TV Ratings March 5: Nine does best Sunday in Q1 since 2015 with Married

Mediaweek editor James Manning looks at last night’s TV ratings

Seven has lost its first Sunday night since January 15 this year. The network’s primary channel was 1.4 points behind Nine thanks to timeslot-winning audiences for Nine News and then Married At First Sight.

Married At First Sight is giving Nine its best Sunday survey start since 2015 when a combo of the controversial House of Hancock and The Block helped secure regular Sunday wins for the broadcaster.

Nine was the east coast capital champ, but it couldn’t overhaul Seven in Adelaide and Perth.

Seven’s My Kitchen Rules in the past three weeks has gone from 1.23m to 1.09m and then 1.05m last night. Despite trailing Nine in primary channel share, Nine’s combined channel share saw it ahead of Nine by 0.3 of a point.

Elsewhere TEN’s I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! was its best performer and then Bull debuted with just under half a million later in the night.

Vera returned to the ABC schedule with a new season, taking a top five spot and keeping its Sunday share not far behind what Midsomer Murders helped deliver last week.

Seven

Seven News started the ratings week on 977,000, close to last week’s 972,000 watching the Sunday bulletin.

My Kitchen Rules sent the contestants and the guest judges to the Illawarra where Mel and Cyn wowed the contestants with their grand residence and then the judges with their dishes, which sees them sitting at #2 on the leader board, one point away from top spot. The Sunday audience of 1.05m was the smallest Sunday audience this year.

Sunday Night followed with 733,000, which was down 100,000 on last week. Stories included Paul Hogan, which perhaps could have helped promo the Hoges miniseries if shown earlier in the year.

Two episodes of The Blacklist then did 260,000 and 165,000.

 

Nine

Nine News was the network timeslot winner and ranked #1 along the east coast. Week-on-week the Sunday audience climbed from 981,000 to 1.05m.

Married At First Sight set a new series high as audiences saw the couples grappling with the next stage of their various relationships. The show won all key demos for Nine and it was also the second-biggest audience for the franchise here ever, and the biggest for 2017. The program is also creating records as the most streamed program in OzTAM history.

60 Minutes followed with 688,000, an increase on the previous week’s 631,000.

Lethal Weapon then did 360,000, well up from 248,000 a week ago.

TEN

I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! was the big drawcard again with both segments of the elimination episode in the top 10. Model Tegan Martin became the third person to leave the series in the past two episodes. A big weigh-in on the show clearly marks March as slim-down month for the channel with The Biggest Loser Transformed launching shortly. The first part of the Sunday episode did 683,000, which grew to 782,000 for the elimination results.

Following Celebrity was the launch of the new US drama Bull with 536,000, which was better than any of the other US dramas screened last night, the others in later timeslots.

Earlier in the day coverage of the Clipsal 500 from Adelaide got into the top 20 with 343,000, which was #1 in its timeslot.

In early evening Bondi Rescue and Family Feud Sunday were both over 300,000.

ABC

A new four-episode-only season six of Vera made the top five with 828,000 watching the season launch. That is close to the 846,000 watching the final episode of Midsomer Murders in the timeslot a week ago.

After 7.40pm, Grand Designs did 646,000, down from 680,000 last week.

SBS

Sunday share was steady above 5% for a fourth consecutive Sunday.

The biggest audience was for The Lost Tribes of Humanity – 223,000.

Audiences of 193,000 tuned in both for SBS News at 6.30pm and then again after 8.30pm for coverage of Saturday’s Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The channel then repeated the movie The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert with 105,000 watching until its 12.20am finish.

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