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Long haul for TEN as Breakfast starts in 4th place

Launched ahead of schedule, the first day of TEN's morning TV battle indicates a tough battle ahead.

The first day of TEN’s morning TV battle indicates the long haul ahead.

Launched with little fanfare due to the snap decision to begin 4 days ahead of schedule, Breakfast landed in fourth place.

Sunrise was 399,000.
Today was 348,000.
ABC News Breakfast was ABC1: 56,000 / ABC News 24: 26,000
Breakfast was 51,000.

There was also a separate figure of 46,000 for Breakfast “Early” from 6-7am. And 42,00 for Breakfast “Extended” post 9am.

Both Sunrise and Today also break out an “Early” figure for their first hour (216,000 / 170,000 respectively).

TEN has always maintained Breakfast is a long-haul project, and it was an achievement to get the show to air early with a news landscape that was changing minute by minute. But scoring a “0” in Melbourne for 8:44-8:59am indicates just how tough the battle will be.

The real test will be in lifting shares from its former cartoon slots and attracting advertising revenue, and under the circumstances it’s too early to start drawing conclusions about results from the first day. A TEN release today claims a 67.8% increase in Total People.

Elsewhere last night My Kitchen Rules again ranked first with 1.63m viewers. Seven’s line-up once again led the night in all timeslots except at 7pm when ABC News won with 1.04m viewers.

Nine News was best for Nine on 922,000 followed by ACA on 813,000. Earth Flight was 557,000.

The Biggest Loser topped TEN’s evening on 709,000. Law and Order: SVU was 488,000 / 356,000. The Project was 411,000.

7:30 was 694,000 for ABC1. Family Confidential was 646,00 but The Straits was down to 456,000.

Neighbours topped multichannels on 278,000.

Thursday 23 February 2012.

29 Responses

  1. Based on the first two days. this show has a long way to grow. Great graphics, although hard to read the white on pink weather maximum temps; very odd set – including appalingly hokey backdrop with cartoon like rusted windmill. The man man, Paul Henry, looked most odd sandwiched betwwen the very tall Andrew Rochford. He also spent most of the show with a smarmy look on his face, as if he is above all of us. Not a good wash with everyday Aussies (even further plagued by the fact he is a Kiiwi…nothign wrong with that but not a great accent in the eyes of most Aussies…just saying it!) With almost 15 minutes of news and weather each time there wasn’t much scope for deeper stories. Seemed like a case of same old, same old…not much difference yet. So ratings result is hardly surprising and likely to stay there based on show 1 and 2.

  2. If Ten are serious about this and are in it for the long haul, then they’ve also got to have Saturday and Sunday versions of the show as well, with other hosts, not just have it on weekdays.

  3. I don’t really understand the logic in launching a show the same as the other networks, just under different branding.

    Breakfast TV has unfortunately practically died out here in the UK over the last decade but in it’s heyday in the 90s you had very clear options – BBC Breakfast News for a more heavyweight start to the day, GMTV for a lightweight look at the news and The Big Breakfast if you preferred pure entertainment in the morning.

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