There was one weekend result that Nine and Seven won’t be highlighting today: ABC’s repeat of Vera out-rated the AFL and NRL games on Friday night.
Vera was watched by an average 765,000 viewers. The AFL game (Geelong v Brisbane, the latter stiffed at the end by a dud umpiring decision) recorded 713,000 and the NRL game notched up 625,000 (Souths crushing Easts).
It’s not that unusual for ABC dramas to rate higher than sport. On Saturday night, the final ep of Death in Paradise had a far higher audience (925,000) than the St Kilda v Melbourne match (610,000). But what was striking about Friday night was that it was a repeat of a tiring UK crime format which topped two attractive AFL and NRL games.
Elsewhere, Insiders had 655,000 yesterday and should have had more. There was finally a non-political appearance by two politicians: Sarah Henderson and Katie Allen. Both Libs and both speaking far more directly about the biggest issue in politics for years. With Niki Savva, Patricia Karvelas and Jennifer Hewitt on the panel with David Speers (who had a very rocky start but handled it well), Insiders had the sort of discussion you rarely get on an Australian political chat show: very few obvious talking points and very little blokey ’splaining.
Of course, MAFS blitzed the night: 1.44 million and rising to the bitter end. Ten finished The Amazing Race with 957,000. It never cracked 1 million national viewers.
Network channel share
- Nine (36.9%)
- Seven (21.2%)
- Ten (19.2%)
- ABC (14.9%)
- SBS (8.1%)
Network main channels
- Nine (28.0%)
- Seven (15.1%)
- Ten (12.5%)
- ABC (10.7%)
- SBS ONE (5.9%)
Top five digital channels
- 10 Bold (3.6%)
- 7mate (3.3%)
- GO (3.1%)
- Gem, 10 Peach (2.5%)
Top 10 national programs
- Seven News — 1.462 million
- MAFS (Nine) — 1.447 million
- Nine News — 1.233 million
- 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.031 million
- The Amazing Race – Finish Line (Ten) — 957,000
- 7pm ABC News — 937,000
- The Amazing Race Grand Finale (Ten) — 845,000
- Insiders (ABC, ABC News) — 655,000
- Grand Designs NZ (ABC) — 648,000
- Harrow (ABC) — 609,000
Metro news and current affairs
- Seven News —983,000
- Nine News — 920,000
- 60 Minutes (Nine) — 738,000
- 7pm ABC News — 623,000
- The Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 429,000
- Nine News Late — 390,000
- 10 News First — 287,000
- The Sunday Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 274,000
- SBS World News — 180,000
Morning (national) TV
- Insiders (ABC, ABC News) — 655,000
- Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 509,000
- Landline (ABC) — 365,000
- Weekend Today (Nine) — pre-empted
- Offsiders (ABC) — 215,000
- Sports Sunday (Nine) — pre-empted
Top five pay TV programs
- NRL: Newcastle vs Wests (Fox League) — 214,000
- NRL: North Qld vs Gold Coast (Fox League) — 173,000
- NRL: Sunday Ticket (Fox League) — 138,000
- AFL: Footscray vs West Coast (Fox Footy) — 137,000
- AFL: Hawthorn vs Richmond (Fox Footy) — 116,000
Insiders had a few gremlins, like a backdrop consisting of the word “wallpaper” and a technician scurrying behind a chair not quite in time.
Maybe local so called news stations could take note that the half or more of their bulletins they devote to sport is boring most of us shitless.
Me thinks significant audiences for NRL and AFL are not sustainable with emerging demographics, which are more diverse, with a deeper and broader variety of sport, social and recreational pursuits available.
This is opposed have grown an audience into a solid cohort, rusted onto tv screens, that is the target but ageing and declining; will be interesting to watch advertisers on this one, ‘follow the money’?
Last Sunday’s was one of the finest ‘Insiders’ I can remember. Speersy was dancing as fast as he could – and needed to, given the challenges he faced – and his three panelists were splendid! More please!