Three great tales from the Nine
Network:

  • The so-called Icebergs Gang held a party last
    Friday night (at the Cogee home of Nine programming chief Michael Healy) to mark
    the departure of Sam Chisholm as CEO of Nine, who wasn’t invited.
  • John Alexander, the CEO of PBL asking staff who
    couldn’t attend the Packer Memorial service to observe a minute’s
    silence. (Issued around an hour before the service started Friday at 12.30
    pm.)
  • Eddie McGuire’s reported comment that while Sam Chisholm had
    gotten his ‘Nine balls” (the well known dotty nine logo that used to
    hang on the wall outside his old second floor office), Audsley had cut
    the “balls” out of this place, referring to the cost-cutting efforts of
    Nine Chief Operating Officer, Ian Audsley. And who was the Nine Sydney
    Newsroom member who “liberated” the balls, only to be told to bring
    them back, so they could be given to the departing Sam?


Seven wins Round 1. Week
one of 2006 ratings and the Seven Network has emerged with a narrow but solid
win over Nine, thanks to picking up Friday and Saturday
nights. Seven
won with a share of 30.7% to 28.7% for Nine, with Ten
third back on 21.9%, the ABC on 14.2% and SBS on 4.6%. To rub
it in, Seven won every capital city
market. The win
was better than it seemed because Nine had two big
winning nights, thanks to the one day cricket finals last Sunday and Tuesday
nights. Without those the Seven win would have been far
more substantial. It’s already clear that Nine has some major problems. The 6 pm
to 7pm timeslot is a continuing worry, as is the 7pm timeslot where Temptation
has to bounce back this week or it will be on
the ailing list. Bert’s
Family Feud saw its audience fall from 678,000 on Monday to 511,000 on Friday and the gap between it and Deal or No Deal is enormous. Deal was watched by well over 830,000 people on Friday, down from the week
high of more than 900,000 on Thursday night. – Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV
ratings

The Winners Nine, easily from Seven, with CSI (1.761 million), 60
Minutes (1.533 million) and CSI Miami
(1.346 million) powering the win from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. Seven
surprisingly won 6pm to 7.30pm, claiming the scalps of Nine News and
Nine’s new expensive production, Clever.
The Losers Ten, nothing worked well last night, the Sharks special
at 6.30pm attracted only 711,000 people. Australia’s Brainiest at 7.30pm
topped the million mark with 1.1 million but Law and Order SVU (846,000) and Law
and Order Criminal Intent (836,000) were beaten by Seven’s Winter Olympics coverage (952,000). Clever with 1.156 million ended up just on the side of
modest success. Seven’s Hot Property with 1.298 million (the last ep) was the
clear winner and Clever saw a turn-off from the Nine News and a strong turn-on for
60 Minutes, but delivered nothing for the latter program by way of lead-in.
Certainly Backyard Blitz looks superior in the
timeslot.
News & CA Now this was the turn-up. Seven News, 1.312 million
viewers nationally, beat Nine News with 1.285 million. Usually Nine News is one
of the top three programs on Sunday nights with an audience around the 1.5
million plus. Nine News beat Seven News in Sydney, but again, in a surprise
the order was reversed in Melbourne and in Brisbane where the rust is usually
strongest for Nine. ABC News was watched by 946,000. Ten News by
685,000. On Sunday morning, Weekend Sunrise on Seven with 333,000 viewers was
the most watched followed by Sunday with 299,000. Business Sunday saw its
audience jump sharply to 171,000, but that was still well behind Sunrise.
Insiders on the ABC rose gently to 136,000. Inside Business on the ABC at 10am
was watched by 91,000. But Barrie Cassidy’s Offsiders at 10.30am got the thumbs
down from viewers with only 89,000 watching this week, compared to more than
120,000 the week before.
The Stats Nine with 33.5%, Seven with 25.5%, Ten with 18.4% and
just in front of the ABC with 18.1%. SBS with 4.5%. Nine won
everywhere.
Glenn Dyer’s comments Although it was a solid win for Nine, Seven will like the 6pm
to 7.30pm wins. Clever could
very well go the way of Starstruck last year, except for the hosting strength of
Georgie Parker. Bert Newton hopefully won’t be around next week, he’s wearing
out his welcome. Tonight it’s the Desperate Housewives up against Eddie and Who
Wants to be a Millionaire. Eddie only has a couple more gigs fronting the show
before becoming the full time CEO of Nine.