The Nine Network has another bonafide hit on its hands with LEGO MASTERS and 10 will be breathing a sigh of relief as the return of MASTERCHEF helps them beat the ABC for the first time this year in official ratings, but it’s SEVEN who sits in the winning position at the end of WEEK 18.
Welcome to the week that will shape the TV landscape for the rest of the year. As the Nine Network won the hearts and minds of viewers when it comes to entertainment, Seven has taken the overall winning position thanks to News and its suite of multichannels.
The combo of MasterChef and Bachelor in Paradise has seen 10 make instant gains beating the ABC in network shares. Unfortunately for those under-pressure executives at 10 they still lost the primary channel to the ABC. Heat up the popcorn because it’s going to be fascinating watching 10 try to get themselves out of the sh*tstorm they’re in. If they finish the year behind the ABC it will be bad news for those in charge and it’ll take more spin than a spinning top to come up with a plausible excuse.
NETWORK SHARES
Seven: 31.4%
Nine: 27.6%
10: 17.3%
ABC: 16.6%
SBS: 7.1%
2019 RATINGS CHART – NETWORK SHARES WEEKS 1 TO 18
The TV ratings Gods giveth and they taketh away. After making solid gains against the ABC in network shares 10 lost out on the primary channel by a mere 0.2% points! That’s gotta hurt.
The battle between Nine and Seven played out the same as network shares although the margin was much tighter.
PRIMARY CHANNEL SHARES
Seven: 20.8%
Nine: 19.8%
ABC: 11.8%
10: 11.6%
SBS: 5.0%
WEEK 18 RATINGS
**All data below has been calculated from overnight top 20 lists provided by OzTam, not adjusted figures**
BIGGEST SHOWS FOR EACH NETWORK (excluding nightly news)
NINE: LEGO MASTERS – LAUNCH (Sunday) – 1,377,000
SEVEN: MY KITCHEN RULES-WINNER ANNOUNCED (Sunday) – 946,000
10: MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA (Wednesday) – 721,000
ABC: ANH’S BRUSH WITH FAME (Wednesday) – 687,000
Lego Masters is the breakout hit entertainment show of Q2. It had an explosive launch on Sunday night where it was the highest new program launch of 2019. The premiere episode attracted a national average audience of 1.907m (5 City: 1.372m Reg: 534,000) and won all key demographics of 25-54s, 16-39s and Grocery Shopper + Child.
The strength of Lego Masters ensured Nine placed first across all key demographics in primary channel primetime commercial shares: People 25-54s (26.8%), People 16-39s (24.9%), Shopper with Child (27.9%).
The first episode of Lego Masters is leading the 9Now ranking and has a VPM of 77,000.
My Kitchen Rules did well with 946k watching the Winner Announced section of the program and it was #1 in its slot.
The House Rules 2019 Premiere was up 29% YoY with 1.233 million nationally (782k metro).
MasterChef is still popular with viewers and has brought in good numbers to the network. It’s pairing with Bachelor in Paradise has worked a treat for 10.
Election debates were a bit hit and miss last week. Seven’s appallingly produced Leader’s Debate from Perth pulled in a very solid 603,000 but Sky News could only manage a ‘reach’ of 136k. When your press release only includes a ‘reach’ number and that number was only 136k you know it did really bad. TV Tonight reports the figure looks to be a terrible 51,000.
BATTLEZONES – BREAKFAST
Samantha Armytage and Natalie Barr have proven to be a formidable team while David Koch has been away. The duo proved an all-female team can win the breakfast TV battle as they claimed the #1 title with Sunrise.
Nine publicity should be happy there’s been positive stories out this week that haven’t been focused on ratings. TV and radio personality Meshel Laurie spoke in glowing terms to TV Blackbox and McKnight Tonight about host Georgie Gardner and her caring nature.
(That bottle of champagne to say thanks must have gotten lost in the mail lol!)
You can listen to the extraordinary honest interview in the player below;
BATTLEZONES – MORNING TV
With school holidays coming to an end it was business as usual for the morning tv shows. Seven’s The Morning Show remains a clear favourite with viewers.
BATTLEZONES – NEWS
We’ve been reporting for some time how close the battle has been getting between Nine and Seven in Melbourne. In fact Kevin Perry wrote an article last month about the tide changing. Now that narrative has been picked up by the mainstream press with Colin Vickery at the Herald Sun noticing the trend in an article published today.
Vickery spoke to the people in charge of those bulletins including someone I respect greatly, Nine’s Ep Hugh Nailon, who said;
“6pm News is a brutally competitive timeslot and the Seven versus Nine rivalry is almost as old as television itself,”
“We relish the contest. It means our team will strive even harder to break yarns and deliver Melbourne’s best news bulletin.
The race was so tight last week both Nine and Seven can claim wins. Nine won the the 6pm – 6.30 section while Seven won the 6.30 – 7pm portion.
Overall though 7 News Melbourne claimed the week 285k to 283k.
Nationally it was Seven once again in the winners position thanks to those big wins in Perth and Adelaide. Nine won Sydney and Brisbane.
BATTLEZONES – 7PM
It was a big week for A Current Affair claiming a political scalp after it showed hidden camera vision of Steve Dickson at a strip club. That report aired Monday and by Tuesday morning he had resigned from One Nation.
Don’t doubt ACA’s relevance despite the fact its competitor The Project gets a lot more free publicity. ACA owns the 7pm time slot with Home and Away and ABC News fighting it out for second.
The following charts have been provided by Nine and focus on commercial television;
Co-Creator and Editor of the TV Blackbox website, Robert McKnight is highly regarded Australian Television Producer, he has worked at SEVEN, NINE and TEN, and is most well-known for creating and producing STUDIO 10. Currently Rob is the host and producer of the TV Blackbox, McKnight Tonight and Monsters Who Murder podcasts.
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