There was mass coverage early Thursday of the presidential inauguration. The ABC, SBS, Nine, Ten and Seven covered the ceremony. Perhaps they were hoping for a bit of argy bargy from Trump loons. Nothing happened. It was peaceful and Trump’s early morning flight on Air Force One (which was deep cleaned after delivering Thumper to exile near Palm Beach) set the right tone for the inglorious end to his presidency.
The local free to air coverage started between 3am and 4am, and at 9am the ABC gave us the collected wisdom of Ellen Fanning and Stan Grant. After their effort on November 4 in anchoring the election results coverage of the ABC, I would have though John Barron of Planet America would have been a better choice — even though he was first talking head off the top for the chat.
Planet America returned to ABC News with an inauguration warm up ahead of the real thing on Thursday morning and topped the night for the digital channels with 363,000 national viewers.
That saw ABC News top the digital channel on the night with a 4.6% share. The digital channels had a total share of 36.0 — a boring night on the main channels, in other words.
Last night saw I’m A Celebrity again top the night as the most watched non-news program with 943,000, but the 7pm ABC News won the 7pm slot up against Ten’s program with 973,000. Seven’s solid hour of news from 6pm to 7pm and then a reasonable 600,000 for the BBL game saw it win the night in total people and the main channels. But Ten did better in the demos with I’m A Celebrity.
In breakfast, Sunrise had 441,000 national and 258,000 metro viewers; ABC News Breakfast had 311,000 national and 212,000 metro viewers; Today, 285,000 national and 184,000 metro viewers.
In regional markets it was Seven News with 498,000; Seven News 6.30; 458,000, 7pm ABC News, 326,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 299,000; A Current Affair, 283,000.
Network channel share:
- Seven (24.2%)
- Nine (23.9%)
- Ten (23.2%)
- ABC (20.0%)
- SBS (8.7%)
Network main channels:
- Seven (17.2%)
- Ten (15.2%)
- Nine (14.2%)
- ABC (12.3%)
- SBS ONE (4.9%)
Top 5 digital channels:
- ABC News (4.6%)
- 10 Bold (4.2%)
- GO (3.5%)
- 7TWO (3.4%)
- Gem, 10 Peach (3.2%)
Top 10 national programs:
- Seven News — 1.44 million
- Seven News 6.30 — 1.35 million
- Nine News — 1.10 million
- Nine News 6.30 — 1.09 million
- 7pm ABC News — 973,000
- I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here (Ten) — 943,000
- A Current Affair (Nine) — 923,000
- 7.30 — summer (ABC) — 762,000
- The Chase Australia 5.30pm repeat (Seven) — 752,000
- Hard Quiz repeat (ABC) — 711,000
Top metro programs: No program had a million or more viewers.
Losers: Another rotten night, though Planet America warmed us up.
Metro news and current affairs:
- Seven News — 944,000
- Seven News 6.30 — 890,000
- Nine News — 842,000
- Nine News 6.30 — 816,000
- 7pm ABC News – 647,00
- A Current Affair (Nine) — 641,000
- 7.30 (ABC) — 512,000
- The Project 7pm (Ten) — 442,000
- Ten News First — 335,000
- The Project 6.30 (Ten) — 280,000
Morning (National) TV:
- Sunrise (Seven) — 441,000/258,000
- News Breakfast (ABC) — 311,000/212,000
- Today (Nine) – 285,000/184,000
- The Morning Show (Seven) – 232,000
- Today Extra (Nine) — 162,000
- Studio 10 (Ten) — 59,000
Top five pay TV programs:
- Cricket — BBL (Fox Cricket) — 183,000
- Cricket — BBL (Fox Cricket) — 166,000
- Cricket: Between The Innings (Fox Cricket) — 151,000
- Cricket: BBL Post Game (Fox Cricket) — 90,000
- Chris Smith Tonight (Sky News) — 39,000
Can you please provide some analysis and advice about the low Sky News ratings? I am a Foxtel subscriber and have watched how their ‘news’ service has just become an opinion megaphone for what appear to be reactionaries. No ‘sensible centre’ there are all. How come this rubbish still goes to air?
The trumpet is calling.
“Send not to ask for whom the strumpet calls….”, she has Judah’s seal ring.