The Good Doctor climbs back above 1m metro viewers, helping Seven to a win
Seven’s US drama The Good Doctor – which has only dipped below 1m metro viewers twice in its seven-episode run – topped the ratings ladder last night with 1.129m tuning in, according to OzTAM’s overnight preliminary metro ratings.
Last night’s audience was the second-highest ever for the drama, after it pulled 1.187m on Melbourne Cup day.
The Good Doctor was the most-watched program of the evening – ahead of second-placed Seven News which had 948,000 – and also topped the key advertising demographics 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.
Seven’s other strong performers for the night included Home & Away with 663,000 and Instant Hotel with 633,000.
Across the national market – including broadcasts on affiliate regional stations – The Good Doctor had an audience of 1.755m. Home & Away had 1.111m, slightly ahead of Instant Hotel on 1.067m.
Nine’s Family Food Fight was behind Seven’s entertainment programs, placing 10th on the ratings ladder thanks to a metro audience of 584,000. Nationally, the program had 744,000.
Ahead of the launch of Nine’s new reality food program, Adrian Swift, head of content production, had higher hopes for the program.
“If I can get 800 total people and 400 in the demos I’ll have a dance and a jig,” he said.
“It’s a great show, it’s fun, the food is good and the people are just utterly delightful, I really want it to rate well and I think we have a good chance of doing that.
“It’ll do well in the demos because I think kids will watch it.”
Last week at the Screen Forever conference, however, Swift acknowledged the program had performed below expectation, but said it had a highly loyal and engaged audience.
Ten’s highest-performing program was the second half hour of The Project, which had a metro audience of 456,000. Ten Eyewitness News had 422,000, which Jamie’s Quick & Easy Food had 397,000.
The strong performance of The Good Doctor helped Seven win the night with a 23.6% audience share. Nine placed second (18.0%), Ten third (11.5%) and ABC fourth (10.0%). SBS had an audience share of 6.4%.
On a network basis – including multi-channel offerings – Seven also won with a 32.2% network share. Nine Network had 26.7% of the audience, ahead of Ten Network’s 17.1%, ABC’s 15.6% and SBS’ 8.4%.
