Tennis serves big ratings for Seven, while Ten comes out strong
Seven’s broadcast of the Australian Open men’s final gave it the Sunday night ratings lead, while Ten has started the year strongly led by the return of The Biggest Loser, just a week away from the official start of the TV ratings season.
The 7:30pm broadcast of the men’s grand slam final, which saw Roger Federer defeat Andy Murray in straight sets, was the highest rating programme for the evening, attracting 2.35 million viewers, according to preliminary OzTam data.
It saw an 8 per cent increase on the number of viewers compared to last year’s final. On Saturday, the women’s final delivered an average audience of 1.9 million, the highest-ever rating women’s final.
Meanwhile, Ten had a strong start to the year with the launch of three returning programmes.
The Biggest Loser was the third most watched show with 1.69 million viewers, followed by So You Think You Can Dance with almost 1.2 million. However, the debut of the latter was down on the 1.3 million it attracted last year.
In other results, the double episode of Ten’s House also made it in the top ten most-watched list, though the first hour was hit by Seven’s tennis coverage.
Nine’s afternoon broadcast of the One-day International Australia vs Pakistan attracted 1.06 million, while prime time coverage at 7:30pm attracted 863,000 – significantly behind Seven and also behind Ten.
While Channel Seven led the night with a 38.3 per cent share, Channel Ten came second with 22.3 per cent, while Channel Nine was third with 19.5 per cent.
Nine has held back on launching its new programmes, banking on its summer of cricket schedule to start the year, followed by the broadcast of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
However, it’s been extensively promoting its big shows for the year, including Underbelly – The Golden Mile.
Nine’s other big hopes include the return of Hey Hey It’s Saturday, the Andrew Denton produced AFP (Australian Federal Police) and Top Gear.
For Seven, it’s launching My Kitchen Rules tonight – its answer to Ten’s popular MasterChef. Its other new shows include Cougar Town, The Pacific and The white Room.
Sunday channel share:
- Seven: 38.3
- Ten: 22.3
- Nine: 19.5
- ABC1: 9.2
- SBS1: 3.7
- GO!: 3.9
- 7TWO: 1.4
- One: 0.6
- ABC2: 0.6
- ABC3: 0.3
- SBS2: 0.2
Sunday’s top ratings shows:
- Tennis: Australian Open – Men’s Final – Seven 2.35
- Seven News – Seven 1.6
- The Biggest Loser – Ten 1.2
- So You Think You Can Dance – Ten 1.2
- Nine News – Nine 1.1
- One Day Cricket – Australia v Pakistan: Afternoon – Nine 1.1
- House – Episode 2 – Ten 1.04
- House – Episode 1 – Ten 1.04
- ABC News – ABC 0.886
- One Day Cricket – Australia v Pakistan: Primetime – Nine 0.863
- Tennis: Australian Open – Men’s Final: Preview – Seven 0.763
- Ten News – Ten 0.686
- Whale Shark – ABC 0.547
- House – Behind The Scenes – Ten 0.524
- Movie: Romulus, My Father – ABC 0.513
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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