★★★★★ 0/5

The Killing Season wins timeslot, tops ABC’s night.

Ratings: Sarah Ferguson's documentary draws a big audience on ABC and trends at #1 on Twitter.

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2015-05-31_0130

Sarah Ferguson’s The Killing Season drew a big audience last night with 986,000 viewers watching Kevin Rudd & Julia Gillard dissect their political history.

The show drew its biggest audience in Sydney (310,000) then Melbourne (297,000), as the top show for the ABC on Tuesday and more than enough to win its timeslot.

It also trended at #1 on Twitter, with plenty of debate about the key players and the merits of the documentary. The strong results come despite TV networks all saying nobody was interested in Gillard.

But it was MasterChef that topped the night at 1.14m viewers. While TEN was breathing down the neck of Seven for the night, Nine managed to finish in first place.

Nine won with 26.9% then Seven 24.3%, TEN 23.6%, ABC 19.6% and SBS 5.5%.

Nine News (1.08m / 1.06m) led for Nine then A Current Affair (888,000), Love Child (770,000), Reno Rumble (667,000), Hot Seat (578,000) and a Married at First Sight repeat (395,000).

Seven News (991,000 / 916,000) was best for Seven then House Rules (881,000), Home and Away (799,000), Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (556,000) and Million Dollar Minute (509,000). Tattoo Nightmares was 269,000.

MasterChef topped the evening with 1.14m for TEN. The Project was 736,000 / 561,000, TEN Eyewitness News was 573,000, NCIS was 570,000 and NCIS: LA was 494,000.

The Killing Season (986,000) scored for ABC then ABC News (928,000), 7:30 (733,000), Foreign Correspondent (681,000), Antiques Roadshow (393,000) and Grayson Perry: Who Are You? which plummeted to 192,000 following its strong lead-in.

SBS ONE titles ranked Britain’s Oldest Family Businesses (284,000), Insight (174,000), Dateline (173,000) and SBS World News (161,000).

ABC2’s Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom led multichannels at 266,000.

The Morning Show: 121,000 / 102,000
Mornings: 98,000 / 77,000
Studio 10: 61,000 / 39,000

OzTAM Overnights: Tuesday 9 June 2015

31 Responses

  1. From what I can tell watching the 1st Ep, Kevin was very smart thinker and the type of leader you’d want given his lack of union up-bringing, his down-to-earth approach and willingness to always listen and talk to people. Julia on the other hand seemed like she was always intent on taking the top job if anyone above her wasn’t good enough. I’ve seen this happen many times over in management. It can be ruthless. I think Bill Shorten’s days and the ALP’s popularity are numbered only if they fail to take note of the underlying messages and dysfunction defined by Rudd and Gillard. The public will not want to see another union golden child leading a party that should represent all Australians and not come with union baggage. This is why Kevin Rudd was popular. Goodness me, one time I tried to ring Julia Gillard’s Primeministerial office and was virtually hung-up on being told they…

    1. I thought it was very interesting and much better than the reality shows filling much of the other channels time slots last night. Right up there with the other show recently on the ABC ‘Making Australia Great – Our Longest Boom’.

  5. Not generally interested in political docos but this was surprisingly watchable. I avoided detailed reviews so I could see the episode unfold. I thought the most interesting part was the coverage of the global financial crisis with the perspective of the American secretary of treasury. The least interesting part was the fake email controversy.

  6. The Killing Season was great and left us wanting more….looking forward to next week. As mentioned elsewhere Ten primary channel won the night. I can help but think…If Ten had a very good news service in a time slot when’s the majority of people where at home to watch the news (yes i am talking between 6-7) they could be rating close to million each night and winning each and every night overall at the moment….easily. But that would mean investment and time to build an audience out of habit.

    1. You may have a point, but my understanding is that 7pm Project falls under news at Ten and that show has been really starting to underpin the rest of the schedule’s revival of late.

  7. The ABC should not be wasting its limited resources on this drivel about these 2 contradictory losers, they should have a singing show…..no one else has a singing show right now do they?

    he he

  8. Out of touch, but probably no more so than in the past. 15 years ago the home audience was more or less captive – it was broadcast TV or a trip to the video store. There was never a golden time when all the FTA programming was great.

  9. It’s not so much whether you’re a Gillard or Rudd fan, or hate them both, it’s about the machiavellian shenanigans that went on within and without Labour during that time, and which led to them being booted out and the current clueless clots we’ve got now.

    2. I agree in part with you, certainly the first episode was more of a scene setter, it flirted with rivalry and plotting, but was more focused in its generous 75 minute duration on the landscape that led to the 2010 coup. It was quite forensic in its exploration of the apology, climate change, global financial crisis, and a narrowing of decision making. I suspect ep 2 is where the proverbial really hits the fan. Julia played a supporting role in the first ep. There is something disingenuous about Rudd and the way he carries himself in these interviews. But then again, i wasn’t sure about the veracity of some of Julia’s declarations so far. Irrespective, I find it compelling viewing, more for the scene setting, which provides context, context and more context for what is to come.

      1. @dave…..why do you refer to Julia Gillard as Julia and Kevin Rudd as Rudd, is it some sort of discriminatory sexist approach or just simple favouritism?

  11. I agree too.It just shows how completely out of touch tv executives are with the public.No wonder commercial tv is struggling to maintain an audience against the new media players like internet streaming.

  12. Gobsmackingly out of touch in my opinion. The commercial networks mostly treat us like morons and while we don’t often prove them wrong I am happy when we do.

    1. I wouldn’t recommend putting Gillard or Rudd near knives. I think they are more likely to end up in someone’s back rather than for their intended purpose.

  14. “The strong results come despite TV networks all saying nobody was interested in Gillard.”
    – I think that some commercial tv stations may be out of touch with their audience.

        1. It’s not the same thing at all. An ABC documentary is a very different beast to a dramatisation, especially one produced for an Australian commercial network, given that they are invariably dumbed down. The Hawke telemovie was essentially a love triangle in which the bloke happened to be a Prime Minister. Also, the broad pitch clearly displayed a very partisan approach to Gillard. That’s not only unwise because of what a divisive figure she is, it’s a pretty good indicator of bad drama. It’s also worth noting that the ABC passed on it too, not just the commercial networks.

          I was pleasantly surprised by The Killing Season – it was comprehensive, even-handed and extremely well put together.

    4. There is a world of difference between an interview style dissection of events seen last night and a fictionalised account of events particularly one written from a particular point of view which is what Richard Keddie was offering. I’m not surprised everyone walked away from his proposal. It had dud written all over it. Shows like The Dismissal worked because they presented an objective account of events.

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