Nine’s 60 Minutes has pulled more viewers than Seven’s Sunday Night as both channels aired exclusive programs on 22-year-old Cassie Sainsbury, who was allegedly found trying to leave Colombia with 5.8 kilograms of cocaine, and is now detained in a Colombian prison.
Both airing at 8.30pm, 60 Minutes saw 956,000 metro viewers tune in compared to Sunday Night’s 861,000, according to OzTAM’s overnight preliminary metro ratings.
Seven’s Sunday Night program on Cassie Sainsbury
Sunday Night’s investigation with Denham Hitchcock featured Sainsbury’s fiance Scott Broadbridge and Cassie’s father who also briefly appeared on the segment.
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Meanwhile, 60 Minutes’ edition saw Sainsbury’s mother Lisa and her sister Khala travel to Columbia where Sainsbury is detained, while the second half of the investigation outed Sainsbury’s alleged history as a sex worker.
Nationally (including both metro and regional affiliate stations) 60 Minutes grabbed 1.356m – making it the show’s highest rating episode of the year – ahead of Sunday Night’s 1.303m.
Although they narrowly lost the ratings battle, Seven avoided an urgent injunction which would have prevented the network from broadcasting last night’s Sunday Night program.
According to a report from 7 News Sydney, Sainsbury’s lawyers attempted to place an injunction on Seven’s Sunday Night program with fiance Broadbridge.
According to Seven’s report, Justice Sacker told the Court yesterday: “There will be no restraint on Channel Seven on their Sunday broadcast this evening.”
The report also went live to Seven reporter and interviewer of Broadbridge, Denham Hitchcock: “They asked us to look into not only the reason she came over here but the people who sent her.
“The reason for today we can only surmise might be because the effectiveness of the Sunday Night investigation. Perhaps they weren’t counting on that.”
In the 7pm timeslot, Nine’s The Voice averaged 1.061m metro viewers ahead of Seven’s House Rules’ 1.049m and Ten’s Masterchef’s 839,000.
Masterchef was the most-watched program in key advertising demographics 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.
Nationally, House Rule’s managed 1.704m beating both The Voice’s 1.552m and Masterchef’s 1.095m.
Nine won the evening in overall audience share with 22.5%, ahead of Seven’s 21.8% and Ten’s 13.9%. Meanwhile ABC managed 10.2% in front of SBS’ 5.3%.
The 6pm news battle saw Seven win the night with 1.226m metro viewers beating Nine News’ 1.091m.