As we enter the final week of survey for 2017, Seven has emerged victorious on the first night thanks largely to a good win at 6pm from Seven News across the network and then a strong performance from Sunday Night.
Strong in the context of the current climate of course – 766,000 viewers saw it win the timeslot and deliver some sort of a lead-in audience to The X Factor which is having massive challenges getting people interested.
Although after allegations earlier yesterday about Dickensian conditions on set for competitors, it was a relief to see the reality program continue to the first of the final two episodes.
Seven
Sunday Night had to work hard for its 766,000 which was close to last week’s 770,000 achieved against The Block. Rahni Sadler again had the best job, travelling to the US to interview Don Henley. During the chat he admitted there were plenty of Eagles songs he’d be happy to never hear again. After the interview, Mel Doyle reminded viewers about his forthcoming tour where he would be playing…plenty of Eagles tunes.
The X Factor was laden with stars who performed across the episode in duets with each of the final four – Robbie Williams, James Arthur, Jessica Mauboy and Charli XCX. The audience of 665,000 was disappointing for the start of a Grand Final, but hardly surprising if you had been tracking the trajectory of this season. The penultimate episode last year did just over 1m.
Seven then continued to milk The Big Bang Theory for all its worth with four episodes back-to-back starting on 393,000 and then delivering audiences of 186,000, 134,000 and 111,000.
Nine
The channel gave Christmas with The Australian Women’s Weekly pride of place on the last night of Sunday survey. It has been an underperformer for a number of years though, including 2015, when it didn’t screen until the second week of summer survey to an audience of 588,000. It did improve on that last night, but only just, lifting the number to 625,000 on a program hosted by Lisa Wilkinson.
60 Minutes again had to wait until later in the night although it still managed to improve on the shabby lead-in to 727,000. Stories included the remarkable News Corp journalist Elle Halliwell with reporter Allison Langdon. Peter FitzSimons was also a feature on a day when it was hard to escape him in any medium.
Nine then repeated the first two episodes of The Amazing Naughties to audiences of 435,000 and then 243,000.
TEN
The channel says goodbye to hopefully its last survey Sunday without a major player for some time.
Ninety minutes of game shows started with Sunday Family Feud on 379,000 which became 351,000 for the repeat episode of All-Star Family Feud featuring Big Bash League players versus commentators. Spoiler – the players won and raised $30,000 for charity.
Two episodes of Modern Family followed with the repeat on 475,000, narrowly outrating the new episode on 456,000.
The 2014 movie Noah then did 179,000.
ABC
The channel slotted in a news special with ABC reporters in the US covering the aftermath of the Trump victory. The episode managed to make the Sunday top 10 with 620,000 at 7.30pm.
The final Grand Designs for the time being did 651,000 for its story of the patient man who had been working on his own build for 20 years. But it still was not finished when host Kevin McCloud arrived for his final inspection.
Poldark fans were kept waiting until close to 9pm for the penultimate episode of the season. The audience of 507,000 (466,000 last week) saw Captain Ross still in all sorts of relationship problems, but at least his financial future looks better. Fans will have to wait a fortnight though for the series, er, climax.
Jamaica Inn did manage to end on the last Sunday or survey though, with 242,000 catching the final of the three episodes.
SBS
Raising Pompeii attracted 264,000 at 7.30pm.
The Secrets of the Colosseum was summoned to fill at 8.30pm with 224,000.
The Hollow Crown was moved back to 9.30pm after just 88,000 last week. The second episode last night managed 63,000 with a finish at midnight.