The first big television ratings battle has come just five days into the new year.
Network 10 has pushed I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! another week earlier this year and so far the results are good.
Network 10 won the night all people and in key demos with the show pushing close to 1m metro for part of Sunday night.
The channel coded the launch episode into two parts:
Welcome to the Jungle (First half hour) 1,181,000 (Metro 873,000, Regional 308,000)
Opening Night: 1,345,000 (Metro 980,000, Regional 365,000)
The audience numbers down slightly on the 2019 debut which was a week later – Welcome to the Jungle did 1,017,000 metro and Opening Night was on 1,098,000.
Network 10’s chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said this morning after the first ratings came in:
“We are delighted with the brilliant audience numbers for the first episode of the new season of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! It has clearly struck a chord with viewers and proven – once again – that people are looking for a fun and engaging alternative. We look forward to revealing more campmates tonight and four more weeks of jungle fun and surprises.
“I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! represents an excellent start to our strategy of giving viewers differentiated flagship content 50 weeks of the year.
“Coming very soon is the highly anticipated Australian Survivor: All Stars, plus new seasons of spectacular and family friendly Dancing With The Stars, panel comedy Hughesy, We Have A Problem, and an insight into Aussie heroes in Ambulance Australia plus so much more.”
I’m A Celebrity highlights:
Opening Night had a huge 40.9% commercial share while Welcome to the Jungle had a 35.0% commercial share.
10 was #1 across the night in total people and in under 50s and all key demos (25 to 54s, 16 to 39s and 18 to 49s).
IAC’s total people audience last night was 129% bigger than the BBL’s audience, 175% bigger in 25 to 54s.
Sunday’s other TV highlights:
Seven dominated daytime viewing with the third day’s play of the Third Test: Australia v New Zealand.
The audience grew with each subsequent session across the day – 479,000, 629,000 and 768,000.
The Big Bash League came from Coffs Harbour last night and delivered Seven audiences of 464,000 and 486,000.
Nine’s evening started with 60 Minutes on 583,000 and then screened the 2018 superhero movie Black Panther to 365,000.
ABC highlights were the broadcaster’s continuing multiplatform coverage of the bushfires around Australia.
The numbers for ABC News over the past few weeks have been strong and its reporting team has grown with the addition of Hamish Macdonald last week and then David Speers did some great work on Sunday morning with several interviews at his new TV home.
Sunday breakfast TV
The shows started at 6am yesterday and the Today show again was a warm-up episode ahead of the new Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic teaming which launched officially on Monday.
The Sunday breakfast ratings:
ABC Weekend Breakfast (across two channels) 318,000
Sunrise 289,000
Today 211,000