The first-ever AFL Grand Final played at night has powered Seven to a massive victory in Week 43.
It was a week when Seven finally found a program capable of defeating The Block. The breakfast battle heated up with Today defeating Sunrise on the East Coast. And 10 continues to flounder with a primetime franchise hitting a new record low.
Of course, the big ratings figure for the week was the 2020 AFL Grand Final – The match delivered Seven a national audience of 3.812 million people (2.979mil metro).
The massive result means Seven and Nine are now level in the 2020 ratings war. Of course, Nine still has three big NRL State of Origin matches to come, meaning victory will be theirs.
Key Data
- Seven was the nb1 primary channel with a 27.3% share.
- Seven was the nb1 network with a 35.1% share.
- Seven also won the key demos in 25-54s and 16-39s.
- Seven and Nine are now level on 17 weekly wins in the 2020 ratings survey.
- 10 finished the week in fourth place again and is struggling to keep its primary channel share above 10%
- 10 Bold was the nb1 multi-channel.
- Episode 1 of SAS Australia was the most-watched program on BVOD with 204k
 (full channel data below)
Seven
Seven started their week with a ‘virtual’ Brownlow presentation, airing for the first time in a primetime Sunday timeslot. With no WAGS walking the red carpet, and winner Lachie Neale dominating the votes by a big margin, it was an event that only really appealed to dedicated AFL fans. The presentation had an audience of 708k nationally (574k metro).
The big premiere of the week was SAS Australia. After a lengthy publicity campaign, the Monday launch episode dominated its timeslot with a national audience of 1.194 mil (834k).
Perhaps more importantly, the show generated plenty of positive conversation with viewers appearing to love the new format.
Tuesday night’s second episode dipped slightly to 1.118 mil (795k) The episode won its timeslot with a narrow victory over The Block.
Repeats of Highway Patrol on Wednesday delivered666k (430k metro).
The Front Bar Grand Final special scored a Thursday audience of 651k (479k metro) including 299k in Melbourne.
10
Despite a big lead-in from the Bathurst 1000, 10 once-again failed to maintain an audience on Sunday evening.
Junior MasterChef appears to have settled to a metro audience below 500k. This format clearly lacks the primetime appeal of the main offering, and 10 will now have to pray they haven’t damaged the overall MasterChef brand by overexposing it.
- Sunday – 687k (498k metro)
- Monday – 606k (454k metro)
- Tuesday – 632k (470k metro)
Sister act, Elly and Becky Miles are also still struggling to charm Australian TV viewers.
Wednesday night’s episode of The Bachelorette sunk to the lowest metro rating in the program’s history. Possibly more frustrating for 10 is the fact the average viewer age is now sitting at 42. That’s really not the demographic the network has promised advertisers.
- Wednesday – 610k (464k metro)
- Thursday – 642k (499k metro)
Have You Been Paying Attention continues to be a bright spot for the network with 962k nationally (735k metro).
Gogglebox on Thursday evening also did well with 848k (632k metro).
New multi-channel 10 Shake remains stuck on a broadcast share of just 0.4%.
Nine
SAS Australia may have defeated The Block on Monday and Tuesday evening, but it didn’t really steal too many viewers away from the popular Nine format.
- Sunday (Room Winners) – 1.450mil national (1.082mil metro)
- Sunday – 1.392mil (1.009mil metro)
- Monday – 1.059mil (783k)
- Tuesday – 1.063mil (793k)
- Wednesday – 1.081mil (809k)
Across the series-to-date, The Block has reached an average BVOD audience of 132,000 (Live + VOD), and had 7 million total stream starts (Live + VOD) and 278 million minutes viewed (Live + VOD).
60 Minutes was well down on the previous week with 754k (524k metro).
Australian Crime Stories on Wednesday is struggling with just 540k (376k metro).
A repeat of Paramedics on Thursday evening had 617k (430k metro)
News
Sunrise recorded another national win with Monday-Friday averaging 431k national/ 242k metro. However, Seven would be far from happy to see arch-rival Today recording a weekly win across the east coast
- Sydney – 70k vs 69k
- Melbourne – 55k vs 54k
- Brisbane – 55k vs 47k
Today also won the weekly 5-City demos in 25-54’s and 16-39’s
7NEWS was the again the top show nationally every night, with Monday-Friday at 6pm averaging 1.488mil (959k metro). 9News won the 6pm battle in Sydney and Melbourne, while Seven won Brisbane.
The Project 7pm averaged 614k nationally Monday-Friday (458k metro)
ABC
Wednesday night comedy continues to be a powerhouse for the ABC. The combination of Hard Quiz and Gruen is a clear winner with viewers. Perhaps unsurprising in a world currently filled with so many other negative headlines…
ABC Highlights include:
- Restoration Australia 751k national (496k metro)
- Grantchester – 647k (431k metro)
- Australian Story – 928k (617k)
- Four Corners – 691k(478k)
- Outback Ringer (premiere) – 630k (397k)
- Big Weather (and how to survive it) – 570k (371k)
- Hard Quiz – 932k (671k)
- Gruen – 977k (738k)
- Planet America – 517k (402k)
Weekly Network and Channel Shares – Week 43
Seven Network – 35.1%
- Seven – 27.3%
- 7TWO – 2.9%
- 7mate – 3.0%
- 7flix – 1.9%
Nine Network – 25.3%
- Nine – 17.4%
- 9Go – 2.4%
- 9Gem – 2.6%
- 9Life – 1.9%
- 9Rush – 1.0%
10 Network – 16.1%
- 10 – 10.3%
- 10Bold – 3.2%
- 10Peach – 2.2%
- 10Shake – 0.4%
ABC Network – 16.5%
- ABC – 11.8%
- Kids/Comedy – 2.6%
- ABC Me 0.4%
- ABC News – 1.7%
SBS Network – 7.0%
- SBS – 4.2%
- Viceland – 1.1%
- SBS Food – 0.8%
- NITV – 0.1%
- World Movies 0.8%
