After five straight losses, an aggressive Seven Network showed it wins on consistent programming and not events or boosts from digital shares. It dominated the week’s top shows, as its factuals continue to underpin the network’s schedule. Seven took 14 of the week’s Top 15 shows.
Seven won the week with 29.0% over Nine’s 26.5% and TEN’s 21.8%. The ABC had 17.1% and SBS 5.5%.
Seven also won two key demos 18-49 and 25-54 while TEN won 16-39.
GO! had 2.4%, ABC2 1.2%, ONE 1.6% and SBS TWO 0.4%.
Seven won Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Nine won Thursday. All cities were won by Seven except Melbourne which fell to Nine.
Packed to the Rafters resumed its mantle as the week’s #1 show with 1.84m viewers. Seven’s other top shows included Seven News, FlashForward, The Force, Border Security, Today Tonight, Highway Patrol, Destroyed in Seconds, Last Chance Surgery, RSPCA Animal Rescue, Better Homes and Gardens, and Medical Emergency. Its other local dramas, All Saints, Home and Away and City Homicide all hovered around 1 -1.18m. Deal beat Hot Seat -just- this week. Encouragingly, Beauty & the Geek improved in its second week. But Seven has dumped its late night fashion import Style by Jury which took 183,000. The V8 Supercars at Bathurst drove up the network’s figures helping to gain a big Sunday win.
Without events like Hey Hey the Reunion and NRL, Nine’s week was modest. It’s top audience was Nine News on Monday at 1.24m. Repeats of Two and a Half Men were the only other scorers to pass 1.2m -although 20 to 1 was close. Between 1 – 1.2m were Rescue: Special Ops. 60 Minutes, A Current Affair, Getaway, CSI, The Big Bang Theory and The Mentalist. Both Secret Millionaire and The Apprentice Australia lifted last week -the latter by over 160,000. But just 604,000 watched a Spiderman movie premiere on Tuesday. RPA continues to deliver, lifting above its lead in, but Thursday’s ER plummeted to 356,000. Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s 1500th party rose to 164,000 -a cool 11,000 behind The Morning Show. Wipeout took 241,000 on GO!
It was a powerhourse 1.47m for NCIS this week on TEN, handing Lie to Me 1.17m. Celebrity MasterChef was third in its slot on 1.18m while NCIS: Los Angeles won its on 1.07m. The Simpsons returned to 934,000. Glee is holding well in its demographics but Rush may have lost some of the traction it had appear to gain. Australian Idol rose slightly but was defeated by three other networks. Three Rivers had a dire debut of just 499,000 and was subsequently dumped two days later. On Friday The Spearman Experiment was only 525,000, behind a Love Actually replay which followed. Good to see The 7PM Project reach 786,000 on Monday.
Four Corners‘ profile on James Packer was the top drawcard on ABC, at 1.11m viewers. Other titles to perform included Spicks and Specks, Jonathan Creek, Media Watch, Australian Story, Hunter, The Bill, Heart and Soul and Ganges. Without Hey Hey competing, more viewers took time to sample Hungry Beast (719,000). The final United States of Tara took 732,000. On ABC2 Torchwood managed 135,000.
870,000 viewers watched Top Gear on SBS and 358,000 stayed for Man vs Wild. What a shame just 193,000 were there for the return of East West 101 a night later. SBS did it a disservice by programming it against the week’s top show. Why? At least its audience was loyal to Who Do You Think You Are? (402,000). Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam premiered as its top show for Thursday on 282,000.