Feelgood telly wins the week
With a few notable exceptions, it seems we are still drawn to lighter fare including Packed to the Rafters, Spicks & Specks, Midsomer Murders, 2.5 Men and a Harry Potter flick.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
Week 35 saw the ABC reinforce its appeal when Midsomer Murders took a cool 1.26m viewers on Sunday night, winning its timeslot without any dancing or singing as a lead-in. For a new Aussie drama like Rescue: Special Ops it was particularly brutal. Meanwhile GO! did well on Sunday with a 2.8% share, allowing Nine to sing its praises before it diminished by the end of the week. TEN had reason to smile over Rush too, but cutting through it all was Seven, taking yet another week in Total People.
Seven took 27.4% ahead of Nine’s 26.8% and TEN’s 21.7%. The ABC had 18.1% and SBS 6.0%.
In key demos TEN won 16-39 and 18-49 but Seven took 25-54.
Seven won Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Nine won Thursday and Saturday. Seven won in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth but Nine won Melbourne and Brisbane.
Once again it was a week dominated by feelgood and family titles with broad appeal.
Packed to the Rafters was the week’s top show with 1.93m. Amongst its other big raters were Seven News, Dancing with the Stars, Today Tonight, City Homicide, Air Ways, Surf Patrol, World’s Strictest Parents and Better Homes and Gardens. Both Beyond the Darklands and All Saints pulled a good crowd for 9:30 shows. But on Thursday the network landed third behind TEN, due largely to The Amazing Race and diminishing interest in TV Burp and Double Take. And after a week when it had some losses to Nine, Deal or No Deal won all five nights to Hot Seat, from a difference of 111,000 on Monday to just 1,000 by Friday.
Nine’s best for the week was, somewhat disappointingly, a repeat of Two and a Half Men on Wednesday night at 7:30pm, on 1.3m viewers. On Saturday its first-run Harry Potter movie was magic with 1.23m. Aside from Nine News (Sunday) its other drawcards landed below 1.2m viewers: Domestic Blitz, 60 Minutes, 20 to 1, Getaway, RPA and The Farmer Wants a Wife. On three nights A Current Affair couldn’t pass 1m. Rescue: Special Ops dropped to 878,000 viewers, thumped by the ABC. Hot Seat is no longer the #1 game show it claimed to be (a dubious title anyway, Fifth Grader rates higher). The last Australia’s Perfect Couple managed just 610,000. Despite mostly lukewarm figures, Nine had a triumphant Thursday night, passing the 30% share, suggesting a lot of viewers aren’t even tuning in to TV on Thursdays. Figures for GO! were finally broken out by OzTAM with its best night on Sunday at 2.8%. The Big Bang Theory is the channel’s biggest drawcard on 230,000 (up from preliminary figure of 204,000). Most other titles were below 100,000. GO! finished the week with a 1.7% share and 3.2% in its 16-39 demo.
TEN has a new hit: the locally produced Rush. Some twelve months after its launch, it is finally finding a broad audience. The network’s persistence with a new night and timeslot is paying off. This week 1.32m tuned in. TEN’s other performers include Australian Idol, Good News Week and NCIS. This week Rove was down but Friday’s Nanny McPhee movie helped Fridays from slipping below a 20% share. Burn Notice did well at 9:30pm, much better than Monday’s Dexter in the same slot. The 7PM Project is still trails its lead in, Neighbours. Despite some discussion about Idol’s semi-final performance week, they helped TEN snatch two key demo wins for the week.
This week Spicks and Specks took 1.32m but it was Midsomer Murders‘ 1.26m that was the real story, beating its commercial competition. Elsewhere, Stephen Fry in America, Australian Story, Four Corners, The Librarians, The New Inventors, ABC News and The 7:30 Report performed well. Scrapheap Challenge remains ABC2’s best drawcard. In a close race for Saturday runners up, ABC beat TEN.
For SBS Top Gear was tops with 636,000 and Mythbusters with 338,000 while its new Thursday line-up managed 326,000 for Costa’s Garden Odyssey with Dave in the Life bringing up the rear on 219,000.
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- Tagged with 20 to 1, 60 Minutes, A Current Affair, ABC News, Air Ways, All Saints, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, Australia's Perfect Couple, Australian Idol, Australian Story, Better Homes and Gardens, Beyond the Darklands, Burn Notice, City Homicide, Costa's Garden Odyssey, Dancing with the Stars, Dave in the Life, Deal or No Deal, Dexter, Domestic Blitz, Double Take, Four Corners, Getaway, Good News Week, Hot Seat, Midsomer Murders, Mythbusters, NCIS, Neighbours, Nine News, Packed to the Rafters, Rescue Special Ops, Rove, RPA and The Farmer Wants a Wife, Rush, Scrapheap Challenge, Seven News, Spicks and Specks, Stephen Fry In America, Surf Patrol, The 7.30 Report, The 7pm Project, The Amazing Race, The Big Bang Theory, The Librarians, The New Inventors, Today Tonight, Top Gear, TV Burp, Two and a Half Men, World's Strictest Parents
20 Responses
I hope Seven doesn’t have FlashFoward on Thursdays as that will be almost a week after the US, I’m hoping for a Sunday night time, just a few days after the US.
I might watch a lot of comedy on TV but I buy way more Drama on DVD.
I don’t think Midsomer Murders and Harry Potter are exactly “feel good” viewing…
On a different note, something that really drives me crazy is when people assume that they are the only person around. Bringing back Out Of The Question is out of the question because it had poor ratings. I don’t think Seven will bring it back just because franz chong and a few others liked it.
@jack
IMO the reason it does well is because nothing else is on the box and people tune in for something to watch. I think Flash Forward may come to Thursday 8:30pm and i am sure if this happens that Seven will destroy Rush. I could be wrong but FF is i think going to be the best new show this season.
Forget Rush and Packed to the Rafters. East of Everything leaves those shows in its dust.
TV Burp is making the 7pm Project worth while, and that is saying something
Please could someone explain to me what is so great about Rush? It really lacks character based writing and has a poor cast in my opinion. In comparrison to Blue Heelers or City Homicide Rush is very poor. It lacks charm, good writing, interesting characters and a good cast.
Man i hate all this feel good telly…
Nine must be wishing it had never let go of Midsomer Murders.
Go Rush. I have watched most of the eps since it started and up until a few weeks ago I wasnt entirely convinced. It was a good show but seemed a bit rough. I feel it has now hit its straps and good on ten for giving it a go and letting it find its feet. Now channel 9 should take note and give rescue ops a chance, i think it needs more action. Also great site, I found it a couple of weeks ago and it now my choice for television news and ratings!
@brisvegas I’ve seen some of Junkyard on Discovery and IMO it’s not as good as the original, I’ll probably watch it though.
Absolutely Love scrapheap challenge – though the sunday episodes are bwtter than the ones during the week (sunday episodes have “kryten” from red dwarf).
I wonder if the upcoming junkyard wars series is a us style copy, and if they can replicate the uk show?
That 1.7% from GO! is proving quite crucial for Nine, without which its weekly share would be much, much lower. And can’t believe TEN’s worst night was Sunday, with its best on Thursday. Only a few weeks ago we could have said the exact opposite.
Here’s an Idea for Channel 7.Bring Back Out of the Question to 8:30pm and Put Family Guy Right on Afterwards at 9pm.That Line Up was one of the best things I used to like about Thursday Nights Then they dropped those for Heavy Medical Dramas and It wasn’t the same
I dont see a comeback for the rest of the year by the other networks. Just like last year, post olympics, seven had a straight win till the end of the year.
Nines saturday night was huge! I hope the harry potter movies will become nines new 2.5men! Although i hate watching ch9, as in the ads for everyone of their shows, they have to add ‘australia’s fastest growing gameshow’ or ‘melbournes best’ or ‘australia’s no.1 comedy’. It just plain bugs me!
GO! is a great alternative to watch. And the music video clips they play inbetween programs is way cooler then endless ads. But i wish they could put something like the ARIA music show during the day, or at 6pm instead of funniest video repeats. Maybe 7’s new channel could be an MTV type ch?
I think that australian idol will do much better when we finally get to the final 12 from next week, but its only on once a week, meaning it wont effect there weekly total very much. Plus they should be careful on fasttracking NCIS and NCIS: LA, because next year, they’ll just end up with another slump mid year when these shows end. I dont think theres a need to fasttrack them personally. It seems most of the people watching NCIS dont download these shows, because even the repeats are getting great numbers.
All up, this week, all eyes should be on the TBYG final on Tuesday, and if sevens new thursday lineup will do them anygood.
Jezza, I know what you mean. I hang out all week for Amazing Race and TV Burp. I get the feeling TV Burp would be better suited to Channel 10. Double Take on the other hand would be better suited to the cancellation bin.
Unfortunately with the kind of numbers TV Burp is drawing there’s going to be no chance of a second season. Maybe the 9:30pm time slot will save it… but then again, probably not.
Could you believe that Seven won five nights last week and yet scraped across the line by just 0.6%? It would have been big injustice had Nine won the week because of Harry Potter. This should be a wake-up call to Seven to fix its Thursday line-up, and choose the movies for Saturday nights wisely.
Im very happy that Rush is finally getting decent deserving ratings. Its a top crime show. Well done to Harry Potter as well, doing all us Potter fans proud!
its sad that my favorite night on 7 is the one performing worst.
Kinda sad for Nine that it’s best rating show of the week was a re-run of 2.5 Men, guess they wont be replacing it any time soon…
Good on Seven winning yet another week, that is kinda getting a bit boring, I hope Nine and Ten can take it to Seven before the year is out.