Holiday Sunday, holiday Monday, long holiday weekend — all that made for average to boring TV viewing. Seven last night was the exception, where My Kitchen Rules came back, accompanied by the grubby Seven Year Switch, which is really a reworked version of Married At First Sight (Switch averaged 922,000 national — 618,000 metro and 304,000 regional viewers), but less entertaining.
Those numbers made it Seven’s night, and a very easy win it was because nothing interesting was on the other networks, with the exception of the ABC’s John Clarke tribute at 8pm.
The presence of MKR and a grudge episode in the final home eatery contest made sure Seven won big. The season high 2.41 million national audience last night (1.65 million metro and 756,000 regional viewers) gave Seven an easy win in the regions and the demos and will bring a smile to the face of many at the network after the early weakness of the series.
The ABC rested its Monday night line up of news and current affairs stalwarts, and that was a good thing because it allowed the ABC to broadcast its heartfelt obit to the late John Clarke, Thanks for your time — a wonderful, fitting tribute that deserved to be longer. Even if the usual line up of news and current affairs programs had been in place, it would have stood out. Those at the Nine Network who flicked Clarke and Dawes from A Current Affair should have been named and shamed (just for fun). The rest of the night, indeed the rest of the weekend shrank in comparison to the Clarke tribute — 1.46 million national viewers (995,000/475,000).
MKR dominated the regions as well with a season high of 756,000 viewers, followed by Seven News with 724,000, Seven News/Today Tonight was 3rd with 590,000, followed by Home and Away with 486,000, then Thanks for your time in 5th with 475,000.
In breakfast, Seven’s Sunrise won last week and won yesterday nationally (472,000 to 374,000, which is what the Today mob ignores in the media moaning) and in the metros on a holiday Monday; 280,000 to 247,000.
Network channel share:
- Seven (37.7%)
- Nine (23.2%)
- ABC (17.4%)
- Ten (15.1%)
- SBS (6.6%)
Network main channels:
- Seven (29.3%)
- Nine (16.4%)
- ABC (13.0%)
- Ten (9.8%)
- SBS ONE (4.5%)
Top 5 digital channels:
- 7TWO (4.5%)
- 7mate, ONE (2.7%)
- Eleven (2.6%)
- ABC 2, GO (2.4%)
Top 10 national programs:
- MKR (Seven) — 2.41 million
- Seven News — 2.08 million
- Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.81 million
- Nine/NBN News — 1.47 million
- John Clarke tribute (ABC) — 1.46 million
- Nine News/NBN (6.30pm) — 1.45 million
- Home and Away (Seven) — 1.28 million
- A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.27 million
- 7pm ABC News — 1.17 million
- 7.30 (ABC) — 946,000
Top metro programs:
- MKR (Seven) —1.65 million
- Seven News — 1.35 million
- Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.22 million
- Nine News — 1.12 million
- Nine News 6.30 — 1.08 million
Losers: No one really, well, apart from anyone who missed the John Clarke tribute on the ABC.
Metro news and current affairs:
- Seven News — 1.35 million
- Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.22 million
- Nine News — 1.12 million
- Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.08 million
- A Current Affair (Nine) – 854,000
- 7pm ABC News – 810,000
- 7.30 (ABC) — 640,000
- The Project 7pm (Ten) — 543,000
- Ten Eyewitness News — 484,000
- The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 346,000
Morning (national) TV:
- Sunrise (Seven) – 472,000
- Today (Nine) — 374,000
- Today Extra (Nine) — 258,000
- The Morning Show (Seven) — 244,000
- News Breakfast (ABC, 124,000 + 76,000 on News 24) — 200,000
- Studio 10 (Ten) — 131,000
Top five pay TV channels:
- Fox Footy (5.2%)
- Fox League (3.0%)
- TVHITS (2.2%)
- LifeStyle (1.8%)
- Foxtel Movies premiere (Action) (1.6%)
Top five pay TV programs:
- NRL: Parramatta v Wests (Fox League) — 281,000
- AFL: Hawthorn v Geelong (Fox Footy ) — 276,000
- Monday Footy on Fox (Fox Footy) — 160,000
- AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 124,000
- AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 102,000
“Very little of interest over the long weekend, except for the ABC’s delightful John Clarke tribute.” Yes it was delightful; yes it could have been longer; and yes it was the best program of the entire weekend (although I did enjoy the Friday night ABC episode of Broadchurch).
However I do have a question. Judging from the many comments over the past week one could conclude that most of us, including many comedians, always watched the weekly two and a half minutes of Clarke and Dawe. Why does this not show up in the viewing statistics? Did many people watch it in a time of their choosing, using iView or other platforms, rather than turn in at 6:56? I was outside Australia for most of a decade but regularly watched Clarke and Dawe though certainly not at 6:56 on Thursdays and maybe other regular viewers were like me.
Judging from the comments I have read in the last week, the viewer figures for each episode would have been up around, even above, those viewing last night’s special. is there any way the real number of viewers can be assessed when there are so many different ways of seeing each episode?