Both Seven and Nine have plenty to smile about at the conclusion of Week 19, but what’s going on with 10?
Just when they thought they were digging themselves out of a hole, Channel 10 has slipped back to 4th place behind the ABC. Questions are being asked around 10’s Pyrmont headquarters about whether CBS boss Armando Nunez is going to step in and stop the rot. Thanks to the administration process 10 has been able to clear its expensive contract with Fox and is now in profit, but with a swag full of cash to invest in programming it would seem executives are not making the right choices.
In week 18 the combo of MasterChef and Bachelor in Paradise saw the network elevated to 3rd spot (although the primary channel remained in 4th place) but after falling back to to fourth spot in week 19 it’s obvious they need more than one (moderate) hit a week to be able to stay ahead of the national broadcaster.
Meanwhile, in the main game between Seven and Nine, both have plenty to smile about this week. Lego Masters is a great success story for Nine while Seven’s strong news line-up is giving them a really solid base to work from. On Saturday night the network had a massive 40.1% share thanks to AFL.
NETWORK SHARES
Seven: 31.0%
Nine: 27.4%
ABC: 17.8%
10: 16.7%
SBS: 7.1%
2019 RATINGS CHART – NETWORK SHARES WEEKS 1 TO 19
Rinse and repeat. That pretty much sums up the primary channel shares with a replay of last week and identical placings compared to network shares.
PRIMARY CHANNEL SHARES
Seven: 20.9%
Nine: 19.6%
ABC: 12.8%
10: 11.2%
SBS: 4.6%
WEEK 19 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 (Sunday) – 1,091,000
SEVEN: HOUSE RULES (Sunday) – 684,000
10: MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA (Wednesday) – 664,000
ABC: VERA (Sunday) – 735,000
The only striped entertainment show bringing in consistent numbers is Nine’s Lego Masters. Both House Rules and MasterChef have seen significant changes in audience numbers during the week.
On Sunday House Rules had 684k but on Tuesday only delivered 534k viewers (and was beaten by afternoon gameshow The Chase).
MasterChef reached a high of 664k on Wednesday putting it in position #17 for the week but Monday’s episode was 10 places lower.
BATTLEZONES – BREAKFAST
Some good news for the TODAY show with its weekly average sitting above the new (lower) milestone of 200,000.
With ABC News Breakfast taking off, news of Virginia Trioli leaving the show will mean ABC bosses will need to think very carefully about who replaces her. One wrong move and it will be the TODAY shows woes all over again.
BATTLEZONES – MORNING TV
It was a big week for Studio 10 on the entertainment front. Craig Bennett delivered 70,000 viewers on Monday with his inside goss on celebrities in a feature package to plug his new book (which TV Blackbox is looking forward to reading). It was also the week in which Angela Bishop celebrated 30 years at Network 10 – and from personal experience I can vouch that is a real achievement!
Unfortunately it still resulted in a weekly average of 54,000 viewers (almost half of its nearest competitor), a long way off the pace from a few years ago.
The Morning Show took top honours and TODAY EXTRA managed to get over the 100,000 hurdle.
BATTLEZONES – NEWS
Nine News Brisbane seems to have found its mojo again and Seven News Melbourne is on the comeback trail.
While Seven took out the national win thanks to the big margins in Perth and Adelaide, Nine claimed Sydney and with 11 out of 11 weeks of official ratings under its belt looks certain to get to the magic 21 weeks and claim another year.
In Brisbane and Melbourne the race is far more interesting.
This is the third straight week (in official ratings) that Seven has had the edge on Nine in Melbourne. Nine is still 8 weeks ahead to Seven’s 3 but it’s starting to get very interesting.
In Brisbane Seven was a clear winner for the first 5 weeks of survey but Nine has been able to turn it around. At the conclusion of week 19 Seven has won 6 weeks to Nine’s 5.
BATTLEZONES – 7PM
The 7pm slot firmly belongs to Nine’s A Current Affair with ABC News a strong second. Home & AWAY has been playing a solid game this year though and has found success after a shaky start.
The Project slipped out of the top 20 on Monday night but retained typical numbers for the week.
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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