• Nine’s Ninja Warrior still strong after three nights of competition
• Nine takes no prisoners: 8.8 lead before Origin broadcast
• Seven’s Behave Yourself & Mummies disappoint in new timeslots
See full ratings figures on the Mediaweek Morning Report here.
Nine is having a week to remember after three nights of Australian Ninja Warrior have set it up with a week-to-date share of 27.7%, 8.8 points ahead of Seven…with the deciding State Of Origin game three still to come.
And for people who prefer to monitor combined channel share the Nine result is even stronger. After three nights the combo of Nine, GO!, Gem and 9Life has delivered a share of 35.2%, well ahead of Seven’s combo of Seven, 7TWO, 7mate and 7flix on 26.9%.
Or to run the numbers yet another way, Nine is sitting on a commercial share of close to 43% so far this week, a number that should only lift if we ran these numbers again tomorrow.
While both Seven (in week 13) and Nine (in week 17) have seen week-to-date shares over 25% midweek earlier this year, no-one has pushed it as high as Nine this week.
Those winning shares have been driven by the average Ninja Warrior audience of 1.58m at 7pm and 7.30pm over the three nights. TV programmers will be wondering what this says about changing audience tastes and where they could find another Ninja Warrior-like performer, while network CEOs and advertising investors will be happy that TV can still deliver numbers like this.
Seven
After starting the week on 709,000, Home and Away has dipped to 677,000 with episode two.
Behave Yourself then drew the short straw to go up against Ninja Warrior. Despite having Guy Sebastian on the panel alongside both Claire Hooper and Lawrence Mooney, and the early timeslot, the show couldn’t crack half a million with 434,000 watching. It was over 1m viewers behind the leader in fourth place in the timeslot. If SBS hadn’t stopped running Michael Portillo-hosted train shows on Tuesdays it might have been fifth.
Yummy Mummies was also moved to Tuesday after its Sunday launch. Watching the launch episode suggests program has been unfairly hammered as worst show of the year. While the storylines are hardly compelling, the program has found some colourful characters and is well made. But tell that to the viewers who have avoided the third episode. After attracting 755,000 for the first episode on Sunday night, episode two followed with 428,000, which has subsequently dropped to 354,000 for episode three last night.
Nine
A Current Affair found time for another Nine update for viewers last night, breaking the news the latest season of The Block would be returning to the schedule on July 30. Before that there were stories about threats to children – from both human predators and then sharks. The audience of 905,000 was the second successive above 900,000.
Ninja Warrior followed and delivered another strong number – 1.47m. The fall-off has been only slight across the three nights where viewers have shown an appetite for watching all sort of athletes and would-be athletes attempt the obstacle course across close to 270 minutes. There is some variation ahead for viewers though as new challenges are added for the Semis and Grand Final. The program continues to deliver demos that should see advertisers fighting to get a piece of the action next time around. Although Nine will be careful not to exploit the format too much, viewers could perhaps expect more than nine episodes in 2018.
The 2006 James Bond movie Casino Royale followed starring Daniel Craig with 380,000 watching.
TEN
Former US Vice President Al Gore was the star guest on The Project last night and he certainly got the presidential treatment – an extended interview that took up much of the 7pm slot. It was one of the program’s best interviews this year and the hosts covered much ground with the visitor who didn’t dodge any topics. (It would have been good to see him on with Steve Price though.) The program did 575,000, down from 634,000 on Monday.
MasterChef offered the first opportunity for a contestant to get a guaranteed spot on finals week with Arum Nixon rising to the challenge as he defeated guest chef Federico in an immunity challenge. The Tuesday episode did 779,000, down close to 100,000 on a Ninja-free Tuesday last week.
Shark Tank didn’t have the big investment temptations of last week, but it did have ice cream and makeup. The audience was down week-on-week though from 725,000 to 581,000.
ABC
Despite the drawing power of Princess Diana, the channel has been in single digits for the first three nights for the first time this year.
The second episode of Diana: Seven Days That Shook The World just missed the top 10 with 599,000.
Elsewhere Ask The Doctor did 430,000 followed by Foreign Correspondent on 301,000.
SBS
At 7.30pm Michael Mosley: Queen Victoria’s Slum did 276,000 after 359,000 last week.
Insight followed with a look at living with a sibling with a disability with 208,000 watching.
Stage 10 of Le Tour de France didn’t start until after 10pm with the numbers down to 139,000.