★★★★★ 0/5

7:30 scores for ABC on quiet Thursday

Ratings: Leigh Sales interview with James Comey wins its slot as viewers struggle to get excited about Thursday offerings.

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You know it’s a quiet night when 7:30 wins its timeslot.

Leigh Sales’ interview with former FBI Director James Comey scored for ABC with 735,000 viewers, ahead of Home and Away, Show Me the Movie and Nine’s combined NRL / RBT offering.

Last night all shows were under the magic million with Home and Away the top entertainment drawcard, despite it averaging 646,000 viewers.

With no Reality shows and not even any Gogglebox, viewers struggled to get excited about what was on offer -but next week The Handmaid’s Tale is back.

Seven News, ACA and The Chase won their slots.

Seven network won Thursday with 31.5% then Nine 27.4%, TEN 17.2%, ABC 16.9% and SBS 7.1%.

Seven News was #1 for Seven with 990,000 / 973,000 then Home and Away (646,000) and The Chase (539,000 / 346,000). The Front Bar drew 232,000 in 3 cities, Movie: Bad Neighbours was 153,000 and First Dates UK was 125,000 in 2 cities.

Nine News (856,000 / 839,000) led for Nine then A Current Affair (737,000), Hot Seat (429,000 / 276,000), Thursday Night NRL (374,000), RBT (273,000 in 3 cities). A coding error for The Footy Show will see it corrected to 354,000.

The Project (438,000 / 309,000) topped TEN’s night followed by TEN Eyewitness News (424,000), Show Me the Movie (423,000), Family Feud (306,000), Law and Order: SVU (289,000 / 243,000).

7:30 (735,000), ABC News (671,000), Kiri (411,000), Wentworth (201,000), Think Tank (191,000) and QI (154,000) comprised ABC’s night.

On SBS it was Great British Railway Journeys (251,000), Luke Nguyen’s Food Trail (174,000), SBS World News (161,000), The Truth About Fussy Eaters (136,000) and How to Lose Weight Well (108,000).

Hey Duggee again topped multichannels at 180,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 19 April 2018.

19 Responses

  3. I thought the interview was very compelling; Leigh matched Comey’s pretty laid back manner. His calm but obvious obfuscation on the tougher questions were fascinating. A big risk to devote the whole ep to it, but it paid off. I think Leigh is among the very best in the business. I look to her and David Speers for the substantial interviews.

    1. There probably is a sense that you have to be a touch gentler with an overseas personality. Even though Leigh didn’t ‘go after’ Comey, I agree she set the right tone and did get to ask some tough questions – even though I felt his responses were too clever by half.

  4. A fitting finale for The Bridge last night.
    Have so loved watching – one of my all time favourites.
    Will especially miss Saga and her unique outlook on the world.
    What a fascinating character.

      1. Sadly, yes.
        Yeah, was surprised you didn’t highlight it yesterday.
        Such a wonderful drama – will really miss it but good to go out on a high, I guess.

  5. Kudos to Leigh Sales for last nights 7.30 interview with James Comey. Not normally a fan of Leigh Sales’ aggressive and interruptive style but she did really great job.

    1. Sorry Sunny. I can’t agree with you. I think Leigh Sales is one of the best interviewers in the business, (regardless of which Political Party you support). At times she has to be aggressive and interruptive, especially with MP’s the way they dance around avoiding answering a question trying to use up time.

  6. I think ABC did a good job of promoting the Comey interview as well. I should add that it’s the first time I’ve seen Comey be evasive in answering questions, so kudos to Leigh Sales for the interview.

  7. Watched Kiri but didn’t get excited like ep 1 but still enjoyable. Hopefully picks up next week. Will watch Wentworth over the weekend.
    I wonder what all those ppl who watch reality do when reality isn’t on offer? Maybe they do their washing or pay bills? 🙂

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