Sunday’s magic million
What's this? Big brand shows landing under the 1m mark on a Sunday night? And we're not even in daylight saving yet.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
What’s this? Big brand shows landing under the 1m mark on a Sunday night? And we’re not even in daylight saving yet.
60 Minutes, Australian Idol, 20 to 1, Rove, Rescue: Special Ops, Talkin’ ‘ Bout Your Generation (rpt) all landed under the magic million mark last night.
The hits were over on the ABC and Seven.
Midsomer Murders surged to another 1.48m, Border Security had 1.42m, The Force took 1.41m. Sunday Night won with 1.32m, and even the ABC’s Yellowstone doco defeated 60 Minutes and Idol at just under 1.1m viewers.
Top show for the night was Seven News on 1.53m.
Australian Idol had a weary ’80s night, oddly borrowing It Takes Two judge Ross Wilson (who frankly is more identified with the ’70s than the ’80s). Wilson called the show “the best produced music show on television.” It took another 30 minutes for the first solo song of the night to start (Houston, we still have a problem). Idol singers were rather pedestrian with their performances until Stan Walker broke from the ranks with a standing-ovation of Purple Rain. As Dicko said “thank God for Stan Walker.” Indeed.
A very fine first episode of the excellent Who Do You think You Are? with Ron Barassi took 429,000, well up on the timeslot average for the network. It deserves more.
Wipeout took 223,000 for GO!, while ONE had 165,000 for Formula One and 117,000 for a repeat of Hornblower on ABC2.
Seven wins the first night in “the week from hell” with a slew of new television choices for viewers.
25 Responses
Idol was average last night.. I think Im unimpressed becasue I strongly dislike half the contestants this year. Previous years I hated 1 or 2 but not 6 like this year. TEN need Merlin back on Sundays at 6.30! They should cut Idol down to 1.5 hours. 2 hours is too long.
Sevens lineup is boring.
@ Proud.
I agree Border has been an instrumental factor in killing 60 Minutes, But Sunday Night, and Dancing with the Stars have also aided in it’s demise.
Border Security will go down in history as the show that killed 60 Minutes.
David, you’d be surprised. While everyone knows one solitary Daddy Cool song, Mondo Rock was massive in the ’80s. I saw them headline a gig at Festival Hall in the early ’80s. The support bands? INXS, Divinyls, Sunnyboys. Great show too 🙂
Ross Wilson had his biggest chart success as a performer in the ’80s, not the ’70s. Hence he’s an appropriate judge for an ’80s night.
Not disputing sales, just reckon more Aussies remember him for Daddy Cool more than Mondo Rock.
Sunday night is just Sooooo boring on aus TV … perfect time to watch the latest episodes of Merlin and Snallville!!! Both of which are great, by the way!
Jack!
Considering the week ahead on TV, last night is nothing short of a let down. It will be even worse next Sunday.
Ten is having a shocker. Idol is dead and should be buried. It is killing Rove.
I doubt Rescue: Special Ops will get a second series and it’s killing CSI Miami too.
Seven’s movie didn’t do much better but it ran for about three hours so that’s what helped Seven win the night. The Flashforward promo watermark during the movie probably turned some viewers off. It annoyed the hell out of me.
Wasn’t Ross Wilson a judge on – erm – Popstars Live! ?? or was that It Takes Two?
Sevens movie went way past 11pm. It was a good result considering.
To get Idol’s ratings up why not put it at 7:30pm for performances. Then have Celebrity Masterchef on an hour later. That would mean people would keep watching ten most of the night. Then as people are saying have the elimination during the following days 7pm project. Might even do something for their ratings
Ross Wilson was a great judge last night. It’s a shame he couldn’t be a permanent judge on Idol.
There are people still actually watching Idol? We watched Big Bang Theory and Aliens in America.
Is it anything to do with WA being a long weekend and we had a lovely sunny spring day
Barrie: didn’t seem to affect ABC or Seven (altho Seven’s 8:30 movie dropped sharply).
After a strong debut, then some teething problems, Sunday Night now seems to have found it’s feet. It’s success seems to have come with the demise of former powerhouse 60 Minutes, commonly around or below 1 million viewers and well down from the 1.5 mill it averaged last year. Nine must be fretting over 60 Minutes numbers this morning.
PMM, that’s actually a great idea – moving the idol elimination to the 7pm Project. Would bring them some much needed attention and would solve the problem of the sloooooooowwwwwwwww start to Idol that is turning everybody off. That said, I think the contestants this year are the worst they have had – only one performance last night was really in tune.
Why does the networks think that Sunday night is always the best?
They always seem to have finales etc on Sunday. Why??
I’m sure if people were interested they would move days. The networks in Australia really don’t give credit to their audiences and think they are all moronic. The only morons are the network programmers.
What about Idol on a Wednesday?? **Shock**Horror**
Think outside the box rather than follow the leaders!!
The highlight of Idol last night was a man (or at least a very masculine looking woman with an Adam’s apple) holding up a sign saying something like “I wanna have Stan Walker’s babies”. Hilarious. Other than that, just give the title to Stan, axe the show and be done with it. It’s excruciating to watch and I just don’t know why I bother anymore.
Unfortunately for Rove, been shown at 9:30pm will also ensure that it gets less than 1m
SN is on track to become a huge hit. good on leckie for sticking with it. the fact that it looks like he has finally found a way to bring down 60 minutes would have him partying tonight. my only complaint is why wasn’t the idea put forward years ago.
could this be the end of an era for 60mins? i have been watching 60mins ratings for years, i don’t think i have ever seen it in 4th place, and under the mil without a major tv event competition. i’d expect a change for 60mins in 2010, either a move to 6:30 or a different night. it will be a huge problem for 9 if this keeps up.
content-wise i don’t think SN is much better than 60, it’s good that SN have investigations, that’s where the talent is shown, something that 60 seems to have dumped. but 60 always seems more topical and based on current events.
the production and cinematography in SN is spectacular, it tells the audience that the show is really been taken seriously, good to see the audience responding.
Move the vote off to Mondays, hell you could even do it during the 7pm project. Then make idol one hour on Sundays.
If Ten really wants to improve it’s ratings for Idol, then get rid of the repeats before it (ie Simpsons, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation) and also fix up the format.
It does take a bit long for the performences to start.
If Ross Wilson was able to be a judge on Idol then does that mean that It Takes Two isn’t returning?
Yeah i agree Idol was bad last night! Except for Stan Walker..he was in fine form!