Record-making Block finale doesn’t translate to record audiences

Nine boasted in a release on Sunday night that the $3,332,002 shared for the sale of all five houses was “the highest sum of money ever won on a single episode of television anywhere in the world”.

Pity that enthusiasm didn’t extend to viewers of The Block — the average audience for last night’s winner’s announcement (the peak) final slipped by 239,000 people to 2.33 million people from 2.57 million a year ago. The metro audience fell to 1.79 million from 1.92 million and the regional audience of 535,000 was well down on 2019’s 643,000.

For the lead up to the winner’s announcement, The Block averaged 1,90 million last night — down around 8% from the 2.07 million from 2019. The metro audience of 1.43 million was lower than 2019’s 1.54 million and the regional audience fell to 473,000 this year from 525,000 a year ago.

The Block’s performance shadowed that of this year’s State of Origin games — weaker than expected, (in fact Origin was the lowest recorded with the new ratings system) but enough to win the night convincingly. There were again real signs of over-familiarity with The Block as there was with the Origin games.

For years the amounts raised by the auctions in The Block were always topped by the TV ratings for both the program (not in 2020) and Origin (which was always close to if not the most watched program of the year, vying with the AFL Grand Final). The three Origin games’ average was 2.52 million this year, so it remains ahead of The Block, but not by much.

Some enthusiastic bidding by one person (Melbourne IT entrepreneur Danny Wallis, who has been a bidder off and on since 2012) who bought three of the five houses — boosted the prices and the profits. Take him away and it would have been a flop.

Naturally Nine won the first night of the last week of official ratings. Seven was second, then the ABC and Ten was a distant fourth. Nine won the 2020 ratings battle, Seven will boast that it almost made it (but still flopped), Ten did OK and the ABC surprised again by remaining competitive thanks to its Monday night news and current affairs line up and the solid Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights.

By the way, the new series of The Crown continues on Netflix. The Maggie Thatcher portrayal is not how I remember her.

In regional markets The Block — Winner, 535,000; The Block, 473,000; Seven News, 470,000; 60 Minutes, 397,000, Beat The Chasers, 347,000.

Network channel share:

1. Nine (41.4%)
2. Seven (23.2%)
3. ABC (14.5%)
4. Ten (13.3%)
5. SBS (7.6%)

Network main channels:

1. Nine (33.4%)
2. Seven (16.4%)
3. ABC (9.9%)
4. Ten (7.6%)
5. SBS ONE (5.0%)

Top 5 digital channels:

1. GO (3.4%)
2. 10 Bold (3.0%)
3. 7mate (2.7%)
4. 7TWO, ABC Kids/Comedy (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. The Block — Winner (Nine) — 2.33 million
2. The Block (Nine) — 1.90 million
3. Seven News — 1.40 million
4. Nine/NBN News — 1.28 million
5. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.24 million
6. Beat The Chasers (Seven) — 929,000
7. 7pm ABC News — 903,000
8. Restoration Australia (ABC) — 715,000
9. Nine Late News — 600,000
10. Roadkill (ABC) — 551,000

Top metro program:

1. The Block — Winner (Nine) — 1.79 million
2. The Block (Nine) — 1.43 million

Losers: None, The Block ended last night, the final major program for 2020 ratings.

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Nine News — 979,000
2. Seven News — 925,000
3. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 841,000
4. 7pm ABC News – 608,000
5. Nine Late News — 436,000
6. The Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 325,000
7. The Sunday Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 270,000
8. Ten News First — 250,000
9. SBS World News — 174,000

Morning (National) TV:

1. Insiders (ABC, ABC News ) — 521,000
2. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 358,000
3. Landline — Summer (ABC) — 313,000
4. Weekend Today (Nine) – 277,000
5. Offsiders (ABC) — 213,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. Outsiders (Sky News ) — 60,000
2. Paul Murray (Sky News) — 59,000
3. Cricket: WBBL (Fox Cricket ) — 58,000
4. Cricket: The Blast (Fox Cricket ) — 51,000
5. Outsiders (Sky News ) — 54,000