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Hot Seat’s bewitching week

For the second week running Nine's shows were boosted by those watching GO! But it wasn't enough to stop Seven again claiming victory in Week 34.

hsFor the second week running Nine’s ratings enjoyed a boost from GO! that blurs its performance. While all networks enjoy share from their secondary channels, in the case of Nine figures for its titles included viewers that watched shows on GO! On three nights Hot Seat beat Deal or No Deal, but how many of them were viewers for Bewitched? All will be revealed this week when the figures break out from today.

Seven won Week 34 with 28.3% ahead of Nine’s 26.6% and TEN’s 20.8%. The ABC had 16.5% and SBS 7.8%.

Nine won 18-49 and 25-54 while TEN won 16-39 demos. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday were Seven’s while Nine won Wednesday and Thursday. Seven also won all cities except Brisbane which fell to Nine.

Packed to the Rafters was again the top show of the week with 1.89m viewers. It led Seven’s other top raters including Seven News, Better Homes and Gardens, World’s Strictest Parents, Dancing with the Stars, Today Tonight, City Homicide, Air Ways, Surf Patrol and a Coming Home special on Saturday. Dancing with the Stars (1.47m) continues to perform in its ninth season against tough competition, helping Seven to win the prized Sunday night. City Homicide‘s 1.38m was also solid on Monday.  Beyond the Darklands returned with a respectable 974,000. But while All Saints‘ 1.07m is a good figure for 9:30pm, it was a big drop-off from Rafters, especially given both are local dramas. TV Burp and Double Take took down Seven’s weakest night, Thursday.

Nine put in some more good performances, possibly boosted by figures from shows on GO! From today that all changes. Nine News (Sunday) was its best with 1.61m while 60 Minutes, Domestic Blitz, Rescue: Special Ops, Two and a Half Men, A Current Affair, Getaway and Funniest Home Videos all did good business. Hot Seat was the success story of Nine’s week defeating Deal or No Deal on three occasions -was it propped up by Bewitched? Even ACA was hot on Today Tonight’s tail, level pegging on Wednesday. The Footy Show was hit by SBS’ Ashes test. RPA (1.19) and The Gift (1.12m) worked hard to salvage back Wednesday’s share after the lousy turnout for Australia’s Perfect Couple -just 698,000.

Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation‘s 1.5m was the standout performer for TEN with its next ranking shows all taking around 1.1m each: Australian Idol, Rush, NCIS and Rove. The return of Numb3rs and Burn Notice were 628,000 and 723,000 respectively. TEN News at Five beat both commercial game shows. Friday night was still a low performer, if challenged by big drawcards on ABC and SBS. Just 753,000 for The 45 Stone Virgin, another special that didn’t deliver.

Spicks and Specks took 1.27m this week for ABC, with George Gently, Stephen Fry in America, ABC News, Australian Story, Four Corners, The Librarians, United States of Tara, The New Inventors and The 7:30 Report its other performers. Sunday night’s The Last Enemy was unable to compete or even retain its lead in from Stephen Fry while nobody is laughing very hard at Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union on Tuesdays. Scrapheap Challenge remains ABC2’s most popular show. ABC beat TEN on Friday.

Top Gear was tops for SBS with 776,000 but the 2009 Ashes Test Series was strong on Thurday, Friday and Saturday, taking up to 700,000.

Week 34

38 Responses

  1. @tasmanian devil: But for the 40% of the population that does have an stb, most would have gotten a ‘new services’ note when GO! launched and updated their stbs

  2. @PD… Sure that wasn’t Australia’s Fastest growing game show?

    I think daqua_99 has a point. I bet half of the population probably haven’t a clue what GO! is. It’s off topic, but even come digital TV switch-over time, there’ll be still a handful of people who haven’t made the switch yet…

  3. @ daqua_99: Although we may be a small percentage, it’s still a large enough sample to give us an idea on how the new channel is going.

    Oztam collect their ratings a similar way, there’s no way they could collect the entire nation’s viewing habits, so instead they collect from a diverse, but small, sample size.

  4. You forgot to mention Nine’s Cold Case on Wednesday night, the season final got 1,099,000 viewers and was #1 in it time slot and also contributed to winning the night for Nine.

  5. David. Is the 7pm Project a relatively cheap show to produce compared to other Australian productions?

    If so, could that work in it’s favour by giving it a chance to grow and mature in the timeslot?

    I think Dave Hughes is a bit out of his depth discussing ACAs. A bit like when he was the Glass House. He is no fool but he’s not the train spotter that Charlie P. seems to be.

  6. The 7pm Project had a lot of potential, but it just doesn’t add up.

    Also, I agree with allen somewhat. There is no proof that Go! is rating well enough to pull in sizable audiences. Whilst I watch it, and most people who commented here have watched it, we are about .000001% of the total audience. The fact also that we are spending time on tvtonight talking about TV proves we know more than 99% of others about TV. When I asked my mates about Go!, most of them had never heard of it …

  7. @mikey – I think you’re spot on. Whenever Jon Stewart on the Daily Show goes head to head with a political guest you’re always sort of amazed that he knows exactly what he’s talking about no matter what the topic.

    I don’t mind 7pm Project but they are out of their depths. It’s news but not as we know it, because as we know it news usually doesn’t involve a heavy does of YouTube clips and dogs being reunited with their owners.

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