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Election coverage causes ratings chaos — WEEK 20 TV RATINGS WRAP

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A ‘normal’ week of programming got a shot of adrenalin on Saturday night and that changed the game for everyone.

It was the week Channel 10 looked like they were going to beat the ABC resoundingly, but any hopes of a turnaround for the beleaguered network were deflated when they could only manage a paltry 8.9% on Saturday night. The network’s coverage of the Federal Election saw the main channel plummet to just 3.6% while the ABC’s main channel enjoyed a 25.4% share for the main channel and a network share of 38.2%.

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Lego Masters was the star of the week and has proven a great programming move by Nine. Full congratulations to the team behind this amazing series.

BUT… while everyone else took the headlines, it was Seven who won the week thanks to their strong suite of multichannels.

NETWORK SHARES

Seven: 28.4%

Nine: 27.3%

ABC: 20.1%

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10: 16.8%

SBS: 7.4%

2019 RATINGS CHART – NETWORK SHARES WEEKS 1 TO 20

*OFFICIAL RATINGS PERIOD

Nine came out on top in the primary channels for week 20. Lego Masters was the star of the week and helped the main channel deliver a strong outcome.

PRIMARY CHANNEL SHARES

Nine: 19.9%

Seven: 18.5%

ABC: 13.9%

10: 11.1%

SBS: 5.2%

WEEK 20 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 -WINNER ANNOUNCED (Tuesday) – 1,493,000

SEVEN: HOUSE RULES (Sunday) – 704,000

10: HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION? (Monday – 787,000

ABC: AUSTRALIA VOTES: ELECTION RESULTS LIVE (Saturday) – 940,000

All hail Lego Masters! The feel-good show took out the top 4 spots this week (including the ‘Winner Announced’). Lego Masters wrapped up this week and claimed the crown as the smash-hit new show of 2019 and helping Nine to clear wins on primary channel.

A string of news programs (including ABC’s election coverage) took out the remaining spots in the top 10.

Have You Been Paying Attention? is now bigger than MasterChef with the Working Dog production pulling in a huge 787k v 642k for the highest rating episode of the cooking series.

Celebrity Name Game got off to an ok start ratings wise on Monday night but was caught up in a winners scandal after the network allowed a recent employee to play as a contestant. The network outright lied to reporters saying they had not violated their own terms and conditions but the rules state a contestant cannot have worked for Network 10 within the past two years.

The controversy did nothing to draw viewers with Monday’s launch attracting just 312k and Friday’s episode dropping to 255k. The show averaged 257k for the week


BATTLEZONES – BREAKFAST

Sunrise was out in front but those margins ain’t what they used to be. While the story has been about TODAY’s troubles, it’s worth noting Seven’s offering is certainly not pulling the figures it used to.

Luckily for the folks at Seven they have managed to stay number 1 thanks to an implosion at Nine.

ABC News Breakfast continues to build.


BATTLEZONES – MORNING TV

The Morning Show continues to dominate morning TV. TODAY EXTRA remains way off the pace and Studio 10 isn’t even in the game.

10’s morning show even had some 0 quarter hours this week which is not good at all.


BATTLEZONES – NEWS

We’ve been talking about the tight race in Brisbane between 7 News and 9 News and this week it was so close there was only 1,000 viewers in the overall battle between 6 – 7pm with Seven coming out in front on 191k.

Seven took the honours on the national front but Nine claimed Sydney and Melbourne. The team in Melbourne will be glad to be back out in front.

10 are so far off the game we don’t usually mention them, but this week they’ve launched a new promo campaign that has nothing original about it at all. The scenes with presenters are shot in an open warehouse with a giant screen which is a direct copy of a promo Nine made many years ago and (as twitter user @SydneyCityTV pointed out to me) both have Hugh Riminton in them!

But here’s the kicker, they’ve used the slogan I introduced to 9 News back in 2009 – SEE IT FIRST!

Here’s a free bit of advice guys; if you’re the lowest performing news network you need to come up with a point of difference. Nine used SEE IT FIRST for years before Seven copied it and confused the market and now 10 years after it was launched in Australia you can’t expect viewers to pay attention to a blatant rip off.

COME UP WITH A NEW CREATIVE!

(I wonder if I can charge them for using my slogan?)


BATTLEZONES – 7PM

The 7pm slot belongs to A Current Affair each and every week. I’m always impressed by the consistent performance of this show. ABC News was a strong second closely followed by Home & Away. The Project was a distant fourth.

The following charts have been provided by Nine and focus on commercial television;


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Robert McKnight
Robert McKnighthttps://tvblackbox.com.au/robert-mcknight/
"Leading TV commentator" - The Daily Telegraph | "Known for his impeccable sources in the TV industry" - The Daily Mail | "Always first with the correct info" - Beau Ryan | Robert McKnight is a highly regarded Australian Television Producer having worked at SEVEN, NINE and TEN during his 30 years in the industry. Currently Rob can be seen every fortnight on THE MORNING SHOW (7) and heard on NIGHTS WITH JOHN STANLEY (2GB/4BC). He is also a producer on 7 NEWS SPOTLIGHT.
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