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1.37m watch Harry & Meghan interview as 10 wins Monday

Ratings: Oprah interview draws a massive crowd for 10, defeats MAFS and crushes Ultimate Tag.

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10’s Oprah with Meghan & Harry drew a huge audience at 1.37m metro viewers.

The bombshell interview drew global headlines and gave 10 a winning Monday share. Naturally it topped the demos, and landed as 10’s biggest special since Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure in 2011.

It even unseated Married at First Sight (804,000) which was followed by 7:30 (582,000) and Australian Story (510,000). Ultimate Tag sank to 260,000 against mega-competition then The Secret Life of Lighthouses (168,000) on SBS.

Later Four Corners drew 624,000 then Media Watch (551,000), Under Investigation (438,000) and Hughesy We Have a Problem (345,000) -a hefty switch-off by the 10 audience.

10 network won Monday with 29.9% then Nine 26.9%, Seven 20.9%, ABC 16.5% and SBS just 5.8%.

The Oprah interview also fed into lifts for The Project at 589,000 / 347,000 and 10 News First at 403,000 / 264,000.

Nine News (998,000 / 955,000) was best for Nine. A Current Affair won its slot at 839,000. Hot Seat was 453,000 / 295,000.

Seven News won its slot at 1.02m / 1.01m for Seven. Home & Away drew 545,000 then The Chase 529,000 / 347,000. 9-1-1 scored 236,000.

ABC News pulled 688,000 for ABC. The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill (278,000) and The Drum (186,000) followed.

On SBS it was SBS World News (165,000 / 134,000), 24 Hours in Emergency (118,000), The Story of Songs (85,000) and Mastermind (71,000).

Bluey led multichannels at 176,000.

Sunrise: 225,000
Today: 178,000
News Breakfast: 97,000 / 68,000.

OzTAM Overnights: Monday 8 March 2021

37 Responses

  1. Could Seven have had a more successful year if it didn’t strip its new ‘tent pole shows’
    It’s pretty obvious to all that a lot of Secens new shows aren’t designed to be seen three or four nights in a week.
    Perhaps the following programming might have served better ?
    Holey Moley Sunday
    Ultimate Tag Monday
    Big Brother Tuesday
    Big Brother Wednesday

    Just a idea.

  2. I’m sure the Megharry interview cost a bomb for 10, but payed off with a big tune in audience. I didn’t watch, but it was definitely the big water cooler talk this morning in the office.

  4. Not surprised Hughesy dropped so massively. He’s one of the worst personalities on tv. So polarising. We can’t stand him. Good on TEN with the interview though. That is great. Its so good not seeing MAFS in the top 5 for the night 😂 Its a nice change.
    Ultimate Tag will be on a multichannel i recon in the next week or so. What else does Seven have to replace it with though? I can’t believe they thought it would actually work. I guess Seven will be praying the AFL helps them because the cupboard looks pretty bare over there at the moment. Unless they rush Big Brother to air or maybe move forward The Voice. I honestly can’t remember some of the titles they promised for 2021 lol

    1. Fizzer?

      624k is strong considering the competition and the fact 4 corners has been getting between 450k & 550k this year.

      Given some viewer fatigue with the story at this stage, it would have been optimistic to get over 800k again if you were comparing it with “Inside the Canberra bubble” at the end of last year.

    2. TV isn’t just free to air anymore. Plenty of great quality shows(including Aussie ones) can be found on Netflix, Stan etc. Not to mention ABC iview, SBS on demand etc.

  8. “10’s Oprah with Meghan & Harry drew a huge audience at 1.37m metro viewers” or “Less than 10% of the population was interested in the bleatings of two pampered millennials” … kinda depends on your point of view …

  10. The article is a bit misleading – it is comparing Hughesy with a late 9:30pm start with ABC’s 8:30pm – 9:30pm content rather than The Pacific, which it easily outrated.

    Deapite the late slot Hughesy enjoyed a healthy rise from last week’s 223k (and more than triple the comparable slot’s Graham Norton repeat on 101k) & kept Under Investigation well down from last week’s impressive 755k.

    So while the switch-off is disappointing, I think Ten would still be quite pleased with themselves overall.

  13. Great for CBS/Ten. Not sure about journalism though. I can’t believe how the media, particularly in the US, is going gaga for this and apparently when Oprah and the Royals are involved, standards go out the window. I’m not a Monarchist at all, but these bombshells are allegations and claims and need to be reported as such.

  14. Rather than comment on the content…. The Americans have been duped! This is stage one, where there appears to be a big rift in royalty. Child number 2, a daughter will be born in the U.S, and therefore qualify to run for president. In 40-50 years time she will become president and use executive powers to return the American Colonies to Crown control. Slam dunk..!! it’s a long game. You read this Apr1 exclusive preview here first….

  15. Nights like this is why the ratings game will always be exciting…never in a million years did i think the royal special would out-rate MAFS, let alone top the night – especially since all the “highlights” were covered in the news all afternoon/evening. I guess I seriously underestimated the average Aussie’s interest in the royals. On the other end, Ultimate Tag’s death sentence has been all but signed. Seems the issue with Holey Moley was episode length and number of episodes per week…while for Tag it seems there was never any strong interest to begin with.

  16. “Ultimate Tag sank to 260,000 against mega-competition” yet less than half the ABC numbers. 10 must be equally delighted for all of the promotion given by all other media outlets in the lead up to last night. Elsewhere “In an era when many people are making their own TV schedules, reaching that kind of live audiences is unusual now unless it’s a big sporting event. Nielsen said it had the largest audience for any prime-time entertainment special so far this television season”.(17.1m)(AP)
    But for 10 to lose >1m at 9:30. To paraphrase, 10 could lead me to their HWHAP rubbish but no way could you get me to watch. Congratulations 10. A champagne-popping #1.

  17. Just my opinion that Seven needs to cut the tag by tagging it to a multi channel or burning it off yes it did have very tough competition with the Harry and Megan special but they can’t keep it with those ratings

    Hughsey we have a problem we don’t rate

    1. By the sounds I don’t think 7 have anything to replace Tag with though? They were relying on Holy Moley to be huge and for Tag to take over that timeslot, but it obv didn’t work. They will want to be praying that Big Brother and The Voice do decent numbers for them otherwise 2021 will be a year to forget!

    2. At least Hughsey is cheap tv to make. Ultimate Tag on the other hand was a large production that would be disappointing for Seven and ESA. Like Holey Moley, too niche and narrow for FTA main channels. Will The Voice with reduced production elements and reduced Episodes save Seven’s year to date? Im not confident.

  18. Watched Shayna Jack interview Aus story on IView & it talks about her positive test to a banned substance. She has learnt her lesson on the doping scandal.

    1. Will they though? I assume they sold advertising for this slot based on the ratings for TARA and HWHAP (as was originally scheduled) so the increase in ratings won’t affect the revenue they made. Regardless, it’s still very impressive they toppled MAFS.

      1. So it would be a good bet that advertisers would be falling over themselves to get on tonight’s (Wednesday) repeat…..
        There will be those re-watching….me…and those who will now want to see what they missed….

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