Q+A was useless last night. The sniping and snarking and smirking just didn’t grab viewers, attracting 368,000 nationally. That’s nowhere near enough for a program with such a high profile.
The Front Bar also struggled, with 426,000 viewers. But, even with no AFL, Seven still won the night. Seven News, Home and Away and The Chase Australia all performed well. Nine dozed off with the NRL (582,000) and Ten snapped up the demos with MasterChef (772,000 for the usual small Thursday night episode) and then Gogglebox Australia straight after (791,000). At least you can say Ten was trying.
Network channel share
- Seven (27.4%)
- Nine (25.5%)
- Ten (24.6%)
- ABC (15.0%)
- SBS (7.5%)
Network main channels
- Seven (18.5%)
- Nine (18.4%)
- Ten (17.5%)
- ABC (10.5%)
- SBS ONE (4.1%)
Top five digital channels
- 7TWO (3.8%)
- 10 Bold (3.6%)
- 7mate (3.3%)
- 10 Peach (2.7%)
- ABC Kids/Comedy/Plus (2.4%)
Top 10 national programs
- Seven News — 1.489 million
- Seven News 6.30 — 1.470 million
- Nine News 6.30 — 1.157 million
- Nine News — 1.123 million
- 7pm ABC News — 949,000
- A Current Affair (Nine) — 909,000
- Home and Away (Seven) — 857,000
- The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 820,000
- Gogglebox Australia (Ten) — 791,000
- Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 772,000
Metro news and current affairs
- Seven News 6.30 —948,000
- Seven News — 936,000
- Nine News 6.30 — 873,000
- Nine News — 872,000
- ACA (Nine) — 636,000
- 7pm ABC News — 631,000
- 7.30 (ABC) — 508,000
- The Project 7pm (Ten) — 409,000
- Ten News First — 324,000
- The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 265,000
Morning (national) TV
- Sunrise (Seven) — 443,000/254,000
- Today (Nine) — 329,000/229,000
- News Breakfast (ABC) — 269,000/172,000
- The Morning Show (Seven) — 214,000
- Today Extra (Nine) — 157,000
- Studio 10 (Ten) — 52,000
Top five pay TV programs
- NRL: Penrith vs Newcastle (Fox League) — 229,000
- NRL: The Late Show With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 78,000
- NRL: Pre-Game (Fox League) — 75,000
- Outback Opal Hunters (Discovery) — 71,000
- The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 63,000
I will never vote for a party that takes funds from the ABC, never. It’s part of my family.
Since Tony left Q&A has been a shadow of it’s former self. Sorry Aunty, but Hamish does absolutely nothing for anyone. If you want to save the show, find another anchor. If you want to kill it to please your political masters, you’re right on track.
The Q&A time slot is wrong, Monday night was a good fit following 4 Corners.
Also, Australians are fed up hearing politicians spouting their party songs. Q&A’s best programmes featured guests who were thinkers, scientists & artists. The politicians are dull & predictable.
That it is the wrong time slot is obvious when they advertise it heavily after 4 Corners. What was wrong on Thursday however were the boorish men who dominated and talked over others and patronised. Hamish did not have enough control although in general he is a good host.
You can’t “grab viewers” who weren’t there in the first place. This year’s wrong timeslot and rather insipid content has clearly convinced many potential viewers not to even bother sampling the show.
Last night was a slight return to the sparky debate (which produced a little light now and then) plus somewhat more aggressive hosting/questioning – both of which were amongst the primary attractions of the old program (even if they were the ones that enraged the right).
Sad, and even worse, the ABC-haters will go on hating the ABC in principle, despite achieving one of their goals – neutralising Q&A