The Winners: The Force at 8pm for Seven, 1.730 million people, Border Security on Seven at 7.30pm, 1.649 million, Seven News with 1.412 million in 3rd and City Homicide with 1.390 million. 5th was Today Tonight with 1.388 million and the fresh episode of Two and a Half Men on Nine at 7.30pm averaged 1.310 million. The 7pm repeat of averaged 1.264 million and 8th was the fresh episode of CSI at 8.30pm on Nine which averaged 1.264 million (there is now a very clear preference for the local crime drama on Seven by viewers). Home and Away was 9th for Seven at 7pm with 1.235 million and A Current Affair was 10th with 1.204 million. Next was Enough Rope and Andrew Denton’s interview with Michael Parkinson, with 1.201 million people. Nine news was 12th with 1.196 million and the 7pm ABC News was 13th and last on the list with 1.091 million.
The Losers: Top Gear Australia, 435,000. Its audience has halved since its debut. That’s its lowest figure so far for the local version. It’s also half the average for the UK version. Nine’s CSI repeat at 9.30pm, 754,000. Cold Case might not have done as good, but at least it wasn’t a tired old repeat; it’s what lies ahead of Nine in 2009 with Two and a Half Men at 7pm. Supernatural on Ten at 9.30pm, 682,000. Australian Idol, The Live Verdict, 901,000. Not very good, even by Ten’s standards. Will & Grace on Ten at 7pm, 544,000. Friends was better and so were The Simpsons repeats.
News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne. Nine is creeping closer in Sydney. Today Tonight won nationally, but lost Sydney and Melbourne. The 7.30 Report averaged 808,000, Four Corners, 768,000, Media Watch, 767,000. Lateline, 444,000, Lateline Business, a solid 212,000. Ten News, 803,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 378,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 165,000, the 9.30pm edition, 171,000. 7am Sunrise on Seven, 378,000, 7am Today on Nine, 279,000.
The Stats: Seven won All People 6pm to midnight with a share of 31.1% (32.0%) from Nine with 26.0% (26.6%), Ten with 18.1% (18.7%), the ABC on 18.8% (16.8%) and SBS on 6.0% (5.9%). Seven won all five metro markets and leads the week 30.2% from 28.8% for Ten. In regional areas a win for Prime/7Qld with 30.5%, 25.8% for WIN/NBN, 17.7% for Ten and Southern Cross, the ABC with 17.8% and SBS with 8.2%.
Glenn Dyer’s comments: A night which Seven won easily and moved to the lead in the week: a normal Monday night. ACA lifted its audience with the exclusive interview with the former Mrs Greg Norman. Ten’s performance last night was again poor. It reflects the underwhelming nature of the of its performance in prime time. No wonder its leaking its plans for its new digital channel next year by setting up a sports channel “to take on Foxtel’. Anything to distract us from the sagging performance in prime time.
The new digital sports channel will cost a fair bit of loot at a time when the cash flow will be under pressure as ratings remain indifferent and rates decline. I suppose any increase in viewers on the digital channel will be seen as a bonus. It’s the prime time performance that needs working on.
Tonight: Seven with The Zoo, Find My Family, Packed To The Rafters and All Saints. The ABC has nothing really watching: The 7.30 Report. SBS, another episode of First Australians. Nine has The Chopping Block (will viewers warm to it, at last?), 20 to 1 and three episodes of Two and a Half Men. Ten has Kenny’s World, NCIS and Rush, a better line up.
Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports
That is a horrendous result for Top Gear on SBS. Why would they commission a second year of local product when the viewing public has obviously made their decision on the quality ans “watchability”? Honestly, my family is just waiting for the return of the UK version. Until then, the TV is off. It was a good try having a shot at a local version, but not all things go to plan. Put it down to a learning experience and bring back the UK show please!
Just my 2 cents worth re Top Gear Aust. The potential is still there but the reason why viewers are leaving in droves is that the Aust version doesn’t have the irreverance nor the broad appeal of the UK version. E.g Charlie Cox is just not interesting enough, funny enough or a strong enough personality to be the lead anchor. The other two have potential though. They work well together but the chemistry just isn’t there when all 3 are together. Nor is muliple shots of doing doughnuts followed by a really technical voice-over very interesting to most except the hardened car freaks. UK Top Gear succeeds because the car reviews are informative but approachable to the ordinary person and set with stunning background shots. Oh, and the “What Were They Thinking” segment just doesn’t work because it too only appeals to the afore-mentioned hardened car freaks. The challenges need to be side splittingly funny and they haven’t got there yet. Last week’s Astra-bowls wasn’t bad, nor the Audi H2O, but not quite there yet. Loved the Toorak tractor though, even if the reversing accident was clearly a set-up. The show needs more of this sort of thing – as I said earlier – the irreverant stuff!
Sevens super ratings monday runs right over the other networks,the one thing to watch next week is border and the force are finished for the year and the Rich list takes over that is going to hurt seven a lot with nearly 3.3 million viewers watching that hour of tv, it is going to be reduced to maybe if they’re lucky 1.2 million viewers thats if it hasnt died with the audience before then, so the only thing that will help seven is city homicide and the news and t.t. and bones so thats monday 3 nov.2008 where finally ratings for a monday might dive and kill there take over, but still sevens got some big programs and 2008 ratings season is all is sevens favour anyway.