ABC had its biggest Monday of the year and its best night of any night of the week bar Saturday which has had bigger nights 10 times earlier this year, most of them before Easter.
The public broadcaster was the most competitive in Melbourne with 20.2% where it finished second behind Nine on 20.8%.
The channel’s biggest Monday of the year saw all its programs dwelling on the appointment of a new Australian Prime Minister. It started with the News on 894,000 which was also partly a festival of Malcolm Turnbull because of the swearing in of the new cabinet earlier in the day.
The rest of the day looked like this:
7.30 featuring 22-minute Malcolm interview with Leigh Sales: 970,000 (one of the most-watched episodes of the year)
Australian Story with a refreshed episode looking at Malcolm including insights from friend and Seven director Bruce McWilliam: 1.05m (biggest audience this year)
Four Corners with episode from John Lyons and Marian Wilkinson about the dethroning of Tony Abbott: 994,000 (biggest audience this year)
Media Watch with analysis of the Turnbull takeover: 908,000
Q&A with much discussion about Malcolm from the man who wanted to replace Tony Abbott – Bill Shorten: 679,000 (fifth-biggest audience of the year)
Lateline with more analysis of the new Government and interview with Mal Brough: 300,000 (bigger audience than normal and easily #1 in timeslot)