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War of the Worlds boosts SBS, Seven wins Thursday.

Ratings: The Chase tops Thursday's entertainment. Seven News & AFL help network win.

War of the Worlds -not to be confused with a pandemic of the world- cracked the top 20 last night, averaging 303,000 across two hours and lifted SBS to an 11% share.

But Seven easily won the night thanks to AFL, news and entertainment.

The Chase was again the top entertainment drawcard at 664,000 / 405,000, followed by Home & Away at 584,000 for Seven.

AFL drew 581,000 across Seven’s network. NRL was 297,000 / 17,000 across Nine’s network.

7:30 led its slot at 562,000 then Celebrity Gogglebox USA (328,000), World’s Busiest Train Stations (266,000), Territory Cops (238,000 in 3 cities) and The Heights (212,000).

Later Escape from the City (317,000) pipped War of the Worlds at 303,000.

Seven network won Thursday with 33.7% then Nine 24.1%, 10 15.6%, ABC 15.5% and SBS 11.0%.

Seven News was #1 for Seven at 1.18m / 1.13m. A Harry Potter movie was  297,000 across Seven’s network.

Nine News was best for Nine at 1.02m / 938,000 then A Current Affair (692,000) and Hot Seat (546,000 / 346,000). Released to Kill Again was 104,000 in 3 cities.

The Project drew 508,000 / 341,000 for 10. 10 News First (430,000 / 276,000) and Law and Order: SVU (183,000 / 161,000) followed.

ABC News led its slot at 783,000. The Drum was 234,000 then Father Brown (194,000).

On SBS it was SBS World News 184,000 with Mastermind at 105,000.

NCIS led multichannels on 191,000.

The Morning Show: 161,000 / 94,000
Today Extra: 124,000 / 82,000
Studio 10: 56,000 / 51,000 /

OzTAM Overnights: Thursday 9 July 2020

12 Responses

  1. I was actually bored by this but will give it another go on streaming since sci-fi really needs more support. But it reminds me a bit of Extant (the Halley Berry series). Not in the type of content but the promising premise ruined by a turgid delivery.

  2. I don’t think it would have done that much better on the other free to air networks – science fiction tends to do pretty poorly even if presented as realistically as this version is. Something about aliens and differing technology really puts a lot of people off but a well considered advertising campaign may have got the first episode up to 450,000 to 500,000 tops in a 7.30pm timeslot.

    1. I agree. Emergence the most recent example, and Manifest before that. They start off well with a curiosity factor and then trail off miserably before being bumped. The only thing the great unwashed are interested in is reality and news.

      1. To be fair, not many US broadcast dramas of late have been that good (they’re on cable /streaming)… we’re a long way from Lost, Desperate Housewives etc that were must see. Nine’s audience has also become a bit cynical that starting a show in a slot is worth the input, as a show chase sets in.

  3. The French/US adaption of the WotW is *significantly* better than the recent BBC adaption and I really hope it gets renewed.

    I also have to wonder what the ratings would have been if this series was broadcast on Nine, Seven, ABC or even Ten. I think the ratings would have been much higher than those achieved by SBS.

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