Sunday: Week 9 2019
• Nine re-writing the TV rule book as MAFS continues growth
• Nine’s primary share smashes 30% again with 60 Minutes MJ exposé
• Disappointing 10 debut for Sunday Night Takeaway with 400k
FTA TV news/current affairs
• Seven News 892,000
• Nine News 965,000
• ABC News 661,000
• The Sunday Project 199,000/302,000
• Insiders 274,000
• 10 News First 262,000
• Offsiders 150,000
• SBS World News 137,000
Breakfast TV
• Sunrise 255,000
• Today 203,000
Seven
The gap between first and second widened last night, although Seven was able to marginally lift its Sunday primary share from 18.4% to 18.8%. With Nine able to claim its best start in a decade, Seven is recording its lowest shares in Q1 for close to a decade.
My Kitchen Rules did 751,000, which was well down on last Sunday’s 902,000. It was a disappointing result for beauty queens Veronica and Piper who botched their main course with Pete and Manu scoring them just 4 out of a possible 20.
Sunday Night then did 574,000 after 400,000 a week ago. The Seven show was covering Michael Jackson as was 60 Minutes.
Nine
A colossal 30% primary share wasn’t a huge deal in the past but it is a rarity these days as 20 separate channels jostle for OzTAM share on the FTA platform. Driving the Nine result of course was Married At First Sight, which did well after coverage was splashed across News Corp Sunday newspapers. The more Nine try to hose down the scandal elements (Are they? Really?) the more the public wants.
The audience of 1.659m last night pushes the episode into the ratings books. The best last year were the series final of MAFS on 1.90m while the biggest regular entertainment episode on any channel last year was the final dinner party on MAFS, which did 1.76m. The next best regular episode last year (not a series final) was the launch of The Block on 1.25m. (All those 2018 numbers are consolidated 28.)
After MAFS, 60 Minutes managed to creep just over the 1m mark as Michael Jackson’s latest accuser made allegations to reporter Liam Bartlett about what went on inside the Neverland Ranch.
10
The channel had its lowest Sunday primary share of the year with 9.0% (discounting Sunday of Week 1 which was technically the last Sunday of December).
The broadcaster has bet big on new 7.30pm franchises this year and so far the score before last night was 1 from 2. Meaning Dancing with the Stars was a keeper and Changing Rooms was not.
It might to too early to put the new Sunday Night Takeaway in the second category, but it was not a great launch result with 383,000. However going up against a show as hot as MAFS is not easy for anyone. The format screams Saturday Night to some, although the would be a massive roll of the dice given commercials broadcasters reluctance to program anything except sport and movies on the quietest TV night of the week.
The Project wasn’t able to provide much of a lead-in audience with 302,000.
Sunday Night Takeaway ran well over the advertised finishing time, which means the corrected number could be even lower.
The audience for NCIS in the data today is 201,000.
Network 10’s chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said this morning:
“Chris & Julia’s Sunday Night Takeaway was a big swing for 10 last night and while we’re disappointed it didn’t have a bigger impact, we’re happy to have offered fresh, family-friendly entertainment as an alternative on a Sunday evening. Chris and Julia pulled off a mammoth task and we’re so proud with how seamlessly they pulled the show together, mere moments after arriving back from Africa.
“The great thing about a live show is that we can listen to the feedback and tweak the show making it snappier as it builds over the coming weeks.
“We can now promote all of last night’s popular segments retrospectively and show a broader audience that next week you too could Win the Ads or become part of the Happiest Minute on television!”
ABC
The final of the three-part Magical Land Of Oz looked at human impact on wildlife with 538,000 watching after the first two episodes were also both over 500,000.
The final episode of The Cry then did 522,000, which is just below the launch episode on 574,000.
The final of Mrs Wilson then did 359,000 after 364,000 last week.
SBS
Part two of a repeat screening of Secrets Of The Pyramids attracted the biggest audience with 154,000 after 7.30pm.
A doco on the bombing of PanAm flight 103 released 30 years after the tragedy, Lockerbie: The Unheard Voices, did 132,000.
