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2010: The Top 100

MasterChef: The Winner Announced topped the year with 4.02m viewers -the second highest rating program since OzTAM ratings began.

Last week readers will remember I gave a breakdown of the TV ratings yearly results that endeavoured to cut through the network spin and apply fair measures.

A number of people in the industry took the time to acknowledge TV Tonight‘s balance to me, while other media were content to republish figures from Releases.

Similarly, I had rather hoped to provide a list of the year’s top shows that was equally clinical. But such data doesn’t seem to be so readily available. As it doesn’t appear to be forthcoming I am publishing this list with a caveat.

This list is based on programming from Weeks 1 – 48, which therefore includes both summer and Easter non-ratings.

It is also subject to astute network coding: including “The Winner Announced” for some shows, splitting within 2 AFL Grand Finals and averaging of some series versus some that are coded as single episodes. As such not all things are equal.

But it is important for archival purposes to have some list, if somewhat convoluted.

There is little doubt that MasterChef: The Winner Announced was the year’s top audience. It even rose from 3.96m viewers to 4.02m with a boost from timeshifted data. Technically that makes it Australia‟s second highest rating program since OzTAM ratings began in 2001.

2010: Top 100
1 Masterchef Australia – The Winner Announced Ten 4,028,882
2 Masterchef Australia – Finale Night Ten 3,594,399
3 Seven’s AFL: Grand Final: Presentations Seven 3,357,550
4 Seven’s AFL: Grand Final: Collingwood V St Kilda Seven 2,767,569
5 Melbourne Cup – The Race Seven 2,707,307
6 Seven’s AFL: Grand Final Re-Match Seven 2,686,813
7 Seven’s AFL: Grand Final Re-Match: Presentations Seven 2,618,146
8 State Of Origin Rugby League NSW V Qld 1st – Match Nine 2,468,186
9 Seven’s AFL: Grand Final: Post-Match Seven 2,451,165
10 Seven’s Tennis: 2010 Aust Open – Men’s Final Seven 2,420,898
11 Underbelly: The Golden Mile – Episode 1 Nine 2,357,959
12 Junior Masterchef Australia – Launch Ten 2,293,297
13 State Of Origin Rugby League NSW V Qld 2nd – Match Nine 2,172,601
14 Rugby League Grand Final Nine 2,168,765
15 Seven’s AFL: AFL Grand Final: On The Ground Seven 2,165,832
16 Melbourne Cup – Race Presentation Seven 2,134,281
17 Underbelly: The Golden Mile -Ep 2 Nine 2,126,464
18 Such Is Life: The Troubled Times Of Ben Cousins – Part 1 Seven 2,125,339
19 Packed To The Rafters Seven 2,040,938
20 Seven’s AFL: AFL Grand Final: On The Ground Re-Match Seven 1,957,160
21 Junior Masterchef Australia – The Winner Announced Ten 1,950,145
22 Seven’s AFL: Grand Final Re-Match: Post-Match Seven 1,938,886
23 Masterchef Australia Ten 1,934,302
24 Seven’s Tennis: 2010 Aust Open – Women’s Final Seven 1,898,888
25 Masterchef Australia – Challenge Ten 1,856,560
26 Such Is Life: The Troubled Times Of Ben Cousins – Part 2 Seven 1,852,742
27 Hamish & Andy’s Caravan Of Courage Ten 1,846,747
28 Undercover Boss Premiere Ten 1,844,642
29 The X Factor – The Winner Announced Seven 1,833,207
30 Junior Masterchef Australia – Top 50 Ten 1,827,667
31 State Of Origin Rugby League NSW V Qld 3rd – Match Nine 1,786,740
32 Melbourne Cup – The Mounting Yard Seven 1,778,176
33 Top Gear – Episode 1 Nine 1,765,961
34 Masterchef Australia – Launch Ten 1,743,808
35 Underbelly: The Golden Mile Nine 1,739,621
36 Seven’s Tennis: 2010 Aust Open – Men’s Final Introduction Seven 1,722,185
37 The Block – Winner Announced Nine 1,712,349
38 Hawke Ten 1,690,511
39 Masterchef Australia – Top 50 Wed Ten 1,664,884
40 The Biggest Loser (Aus) – The Winner Announced Ten 1,641,593
41 State Of Origin Rugby League NSW Qld 1st – Pre Match Nine 1,634,098
42 Seven’s Tennis: 2010 Aust Open – Day 8 Night Session Seven 1,631,534
43 Masterchef Australia – Top 50 Thurs Ten 1,627,776
44 Gruen Nation ABC1 1,616,205
45 Australia’s Got Talent Seven 1,615,406
46 Junior Masterchef Australia – Finale Night Ten 1,580,726
47 Junior Masterchef Australia – Top 12 Revealed Ten 1,580,227
48 Masterchef Australia – Top 50 Tues Ten 1,579,049
49 Seven’s AFL: Grand Final Pre-Match Entertainment Seven 1,571,951
50 Miracle At The Zoo Seven 1,545,502
51 Seven’s Tennis: 2010 Aust Open – Men’s Final Presentation Seven 1,544,778
52 Seven News – Sunday Seven 1,532,727
53 Dancing With The Stars 10 – Grand Final Seven 1,518,715
54 The X Factor Auditions – Tuesday Seven 1,502,331
55 Midsomer Murders ABC1 1,496,868
56 Junior Masterchef Australia – Sunday Ten 1,496,394
57 Modern Family Ten 1,479,382
58 Doc Martin ABC1 1,475,582
59 NCIS Ten 1,460,765
60 Glee Ten 1,448,435
61 The Biggest Loser (Aus) – Finale Night Ten 1,431,677
62 World’s Strictest Parents Seven 1,419,764
63 Seven’s AFL: Preliminary Final 1 Seven 1,419,557
64 Undercover Boss – Wednesday Ten 1,417,312
65 Two And A Half Men Nine 1,417,045
66 52nd Annual TV Week Logie Awards Nine 1,416,040
67 Air Ways Seven 1,414,073
68 The Gruen Transfer ABC1 1,411,289
69 State Of Origin Rugby League NSW V Qld 2nd – Pre Match Nine 1,409,175
70 Border Security Seven 1,408,398
71 Border Security – Tuesday Seven 1,403,568
72 My Kitchen Rules – Tuesday Seven 1,397,676
73 The Force – Wednesday Seven 1,395,652
74 Seven’s Tennis: 2010: Aust Open – Women’s Final Presentation Seven 1,391,673
75 Nine News – Sunday Nine 1,390,452
76 Dancing With The Stars Seven 1,385,367
77 Yes We Canberra!- ABC1 1,382,999
78 Seven News – Monday-Friday Seven 1,379,528
79 The X Factor Auditions –Thursday Seven 1,377,228
80 Border Security – Wednesday Seven 1,371,616
81 Masterchef Australia – Top 24 Revealed Ten 1,369,413
82 2010 FIFA World Cup: Gha V Aus Live SBS ONE 1,367,343
83 Rugby League Grand Final Presentation Nine 1,362,313
84 Wicked Love: The Maria Korp Story Nine 1,359,902
85 My Kitchen Rules – Monday Seven 1,355,477
86 Seven’s Tennis: 2010 Aust Open – Day 10 Night Session Seven 1,352,339
87 TV Week Logie Awards Arrivals Nine 1,351,875
88 The X Factor Auditions – Wednesday Seven 1,350,385
89 Seven’s Tennis: 2010 Aust Open – Women’s Final Introductions Seven 1,347,437
90 Bones Seven 1,346,882
91 The Pacific Seven 1,345,636
92 Seven’s AFL: Grand Final Re-Match Entertainment Seven 1,325,276
93 Today Tonight Seven 1,322,773
94 The Farmer Wants A Wife Nine 1,318,887
95 Top Gear Australia Nine 1,308,416
96 Two And A Half Men – Monday Episode 1 Nine 1,306,439
97 Highway Patrol – Wednesday Seven 1,300,103
98 Masterchef Australia – Masterclass Ten 1,298,149
99 The Force – Repeat Episodes Seven 1,295,453
100 Learn India With Hamish & Andy Ten 1,293,339

Calendar Year Weeks 1-48. Includes one-off and series averages.
Consolidated 1 January – 19 November and Overnight 20 – 27 November

22 Responses

  1. Hi David.

    What about Beauty and the Geek Makeover episode? According to Week 46, (copied below) it would have made the list at 62.

    1 Beauty And The Geek Australia Seven 1,429,000 466,000 422,000 230,000 135,000 176,000

  2. Yep what a ridiculous list. The networks desperation by separating essentially one broadcast is pathetic. The AFL Grand Final instead of 4 different parts should just be the one AFL Grand Final. Masterchef finale and winner announced should be one program. And if you count Packed to the Rafters death episode by itself it would be higher than Underbelly episode 1. Either everything is averaged or count single episodes as they stand.

    Australian still rates in top 10. Imagine how big it would rate each night if Seven played games live and treated it better.

  3. Call me crazy but didn’t Cougar Town’s first episode get just under 1.4 mil viewers? Why isn’t it on the list? Otherwise, good job 🙂

  4. So based on the top five we like cooking, AFL and horse racing.

    Next year on Ten: Masterchef as Pre-Match entertainment for the AFL Grand Final while the retiring legends sit astride Melbourne Cup winners.

  5. Ten need to cash in on the phenomenal popularity of MasterChef whilst it’s still a hot menu item. I give the concept (excellent as it is) another year or two at the top before it inevitably follows the leads of previous phenomena like Big Brother and Survivor by fading into obscurity.

  6. Thanks David I know how difficult this must be, but Do appreciate your efforts.

    @Neil needs to understand that we baby-boomers will become increasingly important to programmers just because of the number of us and the fact that we are not just going to fade away – expect to see more programmes We like in your top 100.

  7. Hey David,

    Thanx for your efforts in doing your best to create a Top 100. I acknowledge your flaws and would like to highlight that Rafters clearly was the number one drama & didn’t need to split its series into specific episodes.

    I think when TV shows are split into different categories, it does make a mockery of the ratings system. With reality shows a ‘winner announced’ does make sense, but still highlights a ratings spike.

    Thanks again David 🙂

  8. @ Dr_Rudi the top one was I think the match between Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt in a tennis final, can’t remember which one, most likely Australian Open.

    @ Russell This is true, OzTam is flawed this way, it should be either averaged, or all seperated into individual episodes. I’d like to see a list of Just averages, of shows that airred more than twice, so that specials, sporting event finals et al aren’t included, it would give us a more accurate idea as to what the real top 100 shows are

    And what is with the splitting up of finales, I remember Aus Idol had about 6 different shows for their finale

    – Red Carpet
    – Live at the Opera House
    – Final Performance
    – Winner Announced
    – Presentation
    – Final Performance
    – The “Lets take another half hour to reiterate the 3 second event where the host said ‘and the winner is …. _____’ part” show. And since there are about 10 finales a year like that, MasterChef, Biggest Loser, Dance, X Factor etc etc, it heavily screws around with the true final figures.

    @ Neil Not really, you wouldn’t come up with much more than “we are slowly becoming Americanised” or, at least that would be the root of it.

    1. Seven’s list of show averages is just as tricky as this one. It all gets back to coding from networks in the first place. This their list of events and as such notes the biggest audiences, for better or worse.

  9. “Technically that makes it Australia‟s second highest rating program since OzTAM ratings began in 2001.”

    Hi David, so what *is* the highest rating program since 2001?

    @ Neil; Wow, Masterchef Australia – The Winner Announced No 1. I didn’t think they still gave out rating meters to people who are brain dead.

  10. Thanks for the list. The consolidated figures for Week 48 was published last week so I can update you with some of the figures:
    The X Factor Grand Final-Mon 1,440,000
    The X Factor-Winner Announced 1,843,000
    The Block-Winner Announced 1,767,000

  11. I find it annoying how they mix individual episodes with season averages. They should have two seperate lists – one for top 100 individul TV events, then one for top 100 season averages.

  12. Amazing to see that even after all the money spent on marketing and production the best the X factor winner announced could do was number 29. This is a big issue for 7.

  13. Wow, Midsomer Murders No 55. I didn’t think they still gave out rating metres to people over 50 years.

    That list would make interesting work for some sociologist doing an insight into the collective Australian mind.

  14. This list by Oztam is useless. It’s completely flawed.

    It’s basically a jumble of individual telecasts (State of Origin, Melbourne Cup) both primetime and daytime (when ratinsg are measured 6pm – midnight) shows which are sometimes broken out for “Winner Revealed” episodes (Masterchef) and “Auditions” (X Factor)

    Then some shows like Top Gear are listed as “episode 1” whereas other shows are averaged over the whole season (Gruen Transfer, Bones) and others are broken out into repeats (The Force)

    What a mess – how can you create a “top 100” when nothing you are measuring is consistent? What is this even a Top 100 of? Shows? Telecasts? One off events?
    Some shows have the finale broken out (winner Revealed)

    1. Russell, that’s why I prefaced the list with caution. List is not from OzTAM, but sadly it’s the closest I’m going to get this year and it’s important to document something for future reference.

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