Nine dominates second last week of ratings

Seven is slumbering,
Ten’s tuning out and Nine’s
charging. That’s how Saturday
night and last week looked,
and that’s how the coming week looks as the 2005 ratings battle moves
towards its official climax; with the unofficial, but still highly
competitive summer ratings battle, kicking off next Sunday.

Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone (1.393 million) drove Nine to an easy win on
Saturday night with
a share of 37.1% to 24.9% for Seven, 18.8% for Ten,
13.5% for the ABC and 5.7% for SBS. And just to be sure, Nine has programmed the Harry Potter sequel this Saturday
night.

For the week, Nine won
with a share of 30.4% to 26.1% for Seven, 19.8% for Ten, 12.8% for the ABC and
10.9% for SBS (high because of the soccer on Wednesday
night). Nine won Sydney,
Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide but Seven had
its usual win in Perth.

In the little but
important battles, Seven News cleaned up Nine nationally, 1.156 million to 1.109
million thanks to a clear win in Sydney and
a bigger win in Perth. Nine News was dominant in Melbourne, Brisbane and
Adelaide, but to
no avail.

Last night’s TV
ratings

The Winners One night down, six to go and Nine is already so far in front
that give them the week: which Seven and Ten sort of seem to be doing already.
The last CSI (the Kill Bill rip off episode by Quentin Tarantino) attracted
more than 1.9 million viewers and along with the last 60 Minutes (1.749
million) for the year, Nine News (1.446 million) and the finale of Celebrity Fat
Farm (1.294 million), and then The Closer (1.146 million), the night belonged to
Willoughby. Seven’s best was the News with 1.062 million
then Hot Property with 976,000. Ten’s best was the first of the two part final
of Australian Idol which was watched by 1.555 million. Now in terms of this that’s
OK, in terms of 2004 and 2003, that was a failure and should be listed as a
loser. The 7pm News with 901,000 was the ABC’s best.
The Losers

Losers, Idol, even though it enabled Ten to claim
victory in the 16 to 39 age group. The verdict episode tonight is due to run
from 7.30pm to 10pm. Hmmm. Can we wait? Seven just seems to be in summer
mode, although it was nice to see the return of a new episode of Inspector Frost
(A Touch of Frost) which attracted 936,000 viewers over two hours from 9pm to
just after 11pm. The ABC appears to be just ticking
over.
News & CA Sunday night and Nine News won everywhere bar
Perth. The ABC News did well. Its 249,000 viewers in Melbourne at 7pm was
better than the 213,000 who watched Seven news in the same city at 6pm!
Elsewhere yesterday the Sunday program was watched by 329,000, Seven’s Weekend
Sunrise by 279,000, the ABC’s Insiders by 147,000; Business Sunday was lower on
137,000, Inside Business on the ABC was up at 124,000 and close to its best
figures for the year but Meet The Press was down at 58,000.
The Stats Nine won with a share of 35.0% to 23.7%% for Ten, Seven
third with 23.2%, the ABC down on 11.5% and SBS with 6.7%. Nine won
everywhere.
Glenn Dyer’s
comments		 That win was to be
expected, as was the underperformance (compared to last year of Idol for Ten).
Tonight sees Eddie McGuire with a two hour special with pregnant women trying to
win money for their unborn kids. Talk about exploitation!. Grey’s Anatomy will
do OK for Seven, but the Dragon’s Den at 9.30pm will continue to die: Eddie
and Idol on Ten will ensure that. As expected Nine just
clobbered the opposition last night and will win the second last week of
ratings, despite what is showing on TV tonight and tomorrow night. SBS is
repeating Wednesday night’s World Cup soccer game tonight which will cause some
disruption to viewing
patterns.