• Melbourne v Brisbane NRL clash secures a winning score for Nine
• Gogglebox helps lift TEN share, but TBL Transformed under 400,000
• Did Seven’s magic night manage to pull ratings rabbit out of the hat?
The big match between the Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos didn’t feature a team from the biggest TV market. However, it was close to the most-watched show in Sydney and easily ranked #1 in Brisbane.
Those audiences, together with a contribution from the AFL Footy Show, secured Nine top spot across the metro network and in each of the east coast mainland capitals.
Seven programmed a night of magic with one of the shows just making the top 20 and the other just making the top 30. Seven News and Home and Away however kept the network competitive and it was a winner again in Adelaide and Perth.
Gogglebox helped lift the TEN share over 13%, but it didn’t get much help from the lead-in as The Biggest Loser Transformed dropped below 400,000.
Seven
Home and Away ended its week on 617,000 after the Thursday mini-marathon did 575,000 a week earlier.
It was then magic night starting with When Magic Goes Horribly Wrong with 334,000 after Mighty Trains did 460,000 in the slot a week earlier.
Program two on magic night was Dynamo: Live with 249,000 after 9.30pm.
Nine
A Current Affair screened in four markets for its 546,000, which was still enough to secure a top 10 finish.
The NRL match between the Broncos and Storm did 252,000 in Sydney and 238,000 in Brisbane. That is well up on 197,000 in Sydney and 166,000 in Brisbane last Thursday. The combined NRL metro audience last night including 9Gem in other capitals was 554,000. The coverage topped key demos in both Sydney and Brisbane.
Viewers in southern capitals saw RBT at 7.30pm which did 285,000 across Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
The Footy Show combined did 488,000 with the Melbourne edition on 174,000 after it returned for the year on 194,000 last week. The second AFL episode had a punchier start last night and featured Sam Newman refusing to apologise about comments made in a much-publicised phone call to journalist Tony Sheahan and he also took a swing at journalists who have criticised former Essendon captain James Hird across the past couple of years.
TEN
The channel had its second-best share for the week after its 15.3% on Monday with the final of Celebrity.
The biggest contributor last night was Gogglebox, which was on 674,000, down from 729,000 last week.
Gogglebox didn’t get too much help from its lead-in though as The Biggest Loser Transformed slipped under 400,000 after opening with close to 450,000 for each of its first two episodes.
The Project did 441,000 at 7pm after 516,000 in that timeslot a week earlier. Guests last night ranged from PM Malcolm Turnbull to radio host Mel Greig.
ABC
The channel’s Thursday share has been hovering close to 11% every week of the survey year.
ABC News and 7.30 were both in the top 10 while Dream Gardens was next best with 499,000.
Newton’s Law was on 484,000 after 480,000 a week prior.
SBS
Great British Railway Journeys just missed a spot in the top 20 with 325,000 joining Michael Portillo on the rails last night.
A repeat season of Luke Nguyen’s Greater Mekong then launched with 209,000.