• Neighbours gives 10 one last timeslot win as show signs off
• Front Bar continues to bring in a big Melbourne audience
Total TV Ratings, July 21
Home and Away was the top entertainment program in the total TV ratings with an average of 865,000 viewers tuning in for the first two episodes, an increase of 25% on its overnight viewership. The series’ third episode had 800,000 viewers, an increase of 28%.
The Dog House Australia was the top program on 10 with 665,000 viewers, up 12%.
On Nine, the NRL saw the Brisbane Broncos take on the Parramatta Eels at a particularly soggy CommBank Stadium with 610,000 viewers (up 10%).
Overnight TV Ratings, July 28
Primetime News
Nine News 855,000/832,000
Seven News 834,000/833,000
ABC News 597,000
10 News First 296,000 (5:00pm)/ 234,000 (6:00pm)
SBS World News 123,000 (6:30pm) 103,000 (7:00pm)
Daily current affairs
A Current Affair 624,000
7.30 484,000
The Project 274,000 (6:30pm)/438,000 (7:00pm)
The Drum 157,000
Breakfast TV
Sunrise 219,000
Today 187,000
News Breakfast 170,000
It was an end of an era on 10 as Neighbours ended with a bang and not a whimper by finishing its historic 37-year run as the top program of the night with 873,000 viewers. The episode was simulcast across 10 and 10 Peach, which means all 10 Peach numbers were attributed to Channel 10. It was the show’s biggest audience since July 2009 (this episode was on primary Channel 10 and before the launch of most of the commercial multi-channels).
The program wound back the clock with a huge audience number as it also featured blasts from the past in the form of returning actors such as Margot Robbie, Delta Goodrem, Jesse Spencer, Kym Valentine and Carla Bonner making a return.
Mediaweek’s Andrew Mercado summarised the finale in his article which can be read here, but part of his summary can be seen in the excerpt below:
“The episode saw Toadie (Ryan Moloney) getting married to Melanie (Lucinda Cowden), and a stack of couples reuniting, like Paul (Stefan Dennis) and Terese (Rebeka Elmaloglou). Nobody died, but it was a nice touch to show the ghosts of those who had departed, like Madge (Anne Charleston), Finn (Rob Mills) and Doug (Terence Donovan).
“Kudos to whoever decided that Mike (Guy Pearce) would a) turn out to be the father of Sammy (Henrietta Graham) and b) tell Jane (Annie Jones) he still loved her. Their performances were pitch perfect, and their reunion with Scott (Jason Donovan) and Charlene (Kylie Minogue) was pop perfection. (Yes, I was crying, but they were happy tears.)
“Now, has anyone checked on all those “family groups” who used to scream blue murder whenever Neighbours did queer stories? They must have popped a pooper valve at how many LGBTQ couples were going to live happily ever after, not to mention a bedroom scene earlier this week between David (Takaya Honda) and Aaron (Matt Wilson) that was so hot, Channel 5 had to censor it.”
While the Neighbours finale helped 10 have a healthy primary share of 18.8%, Nine ultimately won the night with the top primary channel (19.8%) and network (26.7%) shares.
Leading the way for Nine was A Current Affair which had 624,000 viewers as the program told the story of Sharon Wolstenholme-Gilbert, a teenager who was fired from Anaconda in the fallout of her sexual harassment complaint. Afterwards, the NRL coverage of the Manly- Warringah Sea Eagles (sans the 7 players who stood down over the LGBTQIA+ jersey) playing the Sydney Roosters had 354,000 viewers.
On Seven, Home ad Away had an average of 429,000 viewers for its first two episodes before the show’s third episode had 346,000 viewers. The Front Bar had 375,000 viewers, this time around airing nationally for its Birmingham Edition ahead of the Commonwealth Games. The show continues to perform well in Melbourne with 194,000 tuning in from the city.
On the ABC, A Wild Ride: Foreign Correspondent at 30 had 347,000 viewers before Louis Theroux’s Altered States had 185,000.
The top non-news program on SBS was The Sean Connery Paradox with 118,000 viewers.
