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Hard Quiz, Mad as Hell lead ABC charge

Ratings: Commercial shows are down as viewers flock to ABC -and some to FOX Footy.

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Where are Melbourne audiences going in curfew?

Last night to ABC, and quite a few to FOX Footy for weeknight AFL matches.

Despite a city in lockdown no commercial show after 7:30pm drew above 500,000* viewers last night.

Hard Quiz was the top entertainment drawcard at 746,000.

Next were 7:30 (693,000), Bachelor in Paradise (490,000), Highway Patrol (407,000 in 4 cities) and RBT* (311,000).

Later Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell easily won its slot at 691,000, then Rosehaven (508,000) Emergency* (320,000) and The Front Bar (300,000).

Meanwhile over on FOX Footy there were two AFL matches at 251,000 / 176,000 nationally.

Nine network won Wednesday with 27.3% then Seven 26.5%, ABC 19.1%, 10 18.2% and SBS 9.0%.

Nine News (1.1m / 998,000) was best for Nine then A Current Affair (725,000) and Hot Seat (593,000 / 345,000). A Nine News late edition was 461,000 and Botched* drew 150,000.

Seven News was #1 with 1.19m / 1.12m for Seven then Home and Away (626,000), The Chase (611,000 / 388,000). The Latest was 269,000.

ABC News won its slot at 835,000. Planet America (206,000), The Drum (199,000) and Retrograde (159,000) also ranked for ABC.

The Project drew 567,000 / 376,000 for 10. 10 News First was 446,000, Tommy was 194,000 and Bull failed at a measly 104,000.

On SBS it was Life And Death In Herculaneum (225,000), Building The Channel Tunnel (216,000),  SBS World News (200,000), Luther (124,000) and Mastermind (96,000).

NCIS led multichannels at 213,000.

Sunrise: 281,000
News Breakfast: 162,000 / 73,000
Today: 214,000

* A Nine coding error left out Melbourne audiences which will see adjusted numbers RBT (472,000) Emergency (507,000) and Botched (tba).

OzTAM Overnights: Wednesday 5 August 2020

30 Responses

    1. Nine won the night by less then 1% .Going by previous Thursday to Saturdays with AFL Seven win big and will over take Nine and win another week. Have not lost a week since the return of AFL>

  3. People are preferring ad free programs. News, Home and Away and Adelaide Crows are too depressing at the moment. What did other states air in place of footy?

  5. MAH used up it’s entire season’s quota of “F” words in one show. Pity that the “naughty word” demo don’t watch MAH. The line “Tosh in a wig and glasses in front of a green screen, reading the autocue and trying to get it right in one take” is wearing a bit thin. (A bit of poetic licence there.) Writing comedy is Hell, maybe 7 writers aren’t enough. Shaun in a wig and glasses in front of…

      1. There was a story in the Herald Sun two weeks ago about 7 Melbourne weather presenter Jane Bunn having to get her hair cut gradually over a few days so viewers didn’t “freak out”. Then Micallef comes on with that. Love it.

    1. I don’t find Retrograde funny. It also gets it’s fair share of criticism on social media with comments referring to wasted tax money and not being entertaining or funny. I wonder how worse it would fare if it wasn’t for the Wednesday ABC lead-in comedy programming. It may not be the concept but the execution that isn’t good, in the sense that it could have featured relatives and family issues or comedy over zoom or skype instead of dating style communication and tawdry humour.

      1. Thanks David.
        So AFL was very nearly the #1 show in Adelaide – the only city where it was on FTA.
        There would have been 500k watching in Melbourne if it was on FTA – as it should have been.

  9. Funny how the ABC has success with well established entertainment programs that start on time in traditional timeslots. Maybe viewers would return to 7, 9, 10 if they followed the example of ABC. I just can’t be bothered following shows around the schedule on commercial television anymore so don’t even bother with them after 7pm these days.

  10. Surely that’s a concerning number for The Front Bar, especially as it was on at 8.30pm. Maybe the weekly time slot change is having an effect ???

    2. It would be interesting to see if the time shifted numbers have risen in recent weeks. I for one got sick of it being moved around, particularly the start time, so I now have my recorder work out when it’s on and I watch it back on Friday nights.

    1. Yeah I agree and it should be a huge sign for FTA TV networks – even when people are forced to be at home they’re only going to watch FTA if there’s something on that they want to watch. Good/popular content that entices viewers to tune in is more important than ever.

  12. Maybe free to air, even entertainment is too much of a reminder of what is going on! Perhaps peeps are switching to netflix where there are no ad breaks, no news updates and no chance of being reminded of what’s going on. That’s my best guestimate!

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