News

Nine’s Ninja Warrior grand final sheds almost one million viewers from last year

The final stage of Nine’s Ninja Warrior shed just over one million viewers from last year’s results, achieving 1.139m across five metro cities as each contestant failed to reach the end of the course.

Last season’s final stage pulled in 2.145m metro viewers, the only entertainment program of 2017 to do so.

The overall episode fell short to Ten’s Masterchef Australia finale but did crack more than one million viewers – at 1.088m. Last year the episode had a metro audience of 2,055,000.

Nationally, Ninja Warrior’s final stage rose to 1.530m – compared to 3.087m last year, while the episode had an audience of 1.530m, compared to 2.944m.

Last year Ten’s Masterchef Australia finale lost most of its viewers to Nine’s Ninja Warrior. But this year, the announcement which saw Sashi Cheliah win the 10th series pulled 1.309m metro viewers last night – a similar result to last year’s 1.306m. It was enough to win the night. When combined with regional viewing, the number rose to 1.731m, slightly down on last year’s overall audience of 1.822m.

The episode itself, which last year managed 1.120m, was slightly up, with an average metro audience of 1.126m. Less regional viewers tuned in this year, with the national audience sitting at 1.480m, compared to 1.558m last year.

But the plateau is a win for Masterchef Australia, which shed half a million viewers between the 2016 finale and 2017. Masterchef Australia also led all key advertising demographics – 16-39s, 18-49s and 25-54s.

Seven, which finished up its program House Rules on Monday night, chose to broadcast Border Security: Australia’s Front Line and The Force Behind the Line during the two finales. Border Security: Australia’s Front Line had an audience of 423,000 while Behind The Line managed a metro audience of 374,000. From 8:30pm, Seven’s Interview achieved 440,000 for the episode.

Despite the drop in Ninja Warrior ratings, Nine won the night for both main channel and network share, with shares of 23.8% and 31.6% respectively. By comparison, Ten’s main channel share was 21.3% while network share was 25.4%. Seven came in third with a 15.1% share on main channel and a 23% share overall. ABC and SBS had shares of 10.6% and 3.8% on main channel, and 14.7% and 5.4% overall.

The biggest multi-channel share was from 7mate – at 3.9%. The 6pm news battle was also won by Seven, with 1.066m metro viewers, beating Nine’s 995,000 metro viewers.

Earlier on in the day, Seven’s Sunrise beat Nine’s Today, with audiences of 281,000 and 225,000 respectively.

ADVERTISEMENT

Get the latest media and marketing industry news (and views) direct to your inbox.

Sign up to the free Mumbrella newsletter now.

 

SUBSCRIBE

Sign up to our free daily update to get the latest in media and marketing.