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Race that tops the nation

Ratings: 2.17m watch the running of the Cup. Meanwhile TEN's new morning offerings already see a drop in numbers.

2013-11-05_23072.17m watched the running of the Melbourne Cup yesterday in preliminary OzTAM figures, with at least half of them in Melbourne (1.06m). The number is expected to be adjusted to 2.3m.

The figure does not take into account regional viewers or all those gathered in offices and pubs around the country, but is lower than last year’s 2.66m and 2.65m in 2011.

Seven scored well on Tuesday night with a 33.8% share then Nine 25.8%, TEN 17.9%, ABC 16.5% and SBS 6.0%.

The Cup was divided up into several segments including Presentation (1.78m), Mounting Yards (1.41m), Late (849,000) and Early (647,000). Elsewhere Seven News was 1.28m, Dancing with the Stars was 1.13m, Today Tonight was 1.11m, Home and Away was 1.03m, Million Dollar Minute was 602,000. Suits was 183,000.

Nine News (1.08m / 317,000 Sydney 6:30) was best for Nine then A Current Affair (924,000), Big Brother (884,000), Hot Seat (628,000) and Revolution (498,000 / 388,000), Super Fun Night (453,000 in 4 cities).

TEN’s NCIS (699,000) bettered Nine in the timeslot. TEN Eyewitness News was 618,000, NCIS: LA was 489,000, The Project was 452,000, Recipe to Riches was 434,000. The Simpsons was 330,000.

ABC News did well with 914,000 for ABC1 then 7:30 (700,000), Foreign Correspondent (592,000), The Art of Australia (463,000) and At the Movies (348,000).

JFK (353,000) content continues to do well for SBS. Insight was 231,000, Dateline was 158,000 and World News Australia (156,000).

Neighbours led multichannels with 281,000.

Breakfast television numbers would have been impacted by a public holiday in Melbourne. Here’s how they stacked up:

Sunrise: 407,000
Today: 314,000
ABC News Breakfast: 67,000 / 44,000
Wake Up: 39,000

The Morning Show: 234,000 (3 cities)
Mornings: 144,000
Studio 10: 45,000

OzTAM Overnights: Tuesday 5 November 2013

19 Responses

  1. @andrewb Totally agree, I was interested in this seeing and seeing as though I am not up to date with Lost Girl on SBS2 and Sleepy Hollow got taken off Tuesdays thought this would be a good alternative but really couldnt be bothered with 2 eps…would always have to tape the 2nd one and catchup

  2. Can I suggest some ideas for the Ten ‘execs’ to consider. I do think there is room for a 3rd breakfast/morning show. They traditionally turnover decent advert coin, with advertorials, cross-promoting. See Sunrise, see (GMA with Bert – which rated higher than any of the’ morning’ shows.
    1. Either merge/extend Wake up/Studio 10
    2. Get ‘solid’ hosts – I think Sarah Harris is the next Sam Armitage, but isn’t too giggly. Include a rock solid journo to serve it up to Ch 7/9 – ie. Derryn Hinch or Steve Vizard? – 35 year old young “ blokes” don’t cut it. At least these guys have a reasonable ‘known’, ‘watch factor’ name – currently very dull with a solid news anchor (Tarsh Beling), with two disinterested ‘newshounds’;
    3. Further, ditch the expensive ‘Manly’ beach set – why is that essential?? 25 minutes from city. And no worthy interviewee will bust their guts to make it to the beach for…

  3. Have you ever wondered why Nine has never shown the Melbourne Cup despite being previously owned by the racing-mad Packers? I’ve been told it is due to Oaks Day two days later being tied into the telecast contract. The Cup is a ratings bonanza but Oaks Day is a train wreck and the contract with the VRC stipulates that whoever has the Melbourne Cup must also show Oaks Day all day on the main channel. Despite repeated requests from Nine over the years the VRC refuses to split The Cup from the Oaks Day telecast.

  4. That’s right David. Sometimes life imitates art, it seems!

    Otherwise there is no logical explanation for Channel 10’s disastrous strategy at present, which goes from one unmitigated disaster to another with no end in sight.

    1. There was a recent episode of 30 Rock in which Jack Donaghy was accused of programming bad shows so the share price would drop and his rich pal could launch a takeover, buy the network and promote him (something like that anyway!).

  5. Worst DWTS ever . Sloppy production , tongue tied judges, and if the Dancers are under rehearsed, don’t put them to air. Amateur dancing is one thing, under rehearsed amateur dancing is unforgivable. Get real Channel 7 . Very unprofessional.

  6. @andrewb
    Revolution has as a bigger problem — it’s not very good. It was the first fall show launched last year and had a good slot. It held and audience through the first season.

    But it has struggled this year. Come May NBC will be tossing up whether its worth renewing for two more seasons for syndication, or cancelling it.

    Another problem is that people just aren’t interested in watching news shows at the moment.

  7. @andrewb – completely agree. Was interested in the show but saw the double-ep which would start who-knows-when and finish close to 11pm and thought “Nope”. Will catch it elsewhere or not at all.

  8. Revolution – 2 problems.

    1. Many of us have seen already on Foxtel – either first run or second time (plus currently airing S2 and in HD)

    2. They all have to stop doing double eps all the time. One hour a week easy to commit. 2 not so easy and if you full behind the eps quickly stack up to the point where there are too many and we end up saying forget it… has happened at my place with a number of shows on FTA.

  9. Wake Up will not being improving its figures any time soon. I now suspect it’s part of a deliberate strategy at 10 to tank the network so that is cheap for sale.

    Imagine if media ownership laws were changed to allow a certain proprietor to buy a very discounted channel 10 in the near future?

  10. I was looking forward to Wake Up but after watching it for three days I’ll be going back to Today. The beach backdrop is beautiful but the interaction between the presenters is woeful. Boland said he wanted it to be like FM radio; the only problem is it’s like community radio rather than commercial.

  11. Isn’t it funny that a public holiday in Victoria will cause the MDM and Hotseat numbers up, but after today they will crash down again. I just wonder if the correct people are being monitored.

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