Barrie Cassidy’s reign as host of Insiders on Sunday ended with a bang — 794,000 for the live broadcast and throwing in the smaller audiences for the repeats later in the day and early Monday, well over 800,000 — the highest for a non-post election morning. It would have made Insiders the seventh most watched program on Sunday, one of its highest ever top 10 placings.
Insiders and Offsiders (which Cassidy originally hosted), are the last of the serious Sunday morning chat shows left standing. Weekend Sunrise on Seven and Weekend Today on Nine are lightweight competitors and have been left behind in the wake of the steady growth in viewers for Insiders.
When Insiders first aired, the original half hour show had an audience of 134,000 in the five major metro markets. On Sunday, for Cassidy’s final episode, it was 402,000 in the metros and 187,000 in the regions and a further 207,000 on the News channel. Insiders is also the most watched program on any news channel each week.
Nine won Sunday thanks to The Voice and had a skinnier win last night, again thanks to The Voice (1.37 million) outdoing House Rules on Seven (1.23 million) and with Masterchef Australia squeezed again back to 866,000. Have You Been Paying Attention on Ten pulled in 901,000.
Network channel share:
Nine (28.6%)
Seven (28.0%)
Ten (19.3%)
ABC (16.3%)
SBS (7.8%)
Network main channels:
Nine (21.7%)
Seven 19.6%)
Ten (14.0%)
ABC (12.6%)
SBS ONE (7.8%)
Top 5 digital channels:
7mate (3.8%)
10 Bold (3.1%)
GO (3.0%)
7TWO (2.9%)
Gem (2.5%)
Top 10 national programs:
Seven News — 2.01 million
Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.83 million
The Voice (Nine) — 1.37 million
Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.35 million
Nine/NBN News — 1.33 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.26 million
House Rules (Seven) — 1.23 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.13 million
7pm ABC News — 1.08 million
Have You Been Paying Attention (Ten) — 901,000
Top metro programs:
Seven News — 1.29 million
Seven News/Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.18 million
Nine News 6.30 — 1.02 million
Nine News — 1.02 million
The Voice (Nine) — 1.01 million
Metro news and current affairs:
Seven News — 1.29 million
Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.18 million
Nine News 6.30pm — 1.02 million
Nine News — 1.02 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 899,000
7pm ABC News — 772,000
Australian Story (ABC) — 591,000
Four Corners (ABC) — 580,000
7.30 (ABC) — 573,000
Media Watch (ABC) — 537,000
Morning (National) TV:
Sunrise (Seven) — 410,000 (Metros: 246,000)
Today (Nine) —269,000 (Metros: 171,000)
The Morning Show (Seven) — 240,000
ABC News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) —195,000
Studio 10 (Ten) — 100,000
Today Extra (Nine) — 88,000 *
*Pre-empted in regional markets.
Top five pay TV programs:
AFL: Collingwood v Melbourne (Fox Footy) — 222,000
NRL: Canterbury v St George (Fox League) — 208,000
Monday Footy On Fox (Fox Footy) —106,000
F1: Canadian GP (Fox Sport) — 102,000
Big Little Lies (Fox Showcase) — 82,000
He managed not to actually weep in his last words but, 5-10 seconds longer and the lachrymal glands would have burst had he not. The choke in his throat was painful to hear.
Well done thou Good & Faithful Servant.
And yet none of these “Insiders” could reflect on Murdoch’s role in “Passing” these “leaker laws”.
No more than they could reflect on the possibility “News” did that “safe” in the assumption that they’d never be on the sharp end of such a law, because of “sevices rendered” to this government?
Sure they could bundle Labor in to the blame : but not imagine what Murdoch (with his media thrall – papers, SKY, hand-fed commercial shock-jock trolls) would have done in a “national security” response if Labor held out – the way elections teeter on fear and loathing?
They have such a hard time facing up to the faults in their own recalcitrant cohort – especially with so many Murdoch Muppets on the couch? Farr’s about the only one worth the fee.