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Cheap Seats turns around ailing numbers from The Challenge

The Cheap Seats finale did some heavy lifting for 10. Home & Away tops entertainment. Nine wins Tuesday.

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Not much was notable around Tuesday night ratings other than the distressing numbers for 10’s new reality show The Challenge. Having at least managed to debut with a demo win the night before, it tumbled further on night 2.

This joins the ranks of a string of failures for the network across Q4 -but there was better news from The Cheap Seats.

It was Home & Away which led entertainment overall at 458,000 metro viewers.

7:30 led its slot at 445,000 then Kitchen Nightmares Australia (416,000), My Mum Your Dad (414,000), Stuff the British Stole (341,000), The Challenge (193,000) and Great British Railway Journeys (147,000).

But a Cheap Seats finale rebounded for 10 to take the later slot at 343,000 then Magda’s Big National Health Check (330,000), Travel Guides (264,000), and a repeat of Kitchen Nightmares (203,000).

Nine network won with 27.8% then Seven 27.4%, 10 19.0%, ABC 18.3% and SBS 7.5%.

Nine News (708,000 / 702,000) was best for Nine. A Current Affair won with 599,000 then Hot Seat (316,000 / 199,000). Botched managed 112,000.

Seven News was #1 at 861,000 / 822,000 for Seven. The Chase led at 434,000 / 272,000. 10 Years Younger in 10 Days was 123,000.

The Project pulled 323,000 / 193,000 for 10. 10 News First was 245,000 / 149,000. NCIS was 185,000.

ABC News drew 547,000. Nude Next Door (217,000) and The Drum (108,000) followed.

On SBS it was SBS World News (139,000 / 110,000), Australia Uncovered (81,000) Mastermind (49,000) and Miscarriage And Me (TBA).

7mate’s Highway Patrol led multichannels at 119,000.

Sunrise: 219,000
News Breakfast: 119,000 / 78,000
Today: 178,000

In Total TV numbers last Tuesday were:

Love Island: 335,000
The Good Doctor: 521,000
My Mum Your Dad: 774,000
Kitchen Nightmares: 848,000
Magda’s Big National Health Check: 693,000
The Cheap Seats: 510,000

OzTAM Overnights: Tuesday 15 November 2022

27 Responses

  1. I love the Cheap Seats but I consume it via their Podcast each week in the car. I just wish they’d cut the studio audience ‘canned laughter’ for next year – it gets annoying after a while.

  2. I can count on my hand and remember how many times I’ve watched Ten this year. Three shows HYBPA? Cheap Seats and Five Bedrooms which was rudely moved to Paramount + for first runs.

    I expect Ten to be the first FTA to fall, Australia won’t be able to sustain three commercial networks in a world of streaming. I expect numbers to continue to dwindle on all FTA’s next year. I don’t think we’ve hit the bottom yet. A smash hit will be 350K overnight viewers.

    Eventually MAFS and The Block will run out of steam and nothing new seems to work, as proven by Ten’s Q4.

  3. Network 10’s best newish show is ‘The Cheap Seats’ so I’m glad it did well last night especially in the demos, but they are maxed out with panel style shows now and need to be more creative in 2023 with young hearted shows that attract a broader audience.
    I think Nine deserve to win this year, they just got it right and gave us solid old and new shoes that are casted right. Seven had too much Sonia and re hashed shows, but their 6pm News and The Latest are great and Home and Away still deserves a nod.

      1. I think the traitors did all right for ten it didn’t rate very well but in demos it proberbly did and a lot of people enjoyed it so it might come back but the way the challenge is going to many d grade idiot celebrities on there

  6. The only 10 shows my now mid-20s daughters watch are HYBPA? and The Cheap Seats. They don’t live together and I note that two avid ex-TEN watchers have dumped 10 in favour of streaming, thanks to constant repeats of repeats, very lame “reality” shows, and constant advertising of Paramount+ and Stan (yes, Stan) on 10. I caught 5 mins of E1 of The Challenge. Someone was asking someone else “Do you know how to tie a knot?”. 3 mins of E2 was wandering around with the prerequisite booze in hand then a night-camera shot of a bedroom with something apparently happening. Tonight 10 is offering yet another repeated repeat of The Dog House. Well, I did plan an ABC night anyway.

  7. Tens prime time struggles because The Project does not land them with a solid start. They need to rethink the 6 to 7.30 time slot. I still think they need to start prime time shows at 7pm but have them finish no later than 8.30. Some of Tens show have been up against some big hitters eg The Block. At least they offer an alternative.

  8. At least The Cheap Seats has been a positive for 10, it was fantastic last night and has been so all through its run this year. And good to see Mel & Tim (they ain’t ever gonna be respectable) will be able to work at Chemist Warehouse on their time away 😊 that last segment was priceless!

  9. The Cheap Seats doing well without a lead in isn’t a surprise, it was the end of year recap, but it won’t be back on for 6 months. NCIS got 185k with the Cheap Seat’s lead-in. Parker playing Mother Hen to Vance in a bottle episode wasn’t that appealing either., Sunday CSI Vegas was even worse. The first epsilon of The Challenge was about 10 minutes of challenges and 60 minutes of clowning around in underwear and ads. And they weren’t even interesting games. It there’s one thing worse that contest shows full of attention seekers, it’s cheap contest shows full of attention seekers as Murdoch proved. The hope is that one of the works, but none did for Murdoch.

      1. “The purchase by CBS was completed and shares were transferred to CBS Network 10 BV, a company registered in the Netherlands” (Wikipedia). What was that question about tax again?

  11. Just as well The Bachelor was pushed to the summer 2023 – it wouldn’t have done much better than The Challenge or The Traitors.

    Agree David, add in The Real Love Boat and Q4 has been an absolute stinker for Ten. But can’t knock them for trying.

    I think Hunted and Masterchef have been the only ‘hits’ for 2022.

  12. Why 10 network would ever think that picking someone like Cyrell to headline a new reality show and feature in countless advertising for it is going to do them any favours is ridiculous. No wonder is it failing. I like the concept but the participants are just a big No from me.

      2. As I have looked at this week’s audience share, I noticed that Nine had a strong win thanks to the T20 World Cup on GEM. And it looked certain that Nine will be unstoppable this week.
        I think Nine will just win the ratings year by an extremely small margin by 0.1% in terms of audience share and the number of weeks won (21-19).

        1. From weekly wins (not with +7 days) I have it as 21-17 to nine and this includes Olympics and Comm games but the +7 days makes the weekly wins close to redundant. Home and Away routinely double (450k to 900k) 4 nights a week, every week of the year. This would make a meaningful difference to the weeks rating numbers. Their competition is not likely to increase by this magnitude as they’re all news shows. Seven have prime so no doubt they’ll claim to be the most watched nationwide irrespective of the metro results.

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