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MasterChef & Australia’s Got Talent in neck and neck battle

Two reality shows, head to head, produced by the same production company on rival networks.

Two reality shows, head to head, produced by the same production company on rival networks.

MasterChef Australia was locked in a ratings battle with Australia’s Got Talent last night, both of them from FremantleMedia Australia.

In the end it was cooking that won out, ever so slightly, with 1.59m viewers over the talent auditions on 1.56m viewers. But Australia’s Got Talent was also half an hour longer. 14yo child vocalist Jack Vigden is already attracting buzz, trending on Twitter (and sending TV Tonight‘s bandwidth for videos through the roof too).

It was bad news for Nine as AFP: Australian Federal Police slipped to 856,000, with Customs on 815,000.

Elsewhere last night Winners & Losers pulled 1.23m over NCIS 1.08m and Sea Patrol fell to 675,000.

In Melbourne Underbelly‘s first season was 191,000 for its second episode, slightly higher than the first (166,000).

Seven won its first night of the week in Total People, followed by TEN and Nine.

Week 19

22 Responses

  1. Have been a MC convert ever since Junior Masterchef, which was brilliant! But have also started watching AGT since halfway through the last season. Have to admit the only reason I didn’t watch it before was because Dannii really galled me! Having to watch the fake nose, boobs, chin and listen to that voice really irritated!

    Have since grown to tolerate her – she knows her stuff and is quite gracious with the critique, so now I’m quite hooked and the entertainment provided by contestants is quite worth it!

    All in all, I think AGT is just ahead of MC.

  2. Thank god for recorders – I watched both – masterchef first, and then AGT so I could edit out Kyle, Grant, and the pommie guy – but I do like the delightful Ms Minogue

  3. Masterchef is good as always and the NCIS franchise does well too. I enjoy the 2 shows but find that I enjoy CSI more. Both franchises should dominate more and rate better. I enjoyed Sea Patrol, better than last week. Nine had the same lineup as last week except for Underbelly in Victoria yet this week they struggle after finishing up strongly last week when Nine won 7:30-9:30 yet 3rd this week. Nine should promote the lineup more and people should give them credit for trying. Nine not a complete disaster as they have done worse with under 20% shares in mid 2009 before Go!

    With Kyle, Brian & Grant I do not know how people can watch AGT but then its not about them its the contestants with talent which sometimes they don’t have. Seems anything will rate on 7 these days. I am sure Ben Elton would have done 1 million if his show was on 7. The NRL footy show would do massive figures if it were on 7 and I am sure George Negus could pull 1.5 million each night if his show was on 7. People need to watch shows based on the shows themselves and not the network!

  4. Oh !
    Thank’s for bringing to our attention that the Nine Network (the network you love to laugh at) is still operating.
    I thought it had been stripped down and turned into a soup kitchen for the poor and needy…

  5. Hi David,

    Thanks and I agree its not a one man show. But I am passing on feedback from both within network and experienced commentators, and looking at the range of commissions that 9 – with Michael’s name on them – have made, and they don’t give 9 the performance they need, on a consistent basis. I don’t envy the position and I’m not saying I could do better, but my point is that the Director of Television should be able to build shows in a far better manner than the current team has in the last few years, and then some. A national network deserves someone with real talent and flair in the area. Masterchef will be a strong performer, but you can’t not compete…

  6. 9 really have been caught napping in 2011, Nothing has fired, in fact every new product has been a disaster, they would’ve been better off hitting the launch of AFP much earlier.

    Elton – Fail
    Million Dollar Drop – Fail
    Sea Patrol – horrendusly bad figures

    The whole schedule needs to be dug up and started again, they’ve been caught napping again by delaying The Block being stripped at 7pm, and leaving their run too late, now you have 7pm propped up by MC doing around 1million viewers, there is barely any pie left for 9…. except for the humble kind.

  7. That’s a great lead in figure to those of us who watch winners and losers on 7.Off the topic how can nine survive with those old top gear repeats up against a fresh home grown drama.

    1. Tom: Technically, Andrew Backwell is now in charge of Programming & Production while Michael Healy is Director of Television. This has been reported before. I don’t think it’s any surprise networks will get whacked by MasterChef.

  8. Did I read the ratings page right and TG only got 222k last night, even without Melb that is a horrible number. UB in VIC got 166k, so thats only 388k total for 9:30 when it should be pushing at least 500k. I think Nine is going to right-off Tuesday nights for the foreseeable future.

    Good to see TEN coming 2nd overall and MC winning to top show.

  9. really enjoyed AGT last night, had lots of good belly laughs, its very fast paced. and there is a lot of genuine talent so far. that impersonator, chooka and the aboriginal pole dancer were great.

  10. Nine may as well run the white flag up the flagpole and surrender as far as winning 2011. They don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making any meaningful dent in the Seven ascendancy, given that Seven is still to roll out Amazing Race and DWTS, which will surely be ratings juggernauts, as well as X-Factor. Nine have what? Yet another instalment of Underbelly. Big whoops. MasterChef has months more to run, so Nine can’t gain traction in the 7.30pm – 8.30pm timeslot till after August, and by then it will be far too late. Their “Home of Comedy’ rebrand has failed horribly. In fact, I’ve noticed they have stopped running those particular station promos, so perhaps the rebranding has been abandoned? If crisis meetings aren’t already happening at Nine, they should be. Nothing they are attempting is resonating with the viewing audience.

  11. Woe is Nine.

    It’ll be an interesting week. Nine won a night, then TEN, then Seven… perhaps ABC should win a night? I guess it’s asking too much for SBS to win one as well haha

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