Willoughby turf war

Nine’s 60 Minutes might be
having its best year for some years in the Sunday evening ratings
battle, but there’s a turf war going on in the bunker that houses the
program between the executive producer John Westacott and the managing
editor Mark Llewellyn.

Westacott was the EP of both 60 Minutes and A Current Affair until April, when he and his offsider John McAvoy were flicked as David Hurley returned to run the program.

Westacott wanted to move back to the 60 Minutes
cottage at Willoughby (the main cottage), but Mark Llewellyn had moved
into his office when Westacott moved up to the main building. Llewellyn
wouldn’t move from Westie’s old office and the EP was forced eventually
to move into a smaller office in the cottage as chest butting between
the two continued.

The uneasy peace continues, although Westie managed to snare a snazzy executive desk from somewhere on the third floor.

Last night’s TV ratings

The Winners

John Howard is right: Australians do take a keen interest in border
security. At 7:30pm last night the second episode of the second series
of Seven’s half hour program Border Security became the
country’s most watched program with 1.818 million people and top spots
in Sydney and Melbourne. Nine won the night overall, but Temptation has sagged for the second week in a row, allowing the teenies of Home and Away to move past it to win the 7pm slot.
The Losers

Boston Legal was the big loser is for Seven, rating down at
25 with only 702,000 people. A slightly higher audience would have
given Seven a win. But the network says that, like Last Man Standing, it will persevere with it. Ten’s Big Brother is off the pace as well –Tuesday nights in a wintry June are not good for raunchy young things from the Gold Coast.
News & CA

 Seven News won nationally and in Sydney and also scored a very rare win over Nine in Melbourne. Today Tonight beat ACA nationally and in Sydney. But in Melbourne TT lost to ACA, which gained 55,000 viewers. ACA continues to close the gap on TT. But Sydney remains the key because of its size and the fact that the bosses watch TV in that city.
The Stats

 Seven had the top four programs but Nine won with 27.3% to Seven on 27%, Ten on 22.6%, the ABC on 16.3% and SBS on 6.8%. Boston Legal’s low audience at 9:30pm was the difference. Seven won from 5pm to 8:30pm but after that Nine ruled.
Glenn Dyer’s comments

 Even though it won the night narrowly, Nine’s audience share was
again under 30% as Seven claws back market share. Nine might be in the
middle of a winning streak, but its audience share is down – apart from
a night like tonight when the rugby league State of Origin will boost
viewer numbers. Bragging rights are nice, but the real story is the
change in audience share. And without Big Brother, Ten would be in serious trouble