• Seven breaks Nine’s three-week Sunday winning streak
• Married still #1, but Seven’s MKR/Sunday Night combo a winner
• TEN’s Melb GP coverage cracks 700,000, but viewers don’t linger
After ranking the #1 primary channel all people for the past three weeks, Nine has surrendered top spot to Seven.
Nine can still boast the #1 show overall and in key demos though as Married At First Sight ranks #1 on Sunday for a fifth consecutive week.
Seven lifted over four points week-on-week from 20.7% to 24.9% thanks to its triple play of Seven News, My Kitchen Rules and Sunday Night which all made the top five.
TEN’s best was its afternoon coverage of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix from Melbourne, which cracked 700,000. The audience didn’t linger after the race though, which resulted in a new 2017 low, and the smallest Sunday share since April last year when the network was also between I’m A Celebrity and the return of MasterChef.
Seven
Seven News Sunday did 1.05m and was down a little on last week despite the AFL lead-in in Melbourne. The Melbourne audience was up significantly week-on-week despite the Grand Prix lead-in at TEN. It was also the last Sunday night news going to air before the daylight saving switch next Saturday night/Sunday morning.
My Kitchen Rules still has nine teams left, meaning there is a bit to go yet. The Sunday audience of 1.11m was up on 1.02m a week prior.
Sunday Night was the big improver week-on-week with 909,000 nearly 200,000 better than 712,000 last week. One of the attractions for what is the best performing episode of 2017 so far was the interview with Pete Evans.
A replay of Seven’s Anita Cobby documentary special then did 454,000.
Nine
Nine News Sunday was a winner in each east coast capital including Melbourne despite the return of the football. Week-on-week the Sunday News numbers climbed from 985,000 to 1.05m.
Married At First Sight again held top spot with 1.15m, down just a little from 1.19m a week ago. Viewers were puzzled when two relationships didn’t go the way they were expected to with Nadia and Susan surprising their partners and viewers.
60 Minutes trailed Sunday Night with 686,000 watching the Nine Sunday veteran, although the numbers were up from 629,000 the previous week. Stories included vetting immigrants and the death of the Barrier Reef. Maybe the episode should have included an interview with one of the stars of Married At First Sight?
Lethal Weapon followed with 307,000, up from 252,000 last week.
TEN
Coverage of the Formula One Australian Grand Prix from Melbourne put the race in the top 10 with 705,000. That was a drop from the 864,000 watching a year ago.
The big afternoon audience didn’t hang around after the race ended though. The post-race coverage dropped below 300,000 before new episodes of Modern Family pushed the numbers higher, close to 400,000 between 7-8pm.
Bull went to air earlier at 8pm and the numbers managed to grow from 363,000 to 373,000 week-on-week.
Later in the night NCIS: New Orleans was on 214,000.
ABC
Share cracked 15% for a second successive week with Vera on 780,000, but down from 851,000 last week. It was the final instalment of the short four-episode season.
ABC News was on 736,000 and a final episode of Grand Designs did 675,000, both episodes also down on the comparison with the previous Sunday.
SBS
Share was over 5% for the fifth time in the past seven Sundays.
The biggest crowd gathered for the launch of the three-part Britain’s Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney – 229,000.
At 8.30pm Cleopatra was not far behind with 215,000.