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Home and Away slips to fourth, Nine News beats Seven.

Ratings: Home and Away has a fight on its hands against Reality shows, while Nine News and ACA also beat Seven's offerings.

Home and Away has a fight on its hands in its traditional 7pm timeslot.

With two Reality shows hogging the attention it slipped under 900,000 last night, landing in fourth place on 892,000 viewers.

The Block thumped the soap with 1.36m viewers, followed by MasterChef on 1.04m and ABC News on 963,000 and it wasn’t much better in the demos either.

But Seven managed to win the night overall with 29.7% to Nine’s 26.7% and TEN’s 23.1%.

Packed to the Rafters was best for Seven on 1.33m then Seven News (1.29m), Today Tonight (1.11m), Once Upon a Time (1.03m), Missing (600,000 / 487,000) and Deal or No Deal (574,0000).

Aside from The Block topping the night, Nine News (1.31m) and ACA (1.19m) both beat Seven’s offerings. Then it was Big Bang (915,000 / 868,000),  Hot Seat (657,000), Two Broke Girls (655,000), Two and a Half Men (449,000) and Survivor (303,000 / 225,000).

Modern Family (1.05m) led TEN. Elsewhere it was MasterChef (1.04m), Bikie Wars (959,000), TEN News (831,000), NCIS (513,000) and The Project 6pm (445,000).

On ABC1 it was ABC News then Foreign Correspondent (715,000), 7:30 (699,000), Qi (577,000), Origins of Us (540,000) and Jennifer Byrne Presents (259,000).

Who Do You Think You Are? was 256,000 on SBS ONE with Insight on 250,000 and Dateline on 142,000.

Neighbours was again best on multichannels at 320,000.

Tuesday 29 May 2012.

22 Responses

  1. Home and away isn’t the same as it was in the Nineties.Back then and this was years before you had your OC,Gossip Girl and Jersey Shore offerings It was more realistic and something for the too old for teen offerings Heartbreak High/Sweet Valley High/Clueless market to actually enjoy.These days that market are now into your older Sitcoms or have better things to do at 7pm.

  2. It’s the stupid classification laws.The Way Seven is going with Home and Away They are going to lose viewers to older US Sitcoms on Digital TV,The Big Bang Theory when that comes back and whatever Ten decide to put on next once this years Master Chef is done with.There are the loyal few who will watch the Soap but honestly They need to go back to the drawing board and make it the way it used to be(Less Melrose Place/Dallas/Dynasty/Bold and the Beautiful)and more along the lines of an Early 90210 or similar type shows when every channel had something for the teen/twenty something market.

  3. Home and Away is a joke period.Seven refuses to admit it but they can import in a load of Family Guy’s,American Dad’s,How I met your mother’s and That Seventie’s or Eightie’s shows for a fraction of the amount it costs to produce Home and Away and have a far more pleasing to watch 7pm alternative after the News and Current Affairs.Honestly what would you rather your kids see Bed Hopping and Violent Gangs or a good laugh.

    1. Not sure how well those shows would perform in those timeslots, unless it’s summer. H+A is rated PG but Family Guy is often M so it couldn’t play at 7pm anyway. I’m also unclear where Seven refused to admit they could import the shows at a fraction of the amount of H+A?

  4. As an agent it is important I keep an eye on “Home and Away”, see who is new and see what they are looking for, so I have tried to watch it a couple of times a week since I had a full time client on it a few years ago. Regardless of how difficult it is to write a 5 days a week nightime soap, it seems the series has hit a very bad rutt in the last six months. The Braxtons lifted it for a while, but, as with every character on the show, eventually they are reformed and turn into nice (read boring) guys.The script writers really had something with these three fine actors and an intriguing and dangerous plotline, but they lost it when they “reformed”them. Lincoln Younes (by far the best of them and an actor who surely will go onto better things and has already proved himself in “Tangle”)is positively saint like these days. In fact all the young males are too good to be true and the girls are cast as the plotters and schemers,— dated and twee. I agree with the comments that the series need some stronger solid adult relationships (but please not Georgie Parker and Marcus Graham), Esther Anderson was never a great actor but she possessed something coupled with her being a police woman that gave the show structure and gravitas. They lost the most important character in years when she was killed off. The problem is also if the network realises there needs to be some major character changes and plot developments, they film it so far in advance, it would be 6-9 months before those changes could take any effect.

  5. Would the ratings been any different had they not moved the Project to 6pm and Nine were still showing Big Bang Theory/2.5 Men or even had a News/Chat Karl/Leila offering up against Home and Away?I hope Nine start on the latter once This Seasons Block is over It would give the crappy soap a good run for the money.If It was up to me I would rather 7 import in a load of Family Guy episodes as a 7pm offering for a fraction of the amount it takes to make Home and AwaY.

  6. You have to remember that H&A gets next to no promotion of Seven. Ads for News and TT, which have exactly the same amount of program air-time are shoved down our throats all day and all night.

    Seven doesn’t promote H&A. Remarkable really. Especially when News/TT/H&A is the only regular 90 min block on weeknights. I remember during my time at 9 – News/ACA/Sale were all part of the one strategic promo block. Win all 3 programs and you won the night!

  7. Aussie serials lost the plot twenty years ago. When you look at the great characters and tight plotting of UK shows like Eastenders or Coronation Street, you see just how hopelessly inept Home & Away and Neighbours really are.

  8. I’ve been watching Home And Away since the beginning, but have recently been considering giving it up. The main reason being I feel no empathy for the majority of characters anymore – even classic characters like Leah and Irene. The show just seems to focus on endless love triangles/squares and characters like Ruby sleeping around with as many Summer Bay residents as they can. It’s like the writers are constantly testing out each combination of characters until they find a relationship that works. The show is lacking in romance, long-term relationships, community spirit and family interaction.

  9. @Jake

    Yeah i have a feeling people have done that. Seven should have aired it earlier but their schedule was full and you can’t air all shows.

    As for Home and Away its like watching grass grow at the moment. There is nothing interesting about it. They need to reinvigorate it. It always goes through these slumps but they need something big to happen to make it interesting again and stop focusing on the Braxtons.

  10. End Home And Away now? That’s actually funny. H&A is the most successful show ever on 7 and it makes 7 a packet load and will be around long after The Block & Masterchef are just a distant memory.
    Having said all that the storylines have been boring and the show needs to get back to its roots.

  11. @ Guy – I couldn’t agree more. I’ve taped all the episodes and so far have only seen the first. It’s the most original show in years and beats all those lame cop shows and soapies….I think many have already seen it, having downloaded it from the net….this has probably cost the show some ratings….

  12. Problem with Home+Away is that it is always the same old same old…storylines are lame and boring…and with Colleen leaving shortly its ratings will fall further….time perhaps to end the soap now while there’s still afew suds and bubbles left….

  13. @roaringdave

    If you look at recent ratings for The Project 6.30-7pm you’ll see figures hovering around the 600k mark.. more than what Neighbours was getting towards the end of it’s run on TEN. Plus at least TEN get to gloat about having the number one show on a multi channels.

    I expect OUAT to drop to around 850-900k mark next week

  14. Who new the departure of Colleen from Home and Away would effect the ratings so much?? 🙂

    I thought the same about Neighbours, it was getting the same ratings as the Project when on TEN.

  15. So Neighbours is 320,000 on Eleven, The Project is 445,000 on Ten. Surely Neighbours would outrate The Project if it were put back on Ten? I really think Ten need to bite the bullet on The Project.

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