The public turned first to the ABC for last night’s election coverage, while Ten’s return to current affairs programming delivered an embarrassing low, Saturday’s TV ratings reveal.
The ABC’s live election night show, based at its Sydney headquarters in Ultimo, averaged 940,000 metro viewers, which rose to 1.336m nationally, with regional viewing included too.
Viewers looked to the ABC’s Antony Green to analyse the numbers
Of the commercial players, Nine did best, with Australia Decides rating 466,000 metro viewers rising to 597,000 nationally.
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Seven’s Decision Night In Australia averaged 330,000 metro viewers and 489,000 nationally, according to OzTam.
But Ten had one of its worst nights of all time, with Your Vote: Results rating just 108,000 metro viewers and 170,000 nationally.
As a result, Ten slumped to an audience share for the night of just 3.6%. The network’s worst ever performance was the night of the Royal Wedding last year, with a 3.4% share.
Ten’s election coverage was also beaten into fifth place in its timeslot by two documentaries about Queen on SBS.
The ABC had one of its biggest audience shares in recent years, with its main channel attracting a share of 25.4% with ABC News, which was simulcasting the election coverage, attracting a further 10.2%, one of the biggest shares since the channel’s launch in 2010.
Nine’s main channel share was 16.3% while Seven was on 11.9%.
7Mate rated 5.9% thanks to the North Melbourne versus Sydney AFL game.
Ten’s 3.6% was just ahead of SBS’s 3.5% and Go’s 3.4%.