• Nine ends Seven’s 12-night winning streak with Monday victory
• Married At First Sight final episode ranks #1 with 1.38m season high
• Seven’s MKR not far behind as Home & Away busts through 800,000
• ABC’s best Monday share of 2017: Aust Story, Media Watch 700,000+
• Breakfast TV: Viewers prefer Nine’s Bowral backdrop to Seven’s Waikiki waves
After winning 12 consecutive nights in both primary and combined channel share, Seven trailed Nine last night in primary channel share. Pushing the Nine audience higher was the final episode of Married At First Sight which set a new high for the franchise and a new high for Nine this year.
Seven still managed to win in combined channel share and it wasn’t far off the pace in primary share thanks for My Kitchen Rules, Seven News and a bigger Home and Away audience.
TEN’s best was The Project 7pm, which was just short of 600,000 with a memorable Heston Blumenthal interview.
ABC had its equal best night of the year with its 14.5% share lifted by stronger numbers for most of its Monday lineup.
Breakfast TV on the road: Tuesday – Day 2
Day two of the commercial TV breakfast shows on the road.
Sunrise started with Sam and Kochie hanging from the side of a cable car in San Fransisco. Weather presenter Sam Mac was at Legoland in San Diego. After the pre-recorded opening, Sam and Kochie hosted the show from a wonderful vantage point at Battery Spencer with a Golden Gate Bridge backdrop.
Nine’s Today show started in the dark on the Gold Coast, but it was soon dawn with the team positioned right on the beach. It was a big day on the Gold Coast at the one-year countdown started for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Sunrise would probably have been there if they were not on the road, but the show crossed to a Comm Games event during the program.
Both shows featured music artists – Sunrise made the most of just a few seconds of Ed Sheeran and then interviewed Little Mix. The Today show ended with a performance from Lee Kernaghan.
The ratings for day one saw Today take top spot with 309,000 viewers, ahead of Sunrise on 288,000.
Seven
Home and Away started its week with 820,000. The show did 792,000 a week ago and averaged 737,000 last week, up from 704,000 the week before.
My Kitchen Rules continues its week of super dinner parties. The Monday episode was on 1.21m, down from 1.25m last Monday. Nevertheless a good performance given the opposition.
Seven’s Monday movie was 2013’s Fast & Furious 6, which did 345,000.
Nine
A Current Affair started the week on 939,000 after 846,000 on Monday of week 13. Its week 13 average was 770,000, down from 804,000 in week 12.
The final of Married At First Sight could have been subtitled “Watching Anthony Squirm (Again)” and it resonated with viewers to the tune of 1.38m in metro markets. That was up from Sunday’s 1.37m and is the biggest ever audience for the franchise and Nine’s new #1 program for 2017 so far.
A double episode of House Husbands followed in the last ratings week before the Easter break. The first ep did 637,000 and the second did 435,000, both down on last week’s 670,000.
TEN
Heston Blumenthal was the star attraction yet he didn’t make much sense during his interview with the team on The Project. The program still managed to rank #1 for the channel with 573,000.
Two episodes of Modern Family replaced TBL in the 7.30pm slot with both over 300,000.
The 8.30pm movie was 2015’s Spy, which did 336,000.
Earlier in the day in its new timeslot, The Biggest Loser: Transformed did 89,000.
ABC
Good Monday numbers across the board starting with Australian Story, which featured a great report on Mike and Mal Leyland. The episode did 716,000, well up on last week’s 499,000.
Four Corners then featured an investigation into One Nation with 708,000 watching, again a big improvement on last week’s 428,000.
Media Watch just missed a place in the top 10 with 712,000.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was then due to appear on ABC’s Q&A panel, but her spot on the show has now filled by Josh Frydenberg after she cancelled her Australian visit. The episode did 484,000 after 414,000 a week ago.
SBS
Michael Mosley was back in the 7.30pm slot with a repeat of Trust Me I’m A Doctor, which did 229,000.
The first of the two-part Simon Reeve’s Turkey then did 228,000.
The first night of the 13-week 6pm series The Chefs’ Line started with 121,000. The program from the new Eureka TV production company was most popular in Sydney with 47,000 watching. There are echoes of MasterChef from the set but the format is very different, both elements that should help attract viewers over the life of the series.
MORE: SBS gets first series from Eureka TV – The Chefs’ Line