Nine no longer the one on news

The Nine Network boasts that it’s the place people turn to it when there’s a big story. Well,
yesterday’s anti-terror raids in Sydney and Melbourne was one of the
biggest stories of the year, and Nine would have been expecting some
sign of a turn-on for the 6pm news broadcasts. After all, they’d seen
it with the Tsunami story at the start of the year and to a lesser
extent, with the London bombing.

But last night there was barely a ripple. Seven won the 6pm news slot and the 6.30pm arm wrestle between A Current Affair and Today Tonight
– a pretty regular occurrence in which, once again, Seven was helped by
huge wins in Perth where the local Nine affiliate runs one of the worst
performing news services in the country.

And Seven winning in
Sydney was not the big story – these days that is the “ho-hum” news
from the daily Oztam figures. The big story was in Melbourne where
viewers are “rusted” on to Nine News, especially when there’s a big
news story. But not last night, as Seven News in Melbourne toppled
Nine, 424,000 viewers to 384,000 on average. It was a comprehensive win
and follows wins on three nights last week in Melbourne (something of a
rarity).

Nine will talk about the strength of Seven’s lead-in, Deal or No Deal,
which was strong last night: and Monday night and on other nights when
Nine has beaten Seven in Melbourne. Seven has been closing the gap on
Nine in Melbourne, just as it closed the gap in Sydney in 2004. The
margin in favour of Nine has fallen from around 150,000 viewers last
year to well under 100,000 this year and in the past few weeks its been
considerably less than that. Deal or No Deal has been a part of Seven’s News recovery and that’s what Bert Newton has been hired to reverse by Nine next year.

Last night’s TV ratings

The Winners Tuesday night was the final for Dancing With The Stars, need
we say any more? Seven by a mile. Dancing averaged 2.224
million people from 7.30pm to just past 9.45pm. Second was Home and Away (1.589 million), then
Seven News (1.461 million), Today Tonight (1.420 million) and All Saints (1.360 million). The
three new eps of Frasier averaged 1.047 million from 7.30pm to 9pm and
provided good laughs. Nine’s best from A Current
Affair with 1.337 million, while Temptation (1.065 million), weakened in the face of
Home and Away and the switchover to Dancing. Ten’s best was two eps of The
Simpsons with 982,000 and 974,000 respectively. The ABC’s best was the 7pm news
with 1.049 million people.
The Losers With the final of Dancing it would be unfair to call any program a loser such was the sucking power
of the program (by the way Home and Away’s Ada Nicodemou won from Chris Bath). Nine ran a CSI repeat at 8.30pm that did 1.057
million people.
News & CA Seven won nationally because of News wins in Sydney and Melbourne
(surprise) and a big win in Perth. Nine won Brisbane and Adelaide. Today
Tonight won Sydney and Perth where an enormous win offset losses to ACA in
Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. The ABC did well with just over a million
viewers on a big news night.
The Stats Seven won with a share of 29.0% to Nine on 24.8%, Ten
with 18.2%, the ABC with 12.4% and SBS with 5.4%. Seven won all markets and moved
to a lead in the week, 29.6% to 27.5% for
Nine
Glenn Dyer’s
comments		 No more Dancing next week,
although there’s the first of a one hour series winners dance off at 8.30pm.
Before that Seven’s big drama gamble with Headland starts at 7.30pm. Tonight has Nine with McLeod’s Daughters, CSI Miami and Without a Trace. It’s the final
for Beyond Tomorrow on Seven, then Blue Heelers and Forensic Investigators.
Ten has a new episode of House which should do well.