• All of Seven’s My Kitchen Rules episodes continue to grow week-on-week
• As first MKR contestants evicted, Seven records biggest since Australian Open
• First nights: Murder Uncovered real crime winner, This Is Us close to 600,000
With four nights of the last survey week of summer done, Seven leads the week with a 25.0% primary share, over five points ahead of Nine on 19.8%.
Seven’s midweek win was again powered by My Kitchen Rules with the first night in Kitchen HQ as the expanded judging team sent home the first contestants. However, the key to Seven’s improved share was a massive audience watching the launch of Murder Uncovered. The first of two episodes didn’t start until around 9pm and, get this, the second ended around 11pm. Welcome back to TV, executive producer Mark Llewellyn.
Seven’s Wednesday share of 27.5% was its best since its 50.6% on the last night of the Australian Open tennis on January 29.
Nine’s best after the news was again Married At First Sight, while TEN’s This Is Us launched with 576,000. Expect curious viewers who have been reached by the excitement surrounding the new US drama to push up the consolidated numbers as they catch up over the next few days.
Seven
Bek and Ash were the first eliminated from My Kitchen Rules 2017, but they performed better than their disastrous first outing in their home restaurant. They lost to David and Betty in the series’ first visit to Kitchen HQ with the winners getting 34 out of 60 to Bek and Ash’s 31.
The audience of 1.20m was up on last Wednesday’s 1.11m with the show growing every night this week compared to its numbers from the launch week.
Making the most of its MKR lead-in was the new Murder Uncovered. The series is from EP Mark Llewellyn with hosting duties from Sydney weekend newsreader Michael Usher. The series is one of several coming to broadcasters who are tapping a new surge in real crime. Seven launched with two episodes, which both did big numbers and won their time slot. The first ep did 957,000 and the second 799,000, which is a dream result for an episode that ended around 11pm.
Nine
It was dinner party night on Married At First Sight and the promos promising drama seemed to deliver given the ratings and the noise the episode is making on social media and news websites. A Wednesday crowd of 905,000 was up on 829,000 last Wednesday. No midweek episode next week though with Planet Earth 2 getting the 7.30pm timeslot.
Nine’s movie Ghost then did 262,000.
TEN
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! again pulled the channel’s biggest audience with 742,000, down on 806,000 week-on-week.
The launch of episode one of This Is Us followed with 576,000, which was second in the time slot behind Murder Uncovered.
The return of US drama Madam Secretary did 234,000.
ABC
Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery was in Mackay with Cathy Freeman as the guest spoke about her early years and the Sydney Olympics experience. The audience of 513,000 was down on last week’s 622,000.
The Weekly with Charlie Pickering was on 492,000 after 582,000 last week.
A new episode of Stop Laughing…This Is Serious did 541,000.
SBS
Tony Robinson Down Under had 246,000 watching.
The first part of The Eighties: Raised On Television relived some of the great TV series from the decade speaking to stars and critics. The episode did 205,000 and was followed by Vikings on 181,000.