was under attack from all corners this week, but held firm thanks to a diverse programming slate and the strength of its 6-7pm hour. Packed to the Rafters led its week with 1.79m while Seven News, Today Tonight, Dancing with the Stars, Surf Patrol, Grey’s Anatomy, All Saints and Better Homes and Gardens all performed. Against heavy competition, the premiere of Airways was decent (though it too got a weekend repeat) while True Beauty suprised with a good result. Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother will need to perform better this week without TEN’s reality contest excusing its figures. Bones took a hit this week.

Nine landed third for the second week in a row but to do so in a week with State of Origin is unheard of. Where might it have finished without it? The match nabbed 1.84m and won Wednesday night for the network. From there the good news was slight: Sunday & Saturday’s Nine News, Sea Patrol, Random Acts of Kindness and a Saturday Harry Potter film were its best acts. Regular performers 60 Minutes, Getaway were under attack. THIS afternoon was axed after lowly figures at 219,000 but there is better news with the Sunday edition of Today gaining ground. To distract from a gloomy week David Gyngell trumpted the network’s forthcoming GO! channel.

ABC was also fighting tough competition with reality TV and sport distracting its audience. The final New Tricks was again its biggest drawcard on 1.23m. Elsewhere, Australian Story, Spicks and Specks, ABC News, Trial And Retribution, The Chaser’s War On Everything, Nature’s Great Events and Grand Designs did well. With a poor performance on Tuesday, the network will benefit from the return of Q & A soon. This week both The Cook and the Chef and The Chaser indicated their last ever episodes.

In a strong week for SBS, Top Gear was tops with 742,000 while 2009 Ashes Series and Tour de France are keeping sports viewers glued.

Week 29.

22 Responses

  1. At last a reality show, Where the Judges are not spiteful to get the ratings.All of their critism throughout the series were genuine but constructive . The contestants appeared not to be nasty about each other.Competative yes nasty no.Congratulations not just to Julie but the Judges and Channel 10. One day Channel 9 and Channel 7 will realise that there are other people out their who want to whatch good programmes that are not sport or headline grabbers.

  2. Verdict is poor and Julie is not a deserved winner. I think something else appart from skill was running in judge mind. Only they know for they selected Julie as Master chef.

    Good program crap ending. Put morderate judges, otherwise it will become a crap program.

  3. yay!! go ten! its about time ten won a week since they have the best shows on even when masterchef isnt on. bring on tonights finale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. Brilliant!

    Very happy to see that TEN has won the ratings, although with MasterChef Australia (a show I don’t support).

    Good to see TEN doing well!

  5. Congratulations Ten! Let’s see if it can keep it up for the rest of the year.
    @ FJ: the next rugby league rights will be split into NRL regular season, finals, State of Origin and international test match packages, so anything can happen.

  6. Cool that TEN won!
    I just can’t believe that they only won by such a small amount considering they’ve got a show on their hands which was pulling in over 2 million each evening for over an hour.. ah well.. it’s a win for them none the less..
    Shame they’re not allowed to celebrate their win.. otherwise, they’d be seen as very hypocritical hehe 😛

  7. A heartening win for TEN after a horrid 2008, demonstrating the huge rewards of huge risks. I don’t think anyone thought MasterChef would be this big – most people thought it would fail.

    No doubt they will return to being third for the rest of the year, but they’ll probably be a more competitive third rather than an “almost slipping to fourth” third, given their current momentum and the slow demise of Nine. A lot of it rides on the success of The 7PM Project. I really hope it works out for them so the ratings doesn’t go back to the traditional and more boring two-horse race.

  8. I hope the NRL ditch 9 next rights deal. 7 wanted it last time and it would get better ratings on a network that people watch. Like what happened when AFL went to 9 when 9 were still the one.

  9. good work for ten with the win for the wk, but I can’t see them surviving without masterchef and merlin finishes nxt wk and tayg will help for another month and its all down hill from there, so seven should climb back to ratings glory as more big shows keep coming back with city homicide and a bunch of factuals programs that they do very well at and i think there new comedy hour on thurs looks promising but one thing I am worried about is the low ratings night its on.

  10. I hope Ten can keep up the momentum by greenlighting some more reasonable quality content. Of the reality/game-show genre I think Masterchef was a master-stroke. I was able to watch something in a genre I normally avoid like the plague. The interesting cooking challenges, people personal best rather than stabby competition and a critic who was able to talk in depth, occasionally at length, the characteristics of foods texture in the mouth in primetime was a bizare hit. A perfect storm.

  11. Nine’s bosses must wonder what they need to do when they can only get third on a SoO week (although as noted they did win Qld and NSW).

    Well done Ten. You deserve the win, when everyone doubted the success of Masterchef this time last year.

  12. Congrats to Ten.
    Nine has to be gutted, even with SOO they came 3rd.How the once mighty have fallen, now if only they would admit their progamming sucks.Their total disregard for the viewing public has come home to roost.
    Seven have learnt to respect viewers.
    Take note Ten , we don’t need pretty faces and wannabe models/celebs, we like Masterchef and real people and your choice to have judges that judge has worked.
    I am so over “judges that wannabe the star turn”

  13. Don’t forget that Neighbours on Friday also beat ACA in the head to head, which has never happened that I can recall.

    6 Neighbours Ten 998,000 304,000 300,000 190,000 97,000 108,000
    7 Home And Away Seven 981,000 291,000 266,000 207,000 109,000 108,000
    8 A Current Affair Nine 979,000 272,000 304,000 225,000 102,000 75,000

    Congrats to 10, they certainly deserve it, having taken a huge risk with the removal of Big Brother and an even bigger risk to fill it with a cooking show of all things, amazing, never thought MC would work. Perhaps 10 need to focus on family friendly viewing, even as match as David Mott couldn’t care about it winning all demos isn’t so bad after all esp when you can produce a weekly total people win!

  14. Nine should not be ahppy at all. But Saturday’s win was pretty good, along with Wednesdays.

    Well done to Ten, however it was only because of one show. Either way, a win is a win. They should enjoy the glory while it lasts, because after tonight, it’s all down hill!

    Seven should be scared. I think they’ll be going down the path of Nine in the next year.

  15. Thank goodness there is only one episode of the crockpot to go. The fact the a channel can win a week solely because of one show really illustrates that demo’s is the talk of the losers. Not enough people nor choice. When we have another 10 channels & another 5-10 mil viewers demo’s will be the benchmark. Unlike the pathetic 1hd, go! & similar channels may be the winning future of the industry. 9 maybe the first to benefit.

  16. Very impressive win for Ten, thanks primarily to Masterchef. They should be in for a big night tonight, but from Monday onwards they are in for a rude wake up call. Their schedule is pretty pathetic post Masterchef.

    Absolute shocker for Nine. 3rd in an Origin week! With key shows such as Dance your ass off and Australia’s Perfect Couple to premiere this week, their fortunes don’t look like improving in the foreseeable future.

  17. So happy TEN won the week and a well deserved win it was, Oh yes how the mighty Nine has fell, 3rd in SOO week, I have to wonder if the GO! announcement was timed to distract from the success of MC.

    Undoubtedly TEN will slip to 3rd in coming weeks, I think Rush will do better having gone up against the GA final this week.

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