ABC beats Ten and Nine in Saturday night TV
Seven has definitively won the TV ratings battle with an average audience share of 21.7% and three shows in the top 10, ahead of the ABC which finished with a 15.2% share and five shows in the top 10.
For the second consecutive night, Ten finished behind the national broadcaster with a 9.3% audience share and no shows represented in the top 10, putting it in fourth place behind Nine which finished with 13.8%.
Once again no shows managed to crack the 1m viewers mark, with the most-watched program of the evening going to Seven News at 6pm, which boasted 893,000 on average, according to OzTAM’s overnight preliminary metro ratings.
Nine News and ABC News came in at second and third place respectively.
The most-watched non-news program of the evening, ABC’s The Coroner, ranked fourth with 675,000 viewers on average across the five metro markets. In fifth place was the ABC’s The Halycon with 576,000.
When regional figures were added to the mix, Seven News remained on top with 1.327m, but ABC News climbed to second place with 1.091m and The Coroner came third with 1.044m. Nine News was fourth with 941,000 national viewers.
Ten’s most-watched program of the day was Ten Eyewitness News which pulled 338,000 across the metro markets – placing it 11th on the ladder. The news program had 493,000 when regional viewers were factored in.
Despite a strong start to 2017 with the success of The Big Bash League, Ten has struggled to gain ratings momentum as the year has rolled on.
With The Biggest Loser Transformed now relegated to a lunchtime slot in the schedule, the network is banking on established reality franchise Masterchef to turn the network’s fortunes around.
It is not yet clear when Masterchef will make its 2017 debut, however Ten’s chief content officer Beverley McGarvey recently told Mumbrella the network had learned from its mixed start to the official ratings season, and remained confident in Ten’s ability to bounce back.
“We need to learn from The Biggest Loser: Transformed, move on, and focus on the great content we have coming up for the rest of the year,” McGarvey says, citing The Bachelor Australia, The Bachelorette Australia, Australian Survivor and Gogglebox as example’s of the network’s track record.
“We are very confident in the quality, appeal and potential of our next round of programs. We have been challenged in the pre-Easter period a few times over the past few years and always ensure our audience know when Masterchef Australia is on. This year is no different. Of course this challenging ratings period is making us extremely diligent in how we communicate and market our shows, but that is true every year.”
