Seven wins Thursday night, but Masterchef tops the demographics
Seven has won the TV battle on Thursday night, thanks to the strength of its news and sports offering, but Masterchef managed to hold strong in the key advertising demographics.
It held the top spot in the 16-39s, 18-49s and 25-54s, while the AFL took the second spot in the younger two demographics. Nine News held second place in the third.
Seven aired the game between the Essendon Bombers and the Greater Western Sydney Giants on its primary channel in Melbourne and Adelaide, and 7Mate in the other capital cities. It brought in 499,000 metro viewers, primarily in Melbourne where it drew 294,000.
Nine’s NRL showing of the game between two Sydney teams, the Wests Tigers and the South Sydney Rabbitohs which aired only in Sydney and Brisbane brought in 343,000 metro viewers. The same match drew 239,000 viewers on Fox League, making it the most-watched subscription program for the evening.
Seven’s other big success for the evening was its news, which held the top spot with 1.009m metro viewers for the first half. The second half, which airs as Today Tonight in some cities, was actually topped by Nine News, 840,000 to 838,000.
Outside of the key demographics, Masterchef pulled in 626,000 metro viewers overall, making it the most-watched entertainment program for the evening. It sat just slightly higher than ABC News which drew 625,000.
Ten’s Taboo, hosted by Harley Breen, remained fairly steady for its third episode, holding 326,000 metro viewers compared to 330,000 for last week. The show, which is a result of Ten’s Pilot Week 2018 event, premiered to 309,000.
On subscription TV, Sky News’ Jones & Co, which featured the first televised interview with Israel Folau, became the highest-rated non-sport program, drawing 74,000 viewers.
Seven was the most-watched channel with metro audiences in the 25-54 key advertising demographic, holding a share of 21.7%. The channel also took the top spot in 16-39s with 25.7%.
With audiences overall, Seven took an audience share of 22.2%, compared to 17.7% for Nine, 12.0% for Ten and 9.6% at the ABC. The same hierarchy appeared in the overall network audience share, with Seven on 34.3%, Nine at 24.9%, Ten on 18.3% and ABC with 14.6%. The most-watched multi-channel was 7Two on 4.8%.
