Week 35 delivered a fascinating ratings battle with Seven and Nine finishing neck and neck.
The primary channels of both networks finished the week with a viewing share of 19.3%. However, once again it was the strength of the multi-channels that allowed Seven to claim the overall network win.
Nine may have an extra channel, but they are just not delivering the required results. A fact acknowledged by the network’s CEO, Hugh Marks when he faced investors this week.
10 found itself finishing in fourth place again this week. Hardly a surprising situation when the network has programs like Family Feud in the schedule.
The second episode, airing in a primetime Sunday timeslot slumped to a national audience of 401k (293k metro). In a normal year it would have already been bumped from our screens, but this is no ordinary year.
10Bold finished as the number one multi-channel for the week, just ahead of 7mate. (full channel data below).
The 2020 season of The Block kicked off successfully for Nine with the Sunday launch episode ranking as the No. 1 entertainment show for the week based on 5-city metro data. Ratings for further episodes did decline, but the real test will be to see how many viewers return for the big Sunday night reveal episodes.
- Sunday (Launch) – 1.235mil national (947k metro)
- Monday – 954k (738k)
- Tuesday – 1.003mil (762k)
Farmer Wants A Wife wrapped a successful season with Monday’s finale the number one entertainment show for the week based on national viewing data with an audience of 1.472m nationally (923k metro), The result was its highest audience for the series. The episode also earned the title of most-streamed catch-up program with a Video Player Measurement (VPM) rating of 122,000.
All eyes will now be on Seven’s next big hope, Plate Of Origin. The publicity campaign has been massive, but in the opinion of this reviewer, the show does not live up to the hype.
Australian drama was centre stage in week 35. Halifax Retribution with Rebecca Gibney premiered on Tuesday evening, with the opening episode attracting a national average audience of 755k (521k metro).
SBS screened all 4 episodes of Hungry Ghosts in the unusually late timeslot of 9:30pm. The Monday premiere attracted an audience of just 173k (131k metro), SBS will no doubt be hoping it finds a far greater audience On-Demand.
Home and Away was the top Australian drama averaging 977k national (596k metro) Monday-Thursday
It was also a week when The Masked Singer generated headlines for all the wrong reasons. As the production team were forced to enter isolation, the viewing audience all dipped compared with the week prior. Monday’s episode averaging 913k million viewers nationally (692k metro). That figure increased to 1.067 million viewers nationwide (786k metro) for the reveal portion of the show.
Of course, the most important number remains the 17 members of the production team currently living COVID-19.
The Bachelor continues to underperform for 10. The Wednesday night episode rated 724k (582k metro) while the Thursday edition fell to 677k (538k metro). The show is doing much better online however, with a VPM rating of 108k (Wednesday) and 99k (Thursday) making it the 3rd and 4th most-streamed program of the week.
The return of Gogglebox on Thursday evening had a national audience of 791k (611k metro). Have You Been Paying Attention did well with 979k (704k metro)
Weekly highlights at the ABC included Vera 1.032k nationally (691k metro), Australian Story 694k (469k), Anh’s Brush with Fame 865k (603k), Hard Quiz 990k (698k) and Mad As Hell 890k (622k).
7NEWS was the top show nationally every night, with Monday-Friday at 6pm averaging 1.699m national/ 1.086m metro. 9News won the week in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. 10 News First at 5pm averaged 538,000 viewers nationally (382,000 metro).
Sunrise continues to win every morning, with Monday-Friday averaging 464k national (259k metro). However, they are not getting things all their own way with Today winning on east-coast for the second week in a row.
Friday night’s Cats vs Bulldogs AFL match was the top sport of the week, scoring an audience of 703k national (512k metro) on Seven. In the same timeslot, the Roosters v Broncos clashdelivered 507k (333k metro) on Nine.
Weekly Network and Channel Shares – Week 35
Seven Network – 28.8%
- Seven – 19.3%
- 7TWO – 3.6%
- 7mate – 3.7%
- 7flix – 2.2%
Nine Network – 27.7%
- Nine – 19.3%
- 9Go – 2.5%
- 9Gem – 2.4%
- 9Life – 2.2%
- 9Rush – 1.2%
10 Network – 17.0%
- 10 – 10.8%
- 10Bold – 4.0%
- 10Peach – 2.2%
ABC Network – 17.1%
- ABC – 12.8%
- Kids/Comedy – 2.4%
- ABC Me 0.4%
- ABC News – 1.5%
SBS Network – 9.4%
- SBS – 5.8%
- Viceland – 1.5%
- SBS Food – 0.9%
- NITV – 0.3%
- World Movies 1.0%
