• MasterChef double cooks TEN primary channel win and best 2017 share
• Seven claims combined channel share win, Nine #1 along east coast
TEN has interrupted Nine’s winning week as TEN posted its best survey share this year for its primary channel – 19.8%. TEN was a big winner in Adelaide, managed to knock off Seven and Nine in Perth too and wasn’t too far of the pace in Melbourne and Sydney.
TEN’s success came off the back of two episodes of MasterChef shown back-to-back with both winning their network timeslots.
Although Seven’s primary share hovered under 17%, the channel managed to record the biggest combined channel share.
Nine was a winner in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with its programs running late after A Current Affair extended by over 15 minutes with live coverage of the much anticipated announcement about Prince Philip.
Seven
Home and Away managed to end its week above 700,000 with the episode including breaking news from London where correspondent Hugh Whitfield read the announcement from Buckingham Palace live from his mobile phone outside the Palace.
House Rules then ended its first week with the numbers down from the previous night.
House Rules week one
Sunday 1,000,000
Monday 606,000
Tuesday 767,000 and 788,000
Wednesday 645,000
Thursday 630,000
Wedding Surprises: Caught On Camera managed 358,000 after 439,000 last week.
Nine
A Current Affair climbed back above 800,000 and included some excitement for viewers when initially reporting it was Queen Elizabeth who was standing down. Host Tracy Grimshaw and London correspondent Michael Best both quickly corrected the information they received. The episode then went to more familiar stories about bees and bread, before returning with Grimshaw and Best discussing the announcement about Prince Philip. The program ran close to 7.45pm, pushing back Nine’s schedule. (Numbers below not time-corrected.)
RBT eventually followed with the show managing to narrowly outrate MasterChef in Sydney.
The Footy Shows then also started late with a network audience of 461,000 with 119,000 in Sydney and 182,000 in Melbourne.
TEN
The Project was the most cautionary in reporting the news from Buckingham Palace, which also meant it was last to air of the major commercial broadcasters. The Project was in the middle of an interview with former Fairfax editor Eric Beecher about the future of the publisher when Seven and Nine were breaking the royal news. The Project went to an ad break and then returned with Carrie Bickmore passing on the Prince Philip news to viewers. The Thursday episode did 588,000.
TEN’s biggest night this survey year-to-date was then secured by two episodes of MasterChef. The first featured the initial mystery box challenge this season which separated out the worst four efforts. Those four then went head-to-head in an elimination challenge which resulted in the first casualty of season nine – Rashedul Hasan. The first episode did 899,000 with the audience then climbing a little to 910,000 for the second.
MasterChef week one
Monday 1,060,000
Tuesday 913,000
Wednesday 917,000
Thursday 899,000 – 910,000
ABC
7.30 featured an interview with the controversial John Coates with 511,000 watching.
The Checkout carried a warning about online vendors and Google with 486,000 tuning in after 518,000 last week.
Seven Types Of Ambiguity continues to drift lower with 341,000 after 402,000 last week.
SBS
Michael Portillo was following the north coast of England by rail before crossing the border into Scotland for the 279,000 viewers of Great British Railway Journeys.
Italy Unpacked then did 255,000 followed by Medici: Master Of Florence, which did 136,000 after launching last week on 237,000.