• Doctor Doctor returns to over 400k
• Big Brother house is full as BB air unboards
Primetime News
Seven News 987,000 (6 pm)/970,000 (6:30 pm)
Nine News is 939,000 (6 pm)/890,000 (6:30 pm)
ABC News 665,000
10 News First 332,000(5 pm)/229,000 (6pm)
SBS World News 180,000 (6:30 pm)/150,000 (7 pm)
Daily current affairs
A Current Affair 681,000
7:30 580,000
The Project 217,000 (6:30 pm)/415,000 (7 pm)
The Drum 178,000
Breakfast TV
Sunrise 244,000
Today 212,000
News Breakfast 184,000
Late Night News
The LAtest 80,000
ABC Late News 69,000
SBS World News Late 40,000
Nine
Nine was the top primary channel and network last night with shares of 19.5% and 27.5% respectively with the main driving force being the return of Travel Guides which was the #1 non-news show last night.
The show was also #1 in all key demos as it took viewers to Greece. This was upon the show’s return numbers in January which had 584,000 tune in.
Earlier this week, Mediaweek spoke to Travel Guides executive producer Melissa Maclean about putting together a travel show in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Maclean said that crossing international borders for this series was no mean feat.
“Travel Guides got off the ground this year because of the extraordinary persistence of the team and the willingness of our travel guides to be flexible, and being able to work really closely with the Government agencies to allow some travel exemptions to happen for us.
“We had plans A, B, C, and D for everything, and there were certainly times when we thought all may be lost. But we were a combination of fortunate and persistent, we managed to get everyone together, all of the guides and all of the crew, and once that happened we were able to form a moving bubble.”
Read more: Travel Guides EP on producing a global show during a pandemic
Following Travel Guides was the return of Doctor Doctor for its fifth season with 407,000 viewers tuning in.
In season five, the Knight family and the entire town of Whyhope are plunged into crisis, and all eyes turn to Hugh Knight to save them. Forced to relocate to a veterinary clinic after the discovery of asbestos in the hospital, matters are further complicated when high-flying council administrator Sharna Bahtt (Chantelle Jamieson) arrives in town, simultaneously sacking Meryl as mayor (Tina Bursill) and setting her sights on Hugh. The flames of romance also continue to be stoked when newly single Penny (Hayley McElhinney) arrives back in town, forcing Hugh to grapple again with his feelings for her and a potential relationship with Sharna.
Seven
The final episode of Big Brother for the week had 558,000 viewers as eight new housemates joined the house.
AFLW player Jess won the immunity challenge and nominated three original housemates – Mel, Renata and “safe vote” Sid.
In the end, Renata went home: “From day one when I won a challenge I had a target on my back,” said Renata. “In the house there’s more sheep than people having their own opinions. I want Daniel and Nicholas to win. The rest are sheep, they don’t deserve it. If one of those sheep win, I will move countries, that’s a promise.”
Earlier in the night, Home and Away had 620,000 viewers.
10
MasterChef on 10 had 535,000 viewers last night as the superstar week continued with Claire Smyth joining the kitchen to present the Mystery Box. The episode was down slightly on last Wednesdays 549,000
MasterChef was followed by a double episode of Bull with 246,000 and 175,000 viewers.
Earlier in the night, The Project had 271,000 (6:30 pm) and 415,000 (7:00 pm) as the show discussed that last year’s Melbourne Cup horse death could have been prevented and Australian Olympians potentially being fast-tracked for the Covid vaccine.
ABC
Hard Quiz has performed strongly in the ratings once again with a robust 623,000 tuning in to see who gets the Big Brass Mug, except this time it was the battle of the duds with the mug having a hole in the bottom. This was followed by 544,000 watching The Weekly with Charlie Pickering.
The latest addition to the ABC’s comedy lineup is You Can’t Ask That which replaced Kitty Flanagan‘s Fisk which brought in 383,000 viewers for its first episode of the year.
SBS
The top rating show on SBS was a repeat of Building the Channel Tunnel 187,000 viewers.
