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Nine wins with Big Brother, but …..

Ratings: Big Brother tops the night but the numbers fall behind other Reality TV grand finals.

Big Brother finished with 1.47m viewers for the moment when Benjamin was announced as series winner in Preliminary figures. Nine indicates the number is adjusted to 1.54m.

“The Winner Announced” was the top-rating title for the night but as a finale it falls behind other Reality TV events.

Whilst the show would never attract the kind of glory numbers previously seen on TEN (pre-multichannelling), it is still well short of current Event TV finales. Despite its clear wins in the Demos the number correlates to a weekly edition of The X Factor, rather than Grand Final status.

Nevertheless, Nine Network won the night with 31.5% then Seven 28.7%, ABC 19.0%, TEN 15.5% and SBS 5.2%.

Big Brother Finale was 1.26m for Nine then Nine News (1.08m), Embarrassing Bodies (974,000), ACA (962,000) and Hot Seat (544,000). These include Preliminary figures which do not account for overruns.

Seven News was 1.03m for Seven then Surveillance Oz (1.02m), Criminal Minds (959,000), Highway Patrol (926,000), Today Tonight (899,000), Home and Away (847,000), World’s Wildest Police Videos (452,000) and Deal or No Deal (441,000).

ABC News hit 1.09m for ABC1 followed by 7:30 (848,000), Qi (767,000), The Hamster Wheel (639,000), A Moody Christmas (592,000), Red Dwarf X (345,000) and At the Movies (285,000).

TEN News was best for TEN on 618,000. Modern Family was 542,000, Glee was 473,000, The Good Wife was 395,000, The Project 6pm was 388,000 and Emily Owens MD was just 187,000.

Living with the Amish (263,000) topped SBS ONE then Meet my Wild Friends (188,000), Al Qaeda Confidential (172,000) and World News Australia (162,000).

In the battle to cover the US Presidential campaign, here are the various numbers according to preliminary results. Bear in mind these are averages across entire broadcast programmes:
TEN News at Five was 618,000
Nine Afternoon News was 292,000
Seven News at 4:30 was 221,000
Afternoon Live on ABC News 24 was 137,000
USA Votes 2012: Election Results on ABC News 24 was 130,000
Nine News Special Presentation was 123,000
Nine Morning News and Seven Morning News were both 106,000
USA Votes 2012: Election Night on ABC News 24 was 105,000
USA Votes 2012: Election Results on ABC1 was 80,000
TEN Morning News was 39,000
America Decides: The Presidential Result Live on SBS ONE was 37,000
Seven News Special: US Election coverage on 7TWO was 35,000
USA Votes: Election Night (PM) on ABC1 was 30,000

Wednesday 7 November 2012

24 Responses

  1. Thank you for not announcing the winner in the post header David and keeping it for the body of the article – I hope this is a trend you will continue. I check this blog in a reader and have had the outcomes many programs spoiled for me in the past from the post headers. Like many TV viewers these days much of my viewing is from recordings not live. Anyway, I hope you will continue to do this.

    1. Walt: this was a ratings story, so I guess you missed the earlier one (see carousel on home page). There is no change to my editorial policy that a live blog files live tv news as soon as practical, in accordance with other media. Best advice is to modify your site use when your viewing is behind thanks.

  2. These numbers are solid, not spectacular, which is what I predicted, and I am assuming the show will be back next year.

    I like that GO! repeat the entire weeks episodes over the weekend, it makes it very easy to catch up.

    The show has been handled well. Nine have really revived the Big Brother format.

    I think the show will only have another 2-3 years on air though before 9 retire it for good.

  3. Did not watch big brother this year but think well outside target demo. Think major problem with it was the daylight saving factor, the minimal usage of multi channels. Surely for expense of setting up house etc an up late on gem or go wouldn’t have been hard and think it may have generated more “buzz”. Also web streaming surely would have been possible.
    With ten’s election coverage .. No issue with staying with normal programming on normal channel but agree should have just shown an least an American feed on one of the multi – just to show a little bit of news integrity. For the network that tried negus it shows what direction they are heading,
    Good wife very good last night but Emily Owens dire (1st episode I’ve seen)

  4. Boy “Glee” really nose dived last night. Not sure if it was because of “Big Brother”finale, but thats a huge drop from last week where it was just a stone’s throw from its old figures of around 600,000.

  5. I think there really is only a 50/50 chance of Big Brother returning. Total People numbers are absolutely crap for a finale and on a night where there wasn’t any significant competition. I noticed BB wasn’t mentioned on the Nine 2013 promo on the first ad break. I don’t think the figures for evictions, nominations and finale reached Nine’s own expectations. Only thing that’s saving Big Brother from the axe is the demo results and the lack of a suitable replacement – TBBT repeats don’t work anymore.

  6. @Leppie – you’re on the wrong site – this is the TVtonight blog not BB Central. That being said, I’m sure David will do an article when there is actually something to report rather than pointless commentary on flimsy speculation.

  7. I share David’s confidence that BB will be back next year. Just look at its success in the key demos, where it won nearly every night.

    One change I would predict for next year though will be that it’s all over before daylight savings. No costly “flagship” shows should be on at 7pm in November. I predict it will be done and dusted before the NRL grand final too so as to avoid the Sunday night clash of this year which put out the BB regular schedule for a week.

  8. Actually Seven’s election coverage ended up on Seven until 6pm AEDT, 7two ended up showing normal programming. EPGs were not updated, nor was there an amendment as far as I am aware. Deal did not air in AEDT markets, and Obamas speech was well timed finishing at 5.59pm AEDT, so Seven were able to go straight to news on time.

  9. David Campbell, Channel 9 Mornings host said on twitter…

    “Congrats to @SoniaKruger , Ben and all at @bbau9.. Great show! See you next year #BBAU”

    Does this mean anything, or am I just digging way too deep?

    twitter.com/DavidCampbell73/status/266120237387227137

  10. despite the fresh coat of paint, BB still looked and felt like a tired old format being trotted out again. anyone know what it cost Nine to make? that will be the make or break on another season. if it is no longer as expensive as it was on Ten, then it might get another run

  11. Poor ratings for the Good Wife again…. 🙁

    I have to say I enjoyed the Big Brother final last night. Despite all the negativity on a previous news post’s comments I was happy to see Ben win (I beleived they all deserved it except George).

    Does anyone know how last night’s rating compared to previous finals on Channel 10?

  12. what’s going to happen to emily owens MD? there is already talk in the US it’s getting cancelled tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/11/06/cw-emily-owens-m-d-will-be-canceled-but-what-goes-with-it/156187/

  13. Good to see Big Brother Finale win the night (and help Nine with a nightly win), but it is a shame that the numbers aren’t as high as other ”Reality Final Nights” we have seen previously.

    Also, thanks for posting the US Presidential ratings. It’s interesting to see what was watched during the day, and how rolling coverage rates.

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