Who’s winning the mushroom murder TV ratings war this week?
This week, Australian television networks have been stuffing their schedules with specials dissecting the Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial — and despite some being a little underdone, millions are tuning in.
On Monday afternoon, Patterson was found guilty of three counts of murder, and one count of attempted murder. The free-to-air channels certainly had it covered; the interested viewer could channel hop from the 2.15pm verdict right through to Ursula Heger wrapping 10 Late News at 11pm, and be swamped in mushroom murder content the whole day.
From 2pm, 7News: The Verdict — Seven’s rolling coverage of the decision and its aftermath — drew 774,000 viewers, with an average of 240,000. This jumped to 825,000 viewers for the 4pm bulletin, with average viewership climbing to 393,000. Over on Nine, 8530,000 viewers tuned in for the 4pm bulletin — with an average of 440,000.
Then, the 5pm games shows took over — because not even the country’s most gripping murder trial can stop The Tipping Point. Luckily, Ten’s counter-programming had viewers covered. An audience of 833,000 tuned into 10 News for its 5pm coverage (average 454,000).
6pm is the most fiercely contested timeslot on TV, with Nine and Seven’s nightly bulletins going head-to-head for the top slot in the ratings each day (unless there’s an Origin decider on, of course), with each drawing around 2.3 million viewers on any given evening.
Not surprisingly, both networks dedicated the bulk of their shows to the Erin Patterson trial, but their ratings didn’t spike — Seven won the race, drawing 2.326 million and an average of 1.57m, while Nine pulled 2.303 million, and an average of 1.51m throughout the hour.
Ten also dedicated the first half-hour of its 6pm news play, 10 News+ to the case, however the show failed to land in the day’s top thirty programs, meaning less than 629,000 tuned in across the hour.
Nine rolled out of the news straight into an A Current Affair episode all about Patterson, which drew 1.78 million viewers, with an average of 1.2m throughout.
Over on the ABC, its 7pm news bulletin (which was plagued by technical issues) drew 1.32 million, with an average of 972,000 viewers.
7News closed out their evening’s coverage with a 7News special — The Mushroom Murder Trial: Justice Served — which aired at 8.40pm and drew 1.3 million viewers, with an average of 679,000.
Tuesday saw Seven win the 6pm bulletin again, drawing 2.238 million vs Nine’s 2.227 million. 10 News+ once again failed to crack the top 30, meaning it pulled less than 588,000.
Nine, however, parlayed this audience into the second straight A Current Affair episode about the murder trial — which drew 1.7 million, with an average of 1.13m — which was chased by the rushed-to-air special Murder Down Under: Murder By Mushroom, which drew 1.48 million viewers with an average of 759,000.
The ABC’s 7pm bulletin saw 1.23 million watching, with an average of 919,000.
Seven is holding its big Patterson play for Sunday night.
It will air a Spotlight special ‘Inside the mind of triple murderer Erin Patterson’, in which a criminal barrister, a former detective, and a forensic psychologist square off to “answer the key question: what drove this seemingly ordinary mother of two to commit these meticulously planned murders?”
SBS and Foxtel both told Mumbrella they have no special Patterson-related programming planned outside of news coverage.
Wednesday night’s ratings will arrive at roughly Thursday, 11.30am, and this story will be updated to reflect any mushroom-related movements.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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topics
10 NEWS+
A Current Affair
Erin Patterson
Foxtel
Mushroom
Mushroom murder trial
Nine
SBS
Seven
Spotlight
Ten
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