TV Ratings March 8: NRL first night takes Nine to top spot in Syd and Bris

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

• My Kitchen Rules and three hours of Gordon Ramsay rank Seven #1
• Nine’s first night of NRL takes channel to top spot in Sydney & Brisbane

Seven

Home and Away continues to screen just one episode on Thursdays at present. Across the week the audience ranged between 642,000 and 682,000, and ended on 588,000.

As we discussed yesterday, the weakest My Kitchen Rules teams from each group took part in a sudden death showdown. Pete and Manu were judging the teams in elimination house with Josh and Nic taking an early lead and they never looked back. Matt and Aly didn’t do better than 5 out of 10 and were subsequently eliminated. The Thursday episode did 954,000 after 1.04m last Thursday.

Seven then went into Gordon Ramsay mode with not one, not two, but three series back-to-back. The numbers were:

Gordon Ramsay On Cocaine 392,000
Ramsay’s Hotel Hell 249,000
Kitchen Nightmares 125,000

Nine

The first night of live NRL for 2018 didn’t get Nine over the line in network share, but it did keep Nine in front in Sydney and Brisbane.

A good start to the week with three episodes all just under 900,000 for A Current Affair. The Thursday episode then did 562,000 (in four markets – no Brisbane) with stories on electricity suppliers and then Married At First Sight.

Live NRL returned at 7.30pm with the first game of round one on Nine or 9Gem across the network. A crowd of 452,000 was watching on Nine in Sydney (244,000) and Brisbane (208,000).

The new-look NRL Footy Show followed without Fatty with a two-city audience of 188,000 (Sydney 110,000, Brisbane 78,000).

Melbourne viewers got to see RBT which did 139,000 in that market.

The AFL Footy Show also returned with 173,000 watching in Melbourne.

TEN

The channel had a much-improved night with a network primary share of 14.7%.

Shaggy and Sting were guests on The Project plus Pete Rowsthorn talking about his departure from I’m A Celebrity. The Thursday edition started on 289,000 and lifted to 409,000 after 7pm.

Simone Holtznagel was the final contestant eliminated from I’m A Celebrity this week ahead of the two-part final starting Sunday. The final Thursday episode was on 548,000 and 562,000 after 660,000 and 728,000 a week before.

Series seven of Gogglebox is halfway through after episode five did 602,000.

ABC

Call The Midwife was on 481,000 in the 8pm timeslot.

Unforgotten then did 364,000 after 9pm.

SBS

Stonehenge was one of the stops on Great British Railway Journeys last night with 251,000 watching.

How To Lose Weight Well did 137,000 followed by the European drama Knightfall on 70,000.

Get daily TV ratings and analysis sent straight to your inbox with the Mediaweek Morning Report. Subscribe free here.

To Top