The truth about last night’s TV ratings – nothing happened
I try to write a TV ratings story every day.
Sometimes loads happens, and it’s quite exciting.
Sometimes, it’s not.
But because television is still the biggest medium by advertising revenue – and also the most accountable thanks to its daily ratings – I feel duty bound to write something.
So let me tell you what happened in yesterday’s TV.
In the morning battle, Seven’s Sunrise beat Nine’s Today. As usual.
In the battle of the gameshows, it was extremely close between Nine’s Hot Seat and Seven’s Deal Or No Deal. As usual.
Seven News was most watched show of the day. As usual.
Today Tonight beat A Current Affair. As usual.
The X Factor did just over 1.1m viewers. As usual.
Ten’s Commonwealth Games coverage averaged well below 1m. As usual.
But combined with the simulcast on One, it rose to nearly 1m for individual races. As usual.
The least watched free channel was ABC News 24 with a 0.5% share. As usual.
(Mind you, there was one moment of excitement when the overnight OzTam data came in saying that Seven’s sci-fi offering The Event had only done 444,000. But it turned out there had been a coding error. It actually did a 946,000 in primetime.)
I’d like to say that tonight’s ratings will bring more drama. But here’s my prediction. Packed To The Rafters is the biggest show, Top Gear does okay and the Commonwealth Games has its moments.
If you hadn’t guessed, I’m quite looking forward to when the games are over and the TV networks start competing again.
Tim Burrowes
Mondays top shows
- Seven News Seven 1.515
- Today Tonight Seven 1.433
- Nine News Nine 1.201
- The X Factor Seven 1.182
- Home and Away Seven 1.113
- A Current Affair Nine 1.095
- Two and a Half Men – 7:00pm Nine 1.067
- ABC News ABC 1.022m
- Australian Story ABC 0.986m
- The Event Seven 0.947m
- Two and a Half Men – 7:30pm Nine 0.937m
- The 7:30 Report ABC 0.873m
- Ten News Ten 0.817m
- Four Corners ABC 0.774m
- Media Watch ABC 0.751m
Mondays channel share
- ABC1: 15.3%
- Seven: 24.1%
- Nine: 20.7%
- Ten: 14.7%
- SBS1: 6.0%
- ABC2: 1.7%
- ABC3: 0.6%
- ABC News 24: 0.5%
- 7TWO: 2.5%
- 7mate: 2.5%
- GO!: 3.4%
- Gem: 1.9%
- One: 5.3%
- SBS2: 0.8%
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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Sounds a little sad Tim…. one interesting point is that TEN had is lowest FTA Primetime Share since the Comm. Games Started….
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That cracked me up. it is the funniest thing i have read so far. yes it is predictable what can you say, same old same old.is channel 7 winning the ratings battle for the year?
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Same old same old hey Candy… well if you think everything revolves around Total People then Yes Channel Seven wins the race… but since when did Total People matter?…it wasnt a key demographic last time I checked.
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Like the old Boomtown Rats Song. Nothing happend Today!
I watched TV
Cos I wanted to see
The late news at 10
It came on and then
She shuffled her papers
She swivelled in her chair
She looked up and said
The weather was fair
And then it turned cold
It started to rain
Pouring with rain.
Some people died
Some people were born
And some stayed the same
And some went insane
Tomorrow’s Wednesday
Today was Tuesday
And this is the date
October 11th
It was the morning
Then afternoon
And then the night came
And then the night came
Oh…and someone told me, “Nothing happened today.”
Yes, someone told me, “Nothing happened today.”
It happened today.
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i never thought programming @ network 9 on a monday night during ratings period would 2030 it up with Crocodile Dundee followed by Crocodile Dundee 2 @ 2230… now Mick Dundee is a legend but surely this content is more appropriate for GO or GEM… makes you question if there is enough content out their for all these new channels.
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I cant beleive that the ABC news rates so poorly. Its a top notch show with international reveiws. A million times more accountable than 7news.
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Well I really enjoyed reading that story, Tim! As usual…
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If you asked 100 people:
If they had a choice, would you give up your television or computer at home.
What would they say?
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Depends what 100 people you asked.
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Did anyone see Top gear last night? The went to an ad break, then came back with the segment that they just aired. This went on for a while, and then the guys at 9 put up a few seconds of a static shot – and then they just fast forwarded the tape! It’s been years since I have seen something that unprofessional on a main broadcast channel.
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Top gear last night was hilarious! the static shot, the “technical difficulties” voiceover, the fast forwarding fo the tape.. love it,.
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