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The race that tops the nation

Ratings: 1.84m watch Cross Counter's win and the momentum flows through to primetime for Seven.

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Cross Counter’s win at the 2018 Melbourne Cup managed to halt a trend -just- of gradually declining numbers.

1.84m viewers watched the race, up from 1.8m in 2017, with 997,000 in Melbourne alone.

This includes only those watching in OzTAM people meter homes and excludes offices, pubs and regional Australia. Given we can assume an increasing number of people are watching on digital (including a Twitter simulcast), that’s a positive outcome.

2018: 1.84m
2017: 1.8m
2016: 1.99m
2015: 2.07m
2014: 2.12m
2013: 2.17m

The daytime numbers did flow through into primetime for Seven with a solid win by Seven News at 1.08m / 1.04m over Nine News 889,000 / 887,000.

Bride & Prejudice also enjoyed a rise to 774,000, its best so far, well ahead of 7:30 on 629,000, Ambulance Australia on 520,000 and Family Food Fight stuck at 402,000.

The Good Doctor also won for Seven on 678,000 ahead of Barrenjoey Road on 413,000 then Big Bang, FBI, and Insight.

ABC News also won its slot at 719,000.

Seven network won Tuesday with 32.7% then Nine 25.5%, ABC 16.9%, 10 16.5% and SBS 8.4%.

Meanwhile Seven News was best in primetime at 1.08m / 1.04m then Bride and Prejudice (774,000), The Good Doctor (678,000), Home and Away (640,000), The Chase (617,000 / 150,000 in 3 cities) and The Resident (239,000).

Nine News (889,000 / 887,000) led for Nine then A Current Affair (717,000), Hot Seat (487,000 / 285,000), Family Food Fight (402,000), The Big Bang Theory (400,000 / 313,000), and Kath & Kim (199,000 / 176,000).

ABC News (719,000), 7:30 (629,000), Barrenjoey Road (413,000), Ask the Doctor (394,000), Nolan (225,000) and Grand Designs (150,000) comprised ABC’s night.

Ambulance Australia (520,000) led for 10 then The Project (481,000 / 309,000), 10 News First (385,000), FBI (310,000) and Pointless (241,000). NCIS: LA was 183,000.

On SBS it was Michael Portillo’s Abandoned Britain (275,00), Insight (236,000), Dateline (157,000) and SBS World News (151,000).

Big Bang was best on multichannels at 209,000.

Sunrise: 283,000
Today: 221,000
News Breakfast: 121,000 / 46,000

OzTAM Overnights: Tuesday 6 November 2018

14 Responses

  1. from next year onwards Channel 10 will be showing the Melbourne Spring Carnival, i was wondering who Channel 10 will get to host the coverage and which reporters will be used, also will Francesca Cumani and Richard Freedman be going on Channel10 as well.

  3. Love my horse racing and I love to see my horse parading before the races but Channel 7 was only showing a couple of the more fancied ones and then off to an add break. (except for the Cup off course). Same with Chris and Kevin interviewing the winning jockeys after each race (except Cup). Thank heavens for channel 68. Much more interesting for we who like a bit of fashion but not overkill.

  4. Was it just me or did anyone else find the fogged up camera down the back straight very amateurish? I kept on waiting for the hand to come out and wipe it clean but never happened…ok I know or assume it was on the inside of the camera somewhere but surely it should have been checked and fixed before the race started.

    1. Yes, I was glad I watched them the other way around again. Got to have my cry with The Resident and then have a bit of a laugh with The Good Doctor.

  8. It was a great Melbourne Cup event yesterday, I enjoyed it for some reason more than at least last year, even though there was a tragic horse death and wet weather.

    For any program to get over 1m, let alone 1.5m or over 1.8m (metro) is incredible for these times, Seven would be please they’ve bucked the long trend of decreasing and gone out on a high.

    Good news for Ten!

    1. Sully: And subsequently six jockeys fined for overuse of the whip including the winner. The fine of $3000 was a tiny fraction of what he pocketed for winning. The dark side of the racing industry here.

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