Nine’s First Millionaire:

The
Nine Network can barely contain its glee. For the first time since the program
started, Eddie McGuire’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire has one of them on its
hands. A
program recorded at GTV 9 yesterday in Melbourne has seen a winner, the first in
six years and the first in around seven people who got close. The
news appeared in this Sydney Morning Herald report.

Nine
now has a programming stick with which to beat Seven up
with after copping a hiding last night on what’s a competitive night. While the
cricket sucked viewers away, Nine lost a lot of ground.
It will be tempted to program the Millionaire Millionaire episode as soon as possible. But it
should have a little think about an unintended consequence. The millionaire on
Eddie’s show is going to damage a key selling point for Temptation. Twice
in the past fortnight Temptation has produced record prize winners. That has enabled Nine and Temptation to boast of the two biggest
prize winners in Australian game show history. But no more. Eddie’s Millionaire
has killed that line and Temptation’s audience reflected those winners, being
the most watched program on each night.

Last night’s TV
ratings:

The Winners Seven and SBS with the cricket. Home and Away was the
most watched program with 1.501 million, followed by Today Tonight (1.478
million), Seven News (1.471 million), Grey’s Anatomy (1.349 million) and The
Great Outdoors with 1.281 million. Seven won from 5.30 pm to 9.30 pm. SBS with
the cricket was the other winner. It averaged 813,000, but that was from 7.15 to
well past midnight (actually 1.59 am). What that doesn’t show is that from 7.30
SBS’s audience ranged from 921,500 to as high as 1.322 million (and first place)
at 8.45 pm to 9 pm. From 10.15 pm onwards SBS was the leader with 1.132 million
in that quarter hour and viewer numbers gradually eased from then on. But now
it’s back to low scores for SBS most nights. Its day in the ratings sun has come
and gone. The ABC was solid with the News the best program with 1.08 million and
Enough Rope just behind with 1.078 million with an interview
with a very controlled Jane Fonda. She’s a good actor and was one last
night.
The Losers

Nine, a big fall from Sunday night: hubris, a sin in TV,
especially where ratings are concerned. The Alice managed a reasonable 929,000,
but there’s still a turn off. Eddie’s Millionaire was down as well (unlike the
Seven programs which seemed not to take much of a hit from the cricket). But the
big losers were the News and A Current Affair, but more of that below. Idol did
sort of OK for Seven, 1.136 million won’t have them turning cartwheels at Ultimo
today, but it’s enough to please
them.
News & CA Nine News and ACA had one of their most comprehensive loses of the year,
Seven News and TT both won nationally and in Sydney where Nine News fell below
the 300,000 mark ( 296,000) for the first time in more than a month. TT won
Melbourne (a fairly rare event in recent weeks), Seven News got close to Nine
but lost. Seven News won Brisbane but TT lost to ACA. In Perth and Adelaide wins
to both Seven programs. 7.30 Report was down at 844,000 because of the start of
the cricket and Australian Story was also down with 938,000 viewers. Likewise
with Four Corners (649,000) and Media watch (611,000).
The Stats Seven won with a 24.4% share from Nine with 22.2%, SBS
with 21.0%, Ten with 18.5% and the ABC with 13.9%. Seven won Sydney and Brisbane
and Ten won Adelaide. SBS won Melbourne from Seven and in Perth. Nine didn’t
have a win anywhere and ended equal last in Perth.
Glenn Dyer’s
comments		 From tonight no more disruptions from SBS and its cricket
gamble. But it was a remarkably even night last night. Nine will hurt more
because nights like that reduce its share by more than it does to Seven. There
were only 12 programs with a million or more viewers and the cricket just sucked
viewers from everyone. Tonight it’s Dancing with the Stars for Seven and Nine and
Ten will struggle. A final thought: with Seven using Desperate
Housewives to build a Monday night audience, viewers seem to be getting used to
the idea of tuning in to Seven, even without the ladies of Wisteria Lane. If
this trend continues then that’s a significant victory for Seven, which would go
some way to easing the pain of that abysmal Sunday night
effort.