News

Struggle Street controversy translates to viewers beating House Rules and Reno Rumble

SBS has scored one of its biggest ratings hits of recent years as column inches about controversial documentary Struggle Street translated into viewers with the hour-long first episode at 8.30pm grabbing 935,000 viewers.

That made it the sixth most watched show of the night overall and helped SBS One nearly double its audience share from 4.8 per cent last week to 8.9 per cent last night, according to the OzTam overnight metro ratings.

It also beat the new reality offerings House Rules on Seven (631,000) and Reno Rumble on Nine (791,000) which both started at 7.30pm and finished around 8.45pm.

Ten’s Masterchef was the best rating non-news show of the night and backed up its strong ratings launch on Tuesday night grabbing 1.029m viewers for its second outing and was the most watched show in all demographics.

Struggle Street was third in the 16-39 and 18-49 demographics, and second in the 25-54 demo. The final two episodes of the series are now being fast-tracked and will be shown back-to-back next Wednesday from 8.30pm. It won the 9pm to 9.30pm timeslot, and was second in its first half hour only to Masterchef.

Last year the network pulled un 883,000 for the FIFA World Cup final in the early hours of July 14, and it also landed a hit after similar controversy surrounding the second series of Go Back to Where You Came From in August 2012 which had 752,000 viewers. Last November the series First Contact with Ray Martin had 433,000 viewers.

All the 7.30pm reality TV franchises dropped on their second outings, with Masterchef falling from 1.231m on its opening on Tuesday to 1.029m, Reno Rumble fell 82,000 after pulling 873,000 and House Rules lost 160,000 viewers grabbing 631,000 – outrated by ABC’s 7.30 which had 770,000 viewers.

On ABC The Weekly with Charlie Pickering at 8.30pm could not compete with the SBS documentary with 443,000 viewers, down from 556,000 viewers last week. Ten could not sustain its Masterchef audience through to Wonderland, although the 489,000 viewers for the local drama at 9pm was up on last week’s 405,000. Nine’s The Amazing 90s also fell from 899,000 last week following The Block finale to 530,000 this week, starting at 8.40pm, just below Seven’s Criminal Minds which had 588,000.

Nine News scored a comprehensive win for the evening with 1.056m for its 6pm bulleting rising to 1.099m for its 6.30pm update. Seven News had 1.047m in the 6pm slot and 983,000 for the 6.30pm news and Today Tonight combination.

That helped Nine to a channel audience share win with 18.5 per cent, just ahead of Ten with 17.6 per cent relegating Seven to third with 17.3 per cent.

Top 15 shows:

1 NINE NEWS 6:30 Network 9 1,099,000

2 NINE NEWS Network 9 1,056,000

3 SEVEN NEWS Network 7 1,047,000

4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA WED Network TEN 1,029,000

5 SEVEN NEWS / TODAY TONIGHT Network 7 983,000

6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Network 9 975,000

7 STRUGGLE STREET Network SBS ONE 935,000

8 ABC NEWS-EV Network ABC 846,000

9 RENO RUMBLE -WED Network 9 791,000

10 7.30-EV Network ABC 770,000

11 HOME AND AWAY Network 7 765,000

12 THE PROJECT 7PM Network TEN 646,000

13 FAMILY FEUD Network TEN 645,000

14 HOUSE RULES-WED Network 7 631,000

15 HOT SEAT Network 9 604,000

Audience share by channel:

Network 9 18.5%

Network TEN 17.6%

Network 7 17.3%

Network ABC 11.0%

Network SBS ONE 8.9%

Network 7TWO 4.9%

Network GO! 4.7%

Network 7mate 3.9%

Network ELEVEN 3.2%

Network ABC2 2.7%

Network Gem 2.5%

Network ONE 2.4%

Network ABC News 24 1.2%

Network SBS 2 0.7%

 

Network ABC3 0.4%

Network NITV 0.1%

 

Total network audience share:

Network 7 TTL 26.1%

Network 9 TTL 25.7%

Network TEN TTL 23.2%

Network ABC TTL 15.3%

 

 

Network SBS TTL 9.7%

 

Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM.

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