Seven and Nine continue to jostle for top spot, with Seven topping Nine in total people last night while in the main channels it was Nine taking the lead. In both cases, Ten in third place, the ABC in fourth.
Nine’s news bulletins are cleaning up in the metro markets, especially Melbourne, while Seven News has a stronghold in the regional areas, contributing to its national victory. Seven’s Sunrise is also the viewers’ choice in the morning — Today and News Breakfast are mere afterthoughts.
The return of Foreign Correspondent to the ABC’s Thursday night line-up after the conclusion of the successful Back Roads season (an average of 800,000-plus viewers per episode) had some TV pundits thinking it may provide a follow-on boost for the faltering Q+A. Not the case — Foreign Correspondent last night averaged 525,000, with Q+A attracting a weak 351,000 nationally. The problem for Q+A is that viewers now view it as dull, predictable and full of politicians — an unsatisfying program (unlike Foreign Correspondent).
Breakfast: Sunrise, 456,000 nationally and 260,000 metro; Today, 311,000 and 213,000; News Breakfast, 278,000 and 179,000.
Regional top five: Seven News, 623,000; Seven News 6.30, 595,000; Home and Away, 351,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 363,000; Home and Away Late, 344,000;
Network channel share:
- Seven (28.0%)
- Nine (27.5%)
- Ten (20.4%)
- ABC (15.2%)
- SBS (8.9%)
Network main channels:
- Nine (19.0%)
- Seven (18.2%)
- Ten (13.5%)
- ABC (9.8%)
- SBS ONE (5.3%)
Top 5 digital channels:
- 7mate (3.9%)
- 7TWO, 10 Bold (3.8%)
- ABC Kids/Comedy/Plus (3.2%)
- Gem, 10 Peach (2.7%)
Top 10 national programs:
- Seven News — 1.605 million
- Seven News 6.30 — 1.542 million
- Nine News — 1.289 million
- Nine News 6.30 — 1.223 million
- A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.053 million
- 7pm ABC News — 990,000
- Home and Away (Seven) — 918,000
- The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 915,000
- Home and Away Late (Seven) — 829,000
- 7.30 (ABC) — 793,000
Losers: MasterChef, Q&A
Metro news and current affairs:
- Nine News — 985,000
- Seven News — 982,000
- Seven News 6.30 — 947,000
- Nine News 6.30 — 931,000
- ACA (Nine) — 745,000
- 7pm ABC News — 663,000
- 7.30 (ABC) — 527,000
- The Project 7pm (Ten) — 448,000
- Ten News First — 392,000
- Foreign Correspondent (ABC) — 360,000
Morning (National) TV:
- Sunrise (Seven) — 456,000/260,000
- Today (Nine) — 311,000/213,000
- News Breakfast (ABC) — 278,000/179,000
- The Morning Show (Seven) — 234,000
- Today Extra (Nine) — 160,000
- Studio 10 (Ten) — 72,000
Top 5 pay TV programs:
- NRL: St George vs Brisbane (Fox League) — 225,000
- NRL: Late Night With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 101,000
- The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 81,000
- NRL: Pre-Game (Fox League) — 72,000
- Aussie Gold Hunters (Discovery) — 71,000
It is an irony that the Foreign Correspondent report last night was produced by the man-the-right-loves-to-hate, Tony Jones, the lack of whose spark is one of the factors in Q&A’s decline.
Also, Bolt’s slobbering anti-ABC rant last night was embarrassing to watch, a grown man winding himself up into a toddler-like tantrum full of skewed semi-untruths, shouting at the bogie-man under the bed. I can’t decide whether it’s good that only as few as 80,000 people saw it or appalled that as many as 80,000 watched.
Q&A IS dull, predictable and mostly full of politicians. It’s also an old format and, lets face it, left leaning which is partly the reason it’s predictable.
It needs an infusion of new participants, thinkers from all sides of the spectrum. Writers, artists, journalists, bloggers, people from every day life and very occasionally politicians from any side who have something new to say.
It’s a good concept but it is dying from predictability.
Barnaby joyce added color, humour and even a few non-left viewpoints. Could the Q&A team find a bit more like that to make the show less dull and right-on.
Viewers of Q&A over the past couple of years will have noticed that the show is more engaging and offers more chance of stimulating conversation when politicians are absent.
Last night’s ep offered an excellent example to draw from. It had some interesting guests, but the smarm and utter predictability of the self-basting Tim Wilson overwhelmed any stimulating conversation. Scraping the bottom of the barrel for me was his clever-clogs “…that’s because I’m not a conservative I’m a Liberal”. Offered so smugly, seemingly as a rebuke, what did that empty rhetorical flourish even mean?
Just a question, but why do you say Nine is “cleaning up” over Seven in metro news, when it’s clearly neck-and-neck and over the hour from 6 to 7 Seven in fact has 13,000 more viewers than Nine?