Week 3 2019 – Summer schedule – Sunday
• I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! launches over 1m
• Best of the rest: Big Bash double, 60 Minutes, Slow TV Cruise
Seven
The Big Bash League took second place to the reality TV on 10 last night.
Seven had two games to cover – one from Geelong and another from Perth.
Three of the four innings had metro audiences over 400,000, but for the second innings from Perth the number dropped just below 300,000.
Nine
The channel was a clear winner between 6pm and 7pm with National Nine News over 800,000.
The next best was a summer edition of 60 Minutes on 447,000 with another episode of Blue Planet II just under 300,000.
10
The channel’s decision to go early with season five of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! pushed 10 to a primary channel win. Both parts of the opening night episode pulled a metro audience over 1m.
As 10 executive Stephen Tate told Mediaweek late last week, the first episode is usually the series’ biggest audience. His colleagues will be hoping he could be wrong this year!
Network 10’s chief content officer Beverley McGarvey said:
“We’re really happy with how I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! launched last night. A big thanks to the whole team, to Chris and Julia and to our brave celebs for bringing us all the jungle fun so early. We really had to re-define landscape for summer viewing this year and early indications show there is a market for first-run entertainment now most of the country is back at work. We know it is early days but we have lots more twists and turns, fun and frightening challenges and a few brilliant surprises coming in the next few weeks.”
The numbers were down year-on-year, but the series has launched two weeks earlier:
• 2018: 1.274m and 1.108m
• 2019: 1.098m and 1.014m.
Although early in the year, the two halves last night were the first programs over 1m in 2019.
Both parts last night – Welcome to the Jungle and Opening Night – achieved their highest ever commercial share among all key demos since the series commenced in 2015.
And compared to the same night last year when 10 had an entertainment offering as well, the channel was up over 300%.
Elsewhere on the channel, The Sunday Project had a stronger night with just under half a million watching before the channel crossed live to South Africa.
ABC
Apart from the reality TV launch, just three programs made it over half a million – and the ABC Sunday news was the third of those programs.
Also performing well for the channel was a repeat of Vera on 435,000 (on the same night a new season launched on the BBC in the UK).
A repeat of Grand Designs: House Of The Year was on 359,000.
SBS
Another night of slow TV was good news for the channel.
After and 8.2% share on a less competitive evening a week ago, SBS started week 3 on 5.6%.
The channel doesn’t often split up its ratings when screening two or three part programs, but it is for its slow TV programming.
It’s numbers last night for The Kimberley Cruise were:
• First leg: 239,000
• Second leg: 197,000
• Third leg: 179,000
