Thank God You’re Here wins for Seven

Thank God You’re Here had the big ratings start Seven would have wanted last night, pulling in an audience of more than 1.7m, according to preliminary OzTam ratings.  

The show that Seven snatched from Ten was the most watched of the night. The audience was fractionally behind the 1.8m or so it used to average on Ten, where the previous three series aired during 2006 and 2007.

The evening was bad news for Ten. MasterChef Australia’s third night audience fell again – to less than a million from Monday night’s opening of 1.4m. And the heavily promoted first episode with the new opening credits for The Simpsons fared only slightly better, pulling in just under 1.1m.

Ten fared particularly badly in Sydney last night with an audience share of just 18.3%, putting it in fourth place behind the ABC for the first time this year.

Wednesday night is generally one of the ABC’s strong evenings. The Gruen Transfer – which included the challenge to move the 2012 Olympics from England to Australia – scored just over 1.2m, although stablemate Spicks & Specks, which The Gruen Transfer had been beating, scored nearly 1.3m.

Nine had little to smile about either – particularly in the early evening, where the new Hot Seat version of Who Wants To be A Millionaire hosted by Eddie McGuire rated 595,000 – still well behind Seven’s Deal Or No Deal (878,000).

Last night’s peak share: Seven 29.9%; Nine 25.6%; Ten 21.2%; ABC 18.1%; SBS 5.2%.

Because of its strong start, Ten still leads the ratings week, although the gap has narrowed. The week’s share so far: Ten 27.2%; Seven 26.7%; Nine 25.4%; ABC 15.4%; SBS 5.3%.

Tonight, none of the networks have an obvious juggernaut, with a US flavour across free to air. Seven’s got Grey’s Anatomy; on Nine Bert Newton is looking at Hollywood leading men for 20 to 01, while Law and Order and Life on Mars look like being Ten’s big shows. SBS’s drama about the advertising world of the 60s, Mad Men is on at 8.30pm, which puts it up against ABC1’s Rock + Roll Nerd: The Tim Minchin Story, which the broadcaster has been pushing quite hard.

Wednesday night’s top 15 TV shows:

1. Thank God You’re Here – Seven 1.7m
2. Seven News – Seven 1.7m
3. Today Tonight – Seven 1.6m
4. Criminal Minds – Seven 1.3m
5. Nine News – Nine 1.3m
6. Spicks and Specks – ABC 1.3m
7. Home and Away – Seven 1.3m
8. Two and a Half Men – Nine 1.3m
9. A Current Affair – Nine 1.2m
10. The Gruen Transfer – ABC 1.2m
11. RPA – Nine 1.2m
12. What’s Good For You – Nine 1.2m
13. ABC News – ABC 1.2m
14. The Simpsons 8pm – Ten 1.1m
15. MasterChef Australia – Ten 1m

Merrick Watts was the first guest on the new Thank God You’re Here:

Tim Burrowes

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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topics ABC business Deal Or No Deal Mad Men MasterChef MasterChef Australia Merrick Watts Nine SBS Seven Ten Thank God You're Here The Gruen Transfer TV ratings Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

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