0/5

Viewers get pre-wedding jitters

Ratings: Royal specials, telemovies & breakfast TV in London -but many viewers appear to be over it already.

If Royal Wedding fever is in the air many viewers appear to be over it already.

Last night several specials and a telemovie struggled to generate interest, while London-based breakfast shows have been underperforming all week.

Invitation to a Royal Wedding at 7:30 last night on Seven pulled 410,000, almost doubled by MasterChef‘s 792,000 and eclipsed by 7:30 on 476,000. The Harry & Meghan telemovie at 9:30 was unexcited at 235,000.

All week London-based Sunrise and Today have been averaging lower than their usual performance in Sydney. While Sunrise has been winning that tussle each day, at around the 250,000 mark, yesterday it was Today‘s turn.

The Front Bar won in Melbourne at 211,000 in a battle with The Footy Show‘s 176,000.

Meanwhile Nine News, A Current Affair and The Chase won their slots.

Nine led in primary share but Seven network won Thursday with 29.2% then Nine 27.8%, TEN 19.9%, ABC 15.6% and SBS 7.5%.

Seven News (949,000 / 927,000) led for Nine then Home and Away (623,000), The Chase (565,000 / 351,000), Invitation to a Royal Wedding (410,000), The Front Bar (297,000) and Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance (235,000). A Harry & Meghan: Royal Rebels special was 195,000 in 2 cities.

No doubt it will bounce back big time tomorrow night.

Nine News was #1 with 971,000 / 910,000 followed by A Current Affair (790,000), Hot Seat (554,000 / 341,000), The Footy Show (416,000) and Thursday Night NRL (384,000 in 2 cities). RBT was 317,000 in 3 cities.

MasterChef Australia (792,000) won its slot for TEN then The Project (523,000 / 338,000), TEN Eyewitness News (429,000), Law and Order: SVU (377,000) and Family Feud (294,00). An Instinct repeat was 220,000.

ABC News (664,000), 7:30 (476,000), The Coronation (367,000), QI (236,000) and Think Tank (226,000) comprised ABC’s night. Wentworth was just 114,000.

On SBS it was Great British Railway Journeys (267,000), The Handmaid’s Tale (243,000), Luke Nguyen’s Food Trail (178,000), SBS World News (136,000) and Next of Kin (88,000).

Peter Rabbit hopped to the top of multichannels with 203,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 17 May 2018

24 Responses

  1. I understand that after the ceremony the new Mr and Mrs Mountbatten-Windsor will qualify for a Green-Card to live and work in the USA. Considering the length of the queue stretching out of the Westminster Unemployment Office, H & M may well consider the opportunities in New England or New York. However, President Trump doesn’t look kindly on immigrants with beards, so Harry may have to make a temporary sacrifice. A famous TV Star and Actress with a handsome new husband who also comes from a country called “Great”, will be treated like Royalty. A homestead in Arizona with a view of London Bridge must be difficult to resist. Go West, youngsters, your future beckons.

  2. The breakfast shows should not have sent their hosts to the UK if all they have is interviews with the third best friend of someone who once met Meghan’s pet iguana, or someone who is a psychic who can predict her toenail varnish colour or even worse, interview the “look(not)alikes”.
    It’s embarassing.

  3. No interest in the royal wedding, at all. I have been trying to avoid all the media hype all week, won’t be watching any of it tomorrow night, and will be glad when it is all over. The commercial networks really have gone over the top for this – sending all the major news people to london to cover it.

  4. I might have been interested in the wedding if they hadn’t been trying to set up Meghan as the new Saint Diana.

    I pity the bride, as the spectre of her mother-in-law will be like a Gothic novel, walking the halls and never letting her rest.

    Another reason is that Harry is now way down the inheritance line, and, while seemingly a nice guy, he is now about on par with Zara Phillips in the heirarchy.

  5. Looking forward to the Wedding, but can’t can’t stand any of the lead up be it news, telemovies, docos, specials or anything else they all are throwing at us now. Even fast forward through it all when playing the news back.

    I thought a funny send up of the news reporting “live from Windsor” would be to put a reporter outside Windsor train station in Sydney’s north west talking about what is happening there – would do wonders to the local area!

  6. Why don’t these so called reporters and TV hosts actually cover real and relevant news. They’re better off staying in England for good because they are so out of touch with the Australian public and what we constitute as news.

  7. Far too much hype and coverage over the royal wedding, and that’s before the actual event has taken place. And really it’s just an excuse for the Today Show and Sunrise to grandstand in London for a week, with every toffee nosed royal expert they can find.

    1. Does not belong on the ABC. Even though it can be argued that taxpayer dollars were used in part to finance its production, being as series 1 was made over 5 years ago, it should appear on a commercial network multi-channel. How far the ABC has fallen with its own drama slate that it now resorts to 2nd hand hand-me-downs from commercial TV is very sad state of affairs.

  8. Solid win for Front Bar then. Probably indicative, as both started at 8:30pm and neither had a ‘big’ show leading-in, thus fairer. Also Front Bar’s biggest audience so far this season.

    1. I’m not really a footy follower, but I usually come across the Front Bar when it is on and stick around for a watch, but I just can’t get interested in the Footy Show.

      I wonder what the ratings for Footy Show were pre-Front Bar, has it stolen half of its audience share or has Front Bar attracted a new audience that would not normally follow the Footy Show. (like me)

Leave a Reply