Channel 7’s Sunrise has secured its position as Australia’s preferred breakfast television show for an unparalleled 20th consecutive year, outpacing its long-standing rival, Channel 9’s Today.
Hosted by Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington since June—following the departure of veteran presenter David Koch—Sunrise continues to dominate in national and metropolitan ratings. Koch, who had been the face of the program for 21 years, left the show three months ago, ushering in a new era with Shirvington stepping in as co-host.
The most recent data from ratings agency OzTAM illustrates the show’s ratings prowess. Nationally, Sunrise averages 367,000 daily viewers year-to-date, compared to Today’s 282,000.
The disparity is also evident in the five major capital cities, with Sunrise garnering a daily viewership of 219,000 versus Today’s 189,000.
Sarah Stinson, Seven’s director of morning television, expressed her delight at the sustained ratings success telling The Australian.
“Two decades at No.1 is a remarkable feat,” she said. “You need to keep reinventing things and evolving and you don’t keep the No.1 timeslot if you don’t evolve and move to the future.“
Stinson, who assumed her role 18 months ago, indicated that the program had undergone significant changes this year.
“This year there’s certainly been a lot of change across our slate and fortunately it’s worked,“
“We’ve worked really hard in moving the dial this year and we’ve overseen a lot of geographical and generational change with the new host (Shirvington).”
The official ratings season wraps up on December 2, yet the year-to-date figures strongly suggest that Sunrise is set to maintain its leadership position.
Stinson summarised the team’s sentiments about their continual triumphs in the ratings game.
“You give it everything you’ve got and you’re only as good as the team that you play with,“
“We come into each year and want to remain dominant and we work to remain not only No.1 but maintaining that margin to make sure we have the most amount of viewers.“
SOURCE: The Australian
