ABC News 24 launch is no match for Masterchef
The launch night of ABC News 24 proved not to be much of a draw for TV viewers on Thursday, with an average of just 608,000 tuning in for the simulcasted launch at 7.30pm on ABC1.
It was the 23rd most watched show of the night, and behind the previous evening’s 7.30 Report which rated 714,000 and was 19th for the night. It was also outrated by The Making of Modern Australia which followed at 8.30pm last night.
However, the 7.30pm slot was a disaster zone for all of the networks last night with the exception of Ten, with Masterchef pulling in more than 2.5m for the eviction of Claire Winton Burn, according to preliminary overnight metro ratings from OzTam.
Among the shows that saw their audience dragged away by Masterchef was Seven’s Matty Johns Show which rated 235,000 in Sydney and 119,000 in Brisbane, compared to Masterchef’s 699,000 and 359,000. And Nine’s Getaway was under similar pressure, rating a woeful metro average of 739,000.
Menawhile, SBS’s My Family Feast failed to make the top 50 shows for the night.
Masterchef also helped the rest of Ten’s schedule, with The 7PM Project and the return of Rush both pulling in about 1.1m.
Thursday’s top 15 shows
- Masterchef Ten 2.513m
- Seven News Seven 1.380m
- Today Tonight Seven 1.280m
- Nine News Nine 1.246m
- A Current Affair Nine 1.131m
- The 7PM Project Ten 1.120m
- Rush Ten 1.070m
- ABC News ABC 1.053m
- Sea Patrol Nine 1.025m
- Two and a Half Men Nine 0.961m
- Home and Away Seven 0.907m
- The Footy Show Nine 0.899m
- Ten News Ten 0.864m
- Law and Order: SVU Ten 0.795m
- How I Met Your Mother Seven 0.756m
Thursday’s channel share
- ABC1: 13.6% A
- Seven: 19.0%
- Nine: 23.3%
- Ten: 27.9%
- SBS1: 5.5%
- ABC2: 1.6%
- ABC3: 0.7%
- 7TWO 2.1%
- GO!: 5.2%
- One: 0.7%
- SBS2: 0.4%
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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“ABC News 24 launch is no match for Masterchef”
Well, der.
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Was it ever supposed to be? Not sure that counts as a fail.
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Yes, that is one of the stupider headlines of the year. 600k is very good for a news service i would have thought.
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I like the set, but am not sure about their graphics package, looks like it will date quickly.
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“608,000 tuning in for the simulcasted launch at 7.30pm on ABC1”
How many watched on the digital channel? It was a simulcast, after all. I imagine lots of viewers would have watched on the new channel. Any stats on that?
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Hi John,
If memory serves, OzTam needs about 30 days notice to start monitoring a new channel, so it wouldn’t surprise me if ABC news 24 audiences don’t start showing up for a week or two yet.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Loving ABC News 24.
The Drum…excellent, host Annabel Crabb is a refreshing change from the dreary self interest of the Dirty Diggers political ideology [News Ltd].
Thank heavens for ABC.
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Well I watched the launch of the ABC News 24 on the Digital Channel 24. Was great to see a new channel added to Freeview. I am really enjoying ABC 24 Keep it up ABC News 24 the ratings will rise I say!
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