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No show, no Eurovision. Nine wins Sunday.

Ratings: SBS audiences decide Eurovision just wasn't the same this year without the real thing.

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With no Eurovision this year, SBS missed out on an annual drawcard to promote its upcoming content.

Just 98,000 viewers tuned in for the Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light special -down from 246,000 for the annual contest held a year ago.  Although it did still draw social media reactions.

A penultimate Lego Masters led in entertainment stakes at 1.22m and topped the demos, setting things up for a big finish tonight.

It beat MasterChef Australia (947,000 from 7:30pm), House Rules (641,000) and Grand Designs NZ (495,000 from 7:40pm)

Later 60 Minutes drew 725,000 then Mystery Road (572,000).

Nine Network won Sunday with 33.5% then Seven 23.3%, 10 20.1%, ABC 15.4% and SBS 7.7%.

Nine News pulled 1.12m for Nine. A late edition was 451,000.

Seven News was#1 at 1.23m for Seven. Movie replay: Cast Away drew 254,000

The Sunday Project drew 574,000 / 321,000. 10 News First (361,000) and FBI: Most Wanted (307,000) followed.

ABC News was best for ABC at 841,000.  Compass (233,000) and Killing Eve (209,000) was,

On SBS it was King Arthur’s Britain: Truth Unearthed (296,000) and SBS World News (229,000).

Bluey topped multichannels at 234,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Sunday 17 May 2020

16 Responses

  1. It was widely thought Eurovision really misjudged the mood with this and the event was far too sombre rather than being the uplifting and uniting event it should have been.

    The BBC got the tone much better with their own show beforehand which was basically a mini-Eurovision show using full archive performances and having a vote so it ticked most the Eurovision boxes.

    1. Hi Andy, yes Eurovision features heavily at this time of year. There are always seasonal events including Logies, Upfronts, Pilot Week, Olympics, Elections etc. I’ve been covering Eurovision for 15+ years, including previously being the offical Eurovision blogger for SBS, so it will always get some good coverage here. But the post covers all the big TV stuff from last night, can’t have Lego & Masterchef as the angle every day (Lego will dominate tomorrow).

    2. One article a day out of multiple other articles a day to read for a few weeks. It’s a nice change from corona virus reading.
      And the comments on some of these posts show there’s a decent readership with them.

      1. Would we rather be talking about the same reality shows over and over again? Im glad that there is the odd Eurovision talk out there. A shame thst the special rated lowly last night.

        On the other hand, glad Mystery Road rated well last night

        1. And Killing Eve didn’t. And it was the best thing on TV, the first great episode since S1. Of course it was a digression which had nothing to do with the rest of season (which helped).

          Killing Eve is doing a bit better on iView though, as it’s released their first, estimate it would be getting 600k on VOZ. Mystery Road probably close to 1m once you total everything up. Even though the plot is predictable and silly and the dialogue and acting often unintentionally amusing. It looks good.

      1. – The cost of sending 2 presenters plus hanger on staff to Europe
        – The cost of staging the Australia Decides Show
        – License fees to Eurovision so Australia can compete
        – Promotion costs

        None of which is publicly available (even though it should be as taxpayers are funding it), only thing I can find is an article where Paul Clarke Head of Eurovision for SBS says it “costs a small fortune”

        And it’s never had an audience of much more than 500,000 at it’s greatest peak

          1. The licence fee was published backing 2015. Can’t remember but it wasn’t cheap. Eurovision doesn’t have to make a profit because SBS is majority tax payer funded. And its about the only thing on SBS that actually meets their charter.

  5. Given the Eurovision show had been on You Tube since 5am, I suspect many would have watched it already, sans ads.
    Devastated at the departure of Masterchef’s tight tee wearing hunk. It just won’t be the same : )

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