TV Wrap: ABC’s Mardi Gras broadcast airs to 380k metro viewers; Nine takes the week
ABC’s live broadcast of Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras on Saturday brought in 380,000 metro viewers, while Nine’s Married at First Sight (MAFS) topped Sunday programming with 928,000 metro viewers.
The parade’s move to ABC in 2021 saw the public broadcaster obtaining the broadcast rights in a three-year deal, ending the event’s eight-year agreement with SBS.
Anthony Albanese was the first PM to march in Mardi Gras
In Sunday entertainment, Vera and Death in Paradise on ABC followed MAFS with 602,000 and 575,000 metro viewers respectively.
Ten’s Australian Survivor bettered Seven’s Australian Idol. While the former brought in 483,000 metro viewers, the latter attracted 451,000.
According to findings by Taboola, MAFS attracts significant interest from Australians in terms of online coverage – with 7.6 million pageviews in the past 10 days, up 1151% and peaking at 500,270 on 8 February when the cheating scandal was revealed.
Similarly, people have taken some interest in Idol after its return from hiatus, albeit far behind MAFS, with 1.9 million pageviews, up 471%. Interest spiked to 207,440 pageviews on 25 January, before the show went to air and when judges and contestants started to be revealed.
Survivor, meanwhile, attracted 13,000 pageviews, up 100%. Online reading peaked on 14 February when Benjamin Law led his team to victory by using AUSLAN to help the heroes crack the code. Reading peaked again on 21 February when the biggest mystery of the series so far – dubbed the Cookie Idol was revealed for contestant Simon.
A Sydney Morning Herald story published this morning said Ten’s US parent company, Paramount, had no plan to shut down the network’s local operations.
Paramount’s president and chief executive of consumer products and experiences, Pam Kaufman, said the company is doing quite the opposite and “investing” in Ten.
In Sunday network shares, Nine topped the list with a 31.9% overall share, followed by Seven with 23.0%, ABC with 21.2% and Ten with 16.5%.
The top-rated primary channel was Nine with 26.1%, but the top-rated multichannel was 10 Peach with a 2.2% share.
Nine network was the overall winner in the week ending 25 February, with a 31.8% share. It was followed by Seven network with 25.8%. The top primary channel of the week was Nine with a 23.8% share.
In the latest Daily Consolidated Total TV Report for 19 January, MAFS last Sunday was the #1 program nationally across linear, with 2.003 million viewers, including 636,000 on BVOD and the biggest uplift of 59%.
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Graphs provided by Nine.
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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