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Seven swims through topsy turvy week

What a week of ratings. Nine has a night past 30%, TEN has another below 15% and ABC has a new hit. Sailing through the middle was Seven.

srIt was a topsy turvy week of ratings in Week 33. While Nine had one night rising past the 30% share, TEN had another that sank below 15%. And the ABC has a new hit on its hands. That left Seven to remain steady through it all and win another week.

Seven finished with 28.0% over Nine’s 26.3% and TEN’s 21.6%. The ABC had 17.5% and SBS 6.6%.

But it was actually Nine that won 18-49 and 25-54 demos while TEN took out 16-39.

Seven won Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Nine won Thursday and Saturday. Sydney, Adelaide and Perth went to Seven while Melbourne and Brisbane fell to Nine.

Top show for the week was again the unstoppable Packed to the Rafters on a whopping 1.9m viewers. Its other big performers included Seven News, World’s Strictest Parents UK, Today Tonight, Better Homes & Gardens, Dancing with the Stars, Surf Patrol, Air Ways, On Board Air Force One and Home & Away. The return of City Homicide won its slot with 1.32m (ep 1) but is much lower than its traditional Monday figures. Last year Seven had the show on Sunday nights. Seven is so pleased with Dancing with the Stars‘ figures on a competitive night that it keeps delaying plans to return Medical Emergency, for fear of losing the audience. It is right to be concerned. Thursdays remain a concern for Seven. The Amazing Race, TV Burp and Double Take are all going backwards (despite the timeswitch flip of 2 of them). Better news for Weekend Sunrise, a long way ahead of Today.

Nine had a better week with some genuine successes -just not the ones it wanted. The biggest audience was 1.54m for Nine News (Sunday) only just ahead of Two and a Half Men‘s 1.52m (Monday). Also strong were Getaway, Domestic Blitz, 20 to 1, A Current Affair and 60 Minutes (which lost a key story) and Australia’s Funniest Home Videos. New drama Rescue: Special Ops won its slot, but couldn’t tip past 1.14m. The Farmer Wants a Wife sat on 1.12m while local production Australia’s Perfect Couple tanked at 701,000 and has since been sliced to just 30 minutes. The Big Bang Theory lost a lot of its lead in from Two and a Half Men. Nine has also now abandoned some of its Tuesday shows, a night the network can’t seem to get right.  ACA‘s maligned interview on the Kyle & Jackie O saga helped it defeat TT. There were terrific results in Nine’s Thursday share as it charged to a huge 31% -its best in a long time- arguably due to a lack of competition. Yet the NRL Footy Show took an appalling 165,000 in Sydney, while the AFL version was almost the network’s top show for the night in its hometown. A steady Hot Seat was just 40,000 behind Deal or No Deal on Tuesday.

TEN’s best was Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation on 1.47m ahead of the return of Australian Idol’s 1.3m. Some media chose to write down the premiere against last year’s debut, failing to note was against the Olympics last year and Dancing with the Stars this year. A better test will be its first live Sunday sing-off. Other strong shows were Rush, NCIS, The Simpsons and Good News Week. Not enough interest in Jon & Kate (813,000) to greenlight a series version. Law & Order UK debuted to 775,000. The best The 7PM Project could manage was 772,000 on Wednesday. But the worst news lay in wait on Friday -down to a dismal 14.6% share -more than 5% behind the ABC. If TEN argues its audience is out on Friday nights, perhaps it had better give them reason to stay in.

As usual it was Spicks and Specks that shone best for the ABC on 1.44m. But the story of the week was George Gently, that boomed on 1.23m on Friday night. ABC has a new hit on its hands. It lifted the network to 20.4% for the night. Another 1.2m triumphed for Australian Story on Monday. Elswhere ABC News, The Librarians, United States of Tara, Stephen Fry in America, Four Corners and The New Inventors performed. After beating TEN on Friday, ABC levelled with the network on Saturday.

Sunday night’s Ashes match (804,000) nearly helped the network top the ABC, with a share of 12.3% -just 0.6% behind our other public broadcaster. Mythbusters managed 371,000.

Clarification: Despite previous advice to this site, share for GO! was added to Nine last week. Apologies for any confusion.

Week 33

11 Responses

  1. odd week. Nine seems to be back on top of itself, after falling in a heap during the middle of the year. Seven will win this year for sure, but nine might win a few more weeks yet, with hey hey and Go! yet to be added to nine’s share (except for this week.) Nine might be the one next year, although never underestimate seven. it turned the tables on nine back in 2004, and won morning tv, and won news the next year. By 2007, nine was the saddest network i’d ever seen. I think nine is bouncing back. it actually has some good entertainment on.

  2. “Seven is number one. Go Seven”. This is not a quote from a Seven fanboy post on some media site. These words actually appear on a Seven Corporate media release issued this morning at Seven Corporate.

  3. I’m enjoying Seven on Thursdays.

    TV Burp is fantastic and really deserves more of an audience. It is non-cynical, lighthearted fun. Its not particularly mean or biting; but an entertaining little show that really brings out Ed’s passion for TV. His enthusiasm is infectious. I definitely recommend you guys give it a go if you haven’t, at least once. I hope they keep it going.

    Another show thats a bit of a guilty pleasure is True Beauty. Theres nothing more fun than watching privileged, arrogant “beautiful” people being torn a new one. I enjoy reality TV that messes with the formula; ie My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss. They really need to air reruns of that show. Its a thing of beauty.

    I think the weak link is Double Take. I admire Seven for bringing back sketch comedy, but it’s not particularly funny or clever. It’s a tad depressing. They should’ve really given Let Loose Live; a show with a fairly strong cast, a few weeks to find it’s footing. Could you imagine if that risk paid off. It could have been an institution.

    Nonetheless, Channel TEN’s risks with Masterchef, 7pm Project, and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation are doing well. Nine’s non-risks with Two And A Half Men and their constant lineup reshuffling are not. Seven are the middleground at the moment; They’re doing interesting things but Double Take is a weak link, and this week’s schedule change isn’t helping the Thursday night flow.

    Anyway, that’s my two cents.
    Jeremy.

  4. Whatever Seven pulls out rates highly regardless of its quality. Well Done to the ABC – they have really started to improve over the last few weeks. TENs Friday is absolutely shocking. Its so weak, I dont know why they dont axe Dance already, clearly they are waiting for the finale so people can switch on to see Talia, Im not sure it will be worth that wait! 772k is dismal for 7PM, if it doesnt hit the 800 mark within the next 2 weeks I think TEN will have to end it.

  5. ridiculous all these people thinking nines successes are cause of GO!, 20 to 1 has rated 1.3-1.4 before easily and the countdown was pretty solid this week (rock anthems). While over on Seven and Ten, the competition was lacklustre to say the least. Anyone think it might actually be because 9 has some decent options on a Thursday??

  6. Well done ABC !! Some great shows on at present, Australian Story and 4 Corners always good, Spicks and Specks always fun & the new George Gently was fantastic – Martin Shaw is a fine actor with lots of fans and is rarely seen in unsuitable roles.

    I think perhaps viewers who don’t normally watch ABC are giving it a go because they are sick and tired of the other FTA channels late start times along with badly timed advertising, plus they have some fine programmes.

    I know advertising has to stay, however why can’t it be loaded in longer blocks throughout a programme and not every 5-7 mins ads that we get towards the end of a programme…….An example of doing it right is Foxtel’s UK TV who give you time to make a cuppa or check out the bathroom….

  7. Boy Meets Girl is a quality show on ABC, different and refreshing to the procedural crap on the commercial nets, which is often American. I’ve already seen the final ep and although the ending was rushed it was still a good watch. Being Erica premieres next week on ABC2 on Friday nights. Apparently its like Quantum Leap meets Ally McBeal, I’ll check it out based on the novelty of the premise alone.

    Also I suspect Nine’s Thursdays would have gotten a boost from GO!, mainly because that channel actually has quality content on it (not just endless 20 to 1 and 2.5 men). It may not be old peoples’ cup of tea but shows like Gossip Girl and Moonlight are refreshing, especially for younger audiences. There’s no way 20 to 1 rated 1.4 mill on Thurs by itself, a few hundred thousand of that would have been GG’s audience pooled into it.

    Seven’s Thursdays will continue to be bad for the next few months with their plans to replace True Beauty with more Earl and Scrubs. Until they fast-track Flash Forward or start playing TAR in double eps and bump TV Burp/Double Take to 9.30pm, this will likely continue.

  8. No doubt that GO! will help Nine heaps. TEN aren’t doing that great without MasterChef. We all thought Nine’s Tuesday was appalling, but it’s not bad when compared to Ten’s Friday. Hey Hey will help Nine heaps (whether it’s on Saturday or Tuesday).

    Next year should be a really interesting year – Ten will have it’s regular realities again, Nine would have probably found its feet again, and Seven will just go on like usual.

  9. It seems Nine’s total people figures and demographics have been boosted by Go. It will be interesting to see the separate figures when they become available. Who came second in 18-49 & 25-54? Seven?

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