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Seven wins Easter Monday

A clever tactic by Seven programming ensured Farmer had the jump on Lego Masters, and a win as a result.

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A tactful programming move to hold off Home & Away on Easter Monday to give Farmer Wants a Wife a jump on the competition has paid off for Seven.

Screening at 7pm the rural dating show last night was the top entertainment show at 630,000 metro viewers, up on 2022’s launch at 576,000.

That edged ahead of Lego Masters: Grand Masters at 502,000 for Nine, down on 2022’s 672,000 launch.

I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, now with serious competition, had to settle for third at 457,000.

Together with Seven News (#1 at 1.10m) and Part I of The Claremont Murders on 442.000, Monday was a winner for the network.

Seven network won with 33.9% then Nine 26.6%, 10 18.4%, ABC 13.9% and SBS 7.2%.

OzTAM Overnights: Monday 10 April 2023

15 Responses

  3. I’ve always said its a great idea for tentpole shows to start at 7pm instead of 7:30pm. Imagine if Seven did this with Idol. Yeah the show probably would have done the same but it may have had some sort of traction. I honestly think they should do it more often. Its a tactic that has worked for them in the past so why not push H&A to later in the week. They run 3 episodes of H&A so often anyway on Thursdays. I know AFL is there at the minute but that stops soon. I mean even tonight Seven could have started earlier but they didn’t.

    I think though this would definitely be beneficial to Channel 10 with tentpole programs like Survivor etc. If they start them at 7pm instead of 7:30pm they get the jump on the rest and who knows it might do better. Anything will do better than The Project i would think.

      1. I would think that, if Seven were to start tentpole shows at 7pm instead of 7:30pm, that they would come up with a strategy to fill the extra half-hour that would need to be filled. My thought would be to expand “The Latest” (Seven’s late night news bulletin) to an hour as it often performs well (especially when The Front Bar is on).

    2. As a one off on Easter Monday to launch Farmer it was a great idea. But H&A rates close to 1m in total viewers early in the week, generates local drama points and local content and sells to 80 countries. Killing it off by screening 5 episodes Thursday and Friday would be stupid and they need ratings for <55s 6pm to 9pm to remain profitable.

      1. Home and Away is a very important program for Seven. Pre-empting it once in a while so a major tentpole show can have a 7pm start on its first night is okay, but moving it to Thursday and Friday night marathons would, as you say, be stupid, and certainly lead to the demise of the program.

    3. 7pm starts are tactically clever for these franchises to establish early audience engagement, but only if the lead-in is strong and dependable. Seven launching Farmer following the highest rating news on television was a sure bet.

      It’s a bigger task to ask viewers to break from normal 7pm habits (H&A, ACA etc) to switch to longer form entertainment – this would be Ten’s challenge for 7pm. They’d need to rely on their excellent promos to do the heavy lifting to make sure audiences turn on earlier than they might otherwise… it could be argued that without the big lead-ins from 6/6.30 news bulletins there’s not much difference between a 7pm or 7.30pm start – either way, the promos are going to have to do the work.

      As for AFL… it’s Round 4, there’s 20 more weeks, then 4 weeks of Finals.
      H&A is a key part of 7’s spine and a loyal 900k plus audience (overnights + 28) will be understandably cranky if it’s messed with too
      often.

      1. The biggest problem I can see for Home and Away is the loss of the Seven News lead in. It’s losing too much of the lead in because the audience has splintered off and around 30% watch on demand on 7plus. Scripted drama isn’t must see tv live anymore so if Seven aren’t interested in overnights I would say leave Home and Away there. An alternative would be to bring Today Tonight back or create a Monday to Thursday 7 News Spotlight show to rival ACA and keep more of the live News audience throughout prime time. Shift Home and Away to 7Two and simulcast it on the main channel for 4 weeks in Jan + promote channel shift with big advertising campaign.

      2. If I were at 10, I’d have 10 News at 5, the project at 6, shortened to 30 minutes, the rebooted neighbours at 6:30, then from 7pm, into the shows like survivor etc. At the moment, 2 and a half hours of news in early evening slots is way too much.

  4. Farmer did well and Sammantha is a great host, the show is looking very good now. It did well PPL 16-39 and probably came sixth in the other demos. It’s a show that will appeal to young, middle aged and older to watch together because it’s not a tacky dating show. Well done 7 with the solid ratings launch.

  5. 10 should learn a lesson here and start their prime times show from 7pm. Having their news at 5pm means they are not committed to network obligations. 10 were at their peak when Big Brother started at 7pm.

  7. RPA collapsed without MAFS. Older viewers win the day for Seven with seniors making up the bulk of the Farmer audience. Younger viewers stuck with Celeb and Lego.

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