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ABC upstages ARIA Awards, SBS drama fails.

Ratings: Hard Quiz, Mad as Hell lead entertainment shows, while viewers shun SBS boxing drama.

Viewers swarmed to comedy, light entertainment and news last night over the ARIA Awards and new SBS drama On the Ropes.

The SBS local drama drew a dismal 72,000 viewers last night and ranked #70th, suggesting that the female boxing tale was just far too niche.

It was walloped by the 100th episode of Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell on 742,000 viewers. 9-1-1 was next in its slot at 501,000 viewers.

The ARIA Awards averaged 500,000 viewers for Nine, down slightly on 2017’s 515,000 but topped the younger demos. Hard Quiz won the 8pm slot at 742,000 viewers then, at various times around it, 7:30, Border Security and Emergency Call.

10 had a very tough night led by The Project‘s 436,000 with all of its post 8:30 shows ranking lower than The Bold & The Beautiful‘s 222,000.

With Sydney storms there was also considerable interest in news across the day, with both Seven News and Sunrise winning respective slots.

Seven network won Wednesday with 30.6% then Nine 27.4%, ABC 20.1%, 10 15.3% and SBS 6.6%.

Seven News was #1 for Seven with 996,000 / 975,000 then Border Security (613,000), Home and Away (597,000), Emergency Call (550,000), The Chase (540,000 / 356,000) and 9-1-1 (501,000 / 433,000).

Nine News (900,000 / 870,000) led for Nine then A Current Affair (721,000), ARIA Awards (500,000), Hot Seat 9472,000 / 323,000) and Soundbreaking (215,000).

Hard Quiz (742,000), Mad as Hell (719,000), ABC News (711,000), 7:30 (620,000), Tomorrow Tonight (442,000), Adam Hills: The Last Leg (252,000), Grand Designs (159,000), and Insert Name Here (140,000) comprised ABC’s night.

The Project (436,000 / 237,000) was best for 10 then 10 News First (432,000) and Jamie & the Nonnas (330,000). Blind Date drew 220,000, Pointless was 210,000 and The Graham Norton Show was just 131,000.

On SBS it was Great British Railway Journeys (189,000), Destination Flavour China (181,000), SBS World News (116,000), The Missing (75,000) and On the Ropes just 72,000.

ABC KIDS’ Dino Dano topped multichannels at 157,000.

Sunrise: 302,000
Today: 263,000
News Breakfast: 125,000 /

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 28 November 2018

16 Responses

  1. So ARIAs tops 16-49 and most of the winners are under 31, but the first face we see is Richard Wilkins, it’s his voice we hear all night, and the MC is over 50.

    Nine who are you trying to appeal to here?

    1. So true, I made the same comments last night. ARIA’s are for the young, and when I switched over saw Richard Wilkins hosting, in his suit, bowtie, looked like he was attending the Brownlows in the 70’s, and his style is not suited to the ARIAS… he was referring to the crowd as “Ladies & Gentlemen” and “let’s give another round of applause to…..” … it just seems too old school for this event.

      He’s a good host [don’t get me wrong] just not for the ARIA’s. Where are the popular DJ’s or someone else currently in the music industry who’s in the right demographic helping Keith with the hosting.

      Ageist, I know, but it just detracted from the entire event, which was very well staged, had excellent lighting, graphics etc that matched the tone of the awards.

  2. >> ABC upstages ARIA Awards, SBS drama fails.

    So, middle-aged people won’t be watching the ARIAs because they don’t know who any of the artists are; young people won’t be watching the ARIAs because young people don’t watch broadcast TV.

    The (middle-aged) demographic who might have watched ‘On The Ropes’ are the same people who opt for laughs on Wednesday night on the ABC. ‘Million Dollar Baby’ suggests that tales of female boxing are not an entirely niche product – however there is only so much urban grit one can watch. Oh, and SBS made mistake number 1 with the ‘still’ promoting ‘On The Ropes’ failing to include Jack Thompson.

    1. Yes but SBS has had a lot of dramas in recent years focussing on characters with Middle Eastern heritage. I’m suggesting that we’ve reached saturation point. Also, it focused on the world of female boxing which makes it very niche and I believe would only appeal to a very niche audience.

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