UK ‘poverty porn’ less appealing to viewers than Struggle Street as Wonderland boosts on finale
The plight of Britain’s jobless proved far less appealing to local audiences than Australia’s with Nine’s airing of British documentary Life on the Dole failing to hit the heights of SBS’s Struggle Street last week.
While the second and third instalments of the doco about Mount Druitt residents got 828,000 viewers last week, Life on the Dole could only manage 580,000 between 8.40pm and 9.40pm for Nine.
That put it fourth in the timeslot behind Criminal Minds on Seven (718,000), the finale of Wonderland on Ten (635,000 – up from 535,000 last week) and Agony on ABC (605,000) according to OzTam overnight metro ratings.
However, SBS One’s audience share came crashing back to earth after last week’s record 12 per cent off the back of Struggle Street, posting just 4.1 per cent last night.
Yesterday’s live broadcast of the Eurovision semi final from 5am – 7am failed to trouble the top 100 shows list, despite increased interest in the competition this weekend with Guy Sebastian going into bat for Australia as a special guest in the annual singing contest.
Masterchef once again dominated the night’s proceedings with 1.127m (up on last week’s 1.037m) tuning in for the team challenge at 7.30pm, while Seven’s House Rules had 763,000 (down form last week’s 781,000) and Nine’s Reno Rumble had 692,000 (also down on last week’s 741,000).
The Weekly with Charlie Pickering on ABC at 8pm had 642,000, up on last week’s 570,000, for an interview with Guardian journalist Nick Davies who exposed News of the World phone hacking.
In the news hour Nine held off even with 1.099m to 1.041m at 6pm, and at 6.30pm where its bulletin had 1.033m to Sevn News/Today Tonight’s 955,000.
Top 15 shows:
1 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA WED Network TEN 1,127,000
2 NINE NEWS Network 9 1,099,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Network 7 1,041,000
4 NINE NEWS 6:30 Network 9 1,033,000
5 SEVEN NEWS / TODAY TONIGHT Network 7 955,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Network 9 862,000
7 ABC NEWS-EV Network ABC 818,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Network 7 810,000
9 HOUSE RULES-WED Network 7 763,000
10 CRIMINAL MINDS Network 7 718,000
11 RENO RUMBLE -WED Network 9 692,000
12 THE PROJECT 7PM Network TEN 667,000
13 7.30-EV Network ABC 654,000
14 THE WEEKLY WITH CHARLIE PICKERING-EV Network ABC 642,000
15 HOT SEAT Network 9 641,000
Audience share by channel:
Network 7 19.0%
Network 9 18.4%
Network TEN 17.8%
Network ABC 12.0%
Network 7TWO 4.9%
Network GO! 4.2%
Network SBS ONE 4.1%
Network 7mate 3.9%
Network ELEVEN 3.8%
Network Gem 3.2%
Network ONE 2.7%
Network ABC2 2.5%
Network SBS 2 1.6%
Network ABC3 0.6%
Network NITV 0.1%
Network ABC News 24 1.3%
Audience share by network:
Network 7 TTL 27.7%
Network 9 TTL 25.7%
Network TEN TTL 24.4%
Network ABC TTL 16.4%
Network SBS TTL 5.9%
Life on the Dole has been available on Youtube for over a year. Prime time Channel 9 is now playing Youtube clips (but without the ability to skip most of the ads).
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