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We are still under the million, people…

Ratings: For the third night in a row no single show could manage to crack the magic million. But the night goes to Seven.

2014-10-17_0948Is it Daylight Saving? Is it the weather? Is it lack of interest in what’s being offered? Or is it all three?

Whatever the reason, for the third night in a row, no single show could manage to crack the one million mark, including the traditional 6pm News.

For the best comparison we should look to the same date a year ago, which was only marginally different with both news bulletins above the magic million. Things were a little brighter earlier in the week a year ago, now the dip is impacting earlier in the week.

Seven network won Thursday with 30.1% then Nine 26.8%, ABC 19.1%, TEN 18.3% and SBS 5.7%.

Seven News (903,000 / 873,000) was best for Seven then Home and Away (825,000), Beauty and the Geek (623,000 / 612,000) and Million Dollar Minute (470,000). Covert Affairs was 221,000.

Nine News (927,000 / 918,000) was best for Nine followed by ACA (796,000), Kings Cross ER (713,000), Big Brother (512,000), Hot Seat (490,000) and a repeat of Gotham (292,000).

Catalyst (731,000) topped ABC’s night while Upper Middle Bogan had a good debut at 719,000. ABC News (704,000), 7:30 (649,000), It’s a Date (621,000), QI (356,000) and Felicity’s Mental Mission (284,000) followed.

Madam Secretary was TEN’s best on Thursday at 559,000. The Project  was 541,000 / 402,000. Save with Jamie was 528,000, TEN Eyewitness News was 516,000 and a repeat of Party Tricks was 190,000.

On SBS ONE it was The Little Paris Kitchen (248,000) then Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean Island Feast (204,000), The Incredible Spice Men (140,000), Masters of Sex (143,000), SBS World News (106,000) and Thai Street Food (63,000).

7TWO’s A Touch of Frost topped multichannels at 285,000.

Seven News at 4:30: 244,000
Seven News at 4: 221,000
Nine’s Afternoon News: 217,000
Nine News Now: 119,000
ABC Early Edition: 108,000
The Daily Edition: 98,000

OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 16 October 2014

18 Responses

  1. I agree with some of the comments. Scheduling, or the lack of it, is for me a huge turn-off. I will watch a TV series if it starts at 7h30 or 8 or 8h30 on the same day every week – it becomes a habit. Not when said series keeps on shifting all over the place. And don’t get me started on the 8h08 or 8h44 starting times! Cut some of the encroaching commercial breaks to get your programs back on track! Now I just watch ABC and SBS, for the rest it’s either catch up (if it is an Australian show that interests me) or ‘by other means’ if it is an American show (fast tracked or not – f.ex. Survivor, Homeland, Grey’s)

  2. So many options now. Hulu, Netflix, downloads and dvr’s. The free to air networks need to get their s**t together. Younger viewers are turning to other options. TV viewing is changing.

  3. Great to see Madam Secretary take TEN’s number 1 spot. Shows that new dramas can still pull good numbers. Am I right in saying it was #2 in its timeslot amongst the 3 commercial networks? Unfortunately for TEN though I can’t see it improving in following weeks if they keep using Jamie as a lead – he’s proven to constantly drop ratings from The Project yet TEN don’t seem to have anything better to put in the 7:30-8:30pm timeslot.

  4. Last night was packed for me…catching up today…on PC….
    Watched mostly SBS…Little Paris Kitchen…great half hour….The Spice Men….gentleman obviously Hindi with a turban and beard…but wearing a kilt and the thickest Scottish accent…lovely man but a conundrum…really messed with my mind.
    Its a Date….great episode…

  5. I’d say PVR and lack of content. I watched It’s A Date this morning to give it another go after not being impressed with the only season one episode I watched last year. It’s still the same, boring with a lack of comedy.

  6. Watched a new episode of Downton Abbey via the ITV Player ‘Chromecasted’ to the TV then watched the new episode of American Horror Story in glorious HD via my US iTunes account. Tonight it’ll be new eps of Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder and Modern Family via the HuluPlus app on Apple TV plus Upper Middle Bogan which I DVRd last night.

    I fast forwarded through BIg Boring this morning and can’t believe how badly they have cast it this season.

  7. On the positive, it’s great to see the return of Upper Middle Bogan near the top of the ratings last night when you take news and current affairs out of the list.

  8. I watched BB last night, and halfway through turned around to my housemate and said we really shouldn’t be watching this, and quickly changed the channel! It was terrible! It has turned from an interesting social experiment to a show based on over the silly, over the top drama. The turning point for me was Kat (who a week ago felt guilty she was coming onto Lawson) admitted yet again she has feelings for Lawson, for both of them to agree they should stop hanging out, to them talking to BB discussing how difficult it is not being able to talk – yet they are within 10 metres of each other. Ridiculous! And pathetic.

  9. I don’t even bother channel surfing anymore because it’s become so predictable. Singing or dance contest on 7. Big Brother or the block or big bang on 9. Boring American drama on Ten.

    ABC2 gets most attention in our house but luckily I caught It’s a Date on ABC

  10. Lack of content and inconsistent scheduling are big factors.

    If the networks would band together and agree to start shows on the hour or half hour I think audiences would respond positively. For the industry, I think it would be a plus, but selfish networks push overruns longer and longer.

  11. The more we have the 5v switched off during the day or do other things the more it becomes a habit and we just dont bother watching as much as before.

    Are we all finally “over” TV after 58 years?

  12. We flicked around and found nothing, while waiting for Big brother. Which I really only watch out of habit now (mind you it was a better episode than some recently) and then watched the second half of It’s a Date.

    There does seem to be a lack of anything good on at the moment. The whole evening was chocked full of repeats and fillers.

  13. Maybe some networks will get a rude awakening next year when the popular shows they refuse to fast track rate will be much lower than they should. This time of year some networks don’t offer anything of substance. I’ve really gone off reality and can forsee my reality viewing being very limited next year. I would like to see some good Australian and overseas drama but some networks aren’t treating the shows I like with the respect they deserve.

  14. At our place we were hanging out until 9.30 for Survivor (and we usually try to avoid watching anything live) – watched nothing from earlier other than Family Feud with the kids (as they love it) and had nothing really left to watch from earlier in the week either.

    This year I would have to say seeing we are watching none of the stripped reality shows we generally have had less to watch off free to air than ever before.

    Its almost like the more channels there are, the less there really is we are interested in.

    There have been quite a few good dramas this year on free to air and some good stuff on Foxtel as well.

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