The Winners: Seven News was the top program with 1.624 million, Today Tonight was on 1.497 million in second and the 7.30pm fresh episode of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.399 million for Nine. Nine News was 4th with 1.392 million (and a high 417,000 in Sydney). Ten’s new program, The 7 pm Project averaged a solid 1.285 million on debut and the 8.30pm episode of Sea Patrol averaged 1.281 million. A Current Affair was 7th with 1.273 million and Home and Away averaged 1.211 million at 7pm for Seven and 8th spot.
Then came the 9.30pm fresh episode of Sea Patrol with 1.197 million and the final episode of Ten’s Recruits averaged 1.176 million for an hour from 7.30pm. The 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.156 million and 11th spot and Seven’s Desperate Housewives averaged 1.076 million for 12th. Nine’s 8pm program, Big Bang Theory averaged 1.076 million and 13th spot. Ten News averaged 1.046 million and Australian Story was 15th with 1.017 million. Neighbours averaged 956,000 at 6.30pm on Ten, How I Met Your Mother, 910,000 for Seven in a repeat at 7.30pm. Ten’s Good News Week highlights program at 8.30pm, 876,000. Hot Seat on Nine at 5.30pm, 743,000, Deal or No Deal on Seven, 845,000.
The Losers: The Nine Network for doubling up episodes of Sea Patrol from 8.30pm to 10.30pm simply to keep in the ratings hunt.
News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne, as did Today Tonight. The 7pm ABC News averaged 994,000, The 7.30 Report, 902,000 (up with no MasterChef and Ali Moore back in the chair). Four Corners averaged 834,000 with a good report on mining vs. farming. Media Watch averaged 753,000. Lateline, averaged 275,000, Lateline Business, 129,000. Ten’s late News/Sports Tonight averaged 289,000. Nine’s late News, 202,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 202,000, the late edition, 275,000. 7am Sunrise, 373,000, 7am Today, 303,000.
The Stats: Nine won with a 6pm to midnight All People share of 27.6% (23.8%), from Seven with 24.6% (24.4%), Ten on 21.1% (26.6%) and the ABC with 16.8% (17.3%). SBS was on 10.0% (7.9%). Seven won Sydney, Nine won the other metro markets. Ten leads the week, 31.9% to 23.0% for Seven and 22.2% for Nine. In regional areas a similar result with WIN/.NBN averaged 30.0%, from Prime/7Qld with 2.3%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 20.3%, the ABC on 17.6% and SBS on 10.7%.
Glenn Dyer’s comments: Early Monday morning SBS suffered an embarrassing technical glitch on its live streaming on the internet of the Tour De France. At about 1.05am, it stopped, laptops went to black and the pictures never returned. The failure was made doubly cruel: SBS’s main channel was showing the atrocity at Lord’s and the digital Two channel was showing the bike race. But those without a digital TV (the majority of Australians) had no access to the bike race and the cricket at the same time. So those desperates huddled with their laptops into the early hours of the morning missed much of Spain’s Alberto Contador riding his way to the lead in a breathtaking attack in the last three kilometres, which was around 1.05am … and no pictures of what could be the pivotal stage of the 2009 Tour.
Nine won last night because its 7.30pm timeslot was stronger, now that MasterChef has gone, and because it doubled up fresh episodes of Sea Patrol, with the second one running at 9.30pm. Nine is doing the same next week. It’s a sign of the ratings desperation at Nine that it is blowing off expensive episodes of a solidly rating program merely to stay in the hunt on one night. That’s short term thinking and means it will have two weak Mondays in the not too distant future.
The 7pm Project on Ten at 7pm, naturally, averaged just over 1.2 million is an OK debut. The test comes tonight and tomorrow night when we will see how interested the audience is in watching it a second or third time. It was better than expected.
Nine might have won the night, but it lost Sydney for no reason except that Sydney viewers have soured on the network. Seven was stronger in Sydney than elsewhere. The cricket on SBS had its biggest audience so far in the series: 710,000 poor fools tuned in full of hope from 8pm.
TONIGHT: Packed To The Rafters, All Saints on Seven, The 7pm Project on Ten, and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation at 7.30pm. Insight on SBS and perhaps the Liberal Rule feature at 8.30pm. The Tour de France is at 10pm.
Nine: Dance Your Ass Off at 7.30pm. Not a recommendation, more a suggestion to take a peek and see what an American TV train wreck looks like. Hideous. Grand Designs on the ABC at 8.30pm and before that, Foreign Correspondent.
Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports
The failure of SBS’s streaming service wasn’t the most distressing aspect of the evening coverage. No, the low point was SBS’s decision to cut away to a long (3+ minute) commercial break during the most critical moments of the stage.
Stage 15 to Verbier featured a high mountain top finish. These stages are often decisive because of the large time gaps that can result as riders struggle up the steep slopes.
The tension built up throughout the stage until, with a breakaway group splintering on the steep roads up to Verbier, the main contenders reached the foot of the climb, at which point the Saxo Bank domestiques buried themselves in order to set a pace high enough to break everyone except, they hoped, their team captain Andy Schleck.
Everyone was right at their limit except for Alberto Contador who took off on his own. Andy Schleck tried to follow but couldn’t keep up and the others kept their heads down and wondered how much time they’d end up losing to Contador.
It was at this crucial point, almost 5 hours into the stage, with only a few minutes remaining, that SBS cut to a long (3+ minutes) commercial break. Six, seven commercials rolled by, with coffee cups being hurled at living room walls across Australia.
Viewers never saw how well Contador rode. Or the desperate attempts by Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastre to claw back precious seconds. And so viewers missed what will likely be the pivotal moment in the three week Tour de France.
And it’s not as if it was an accident. SBS had done the same thing on an earlier stage in similar circumstances. Take a look at the comments at tdf.sbs.com.au. Viewers are absolutely ropeable.