• TEN’s big Wednesday: Penultimate Bachelorette pushes channel to #1
• Nine’s turn to suffer music doco blowback: George Michael on 340,000
• The Grand Tour still stalling on the grid, but Seven #1 combined share
• ABC regains midweek glow with sitcoms keeping audience after Gruen
See full ratings figures on the Mediaweek Morning Report here.
Seven
Home and Away night three this week had an audience of 724,000 after 762,000 and 668,000 earlier this week.
Episode three of The Grand Tour was a homecoming of sorts with Clarkson, Hammond and May hosting the program from their tent overlooking Whitby’s waterfront in Yorkshire. After a launch audience of 508,000 a week ago, last night the show did 439,000.
Two episodes of Surveillance Oz Dashcam followed on 335,000 and 334,000.
The season final of Criminal Minds started around 10pm with an audience of 214,000.
Nine
No Block no Nine? The channel recorded its lowest midweek share since January despite offering the George Michael doco Freedom at 8.30pm. Viewers indicated last week they wanted more than music docos early in the evening when Seven offered up Michael Hutchence: The Last Rockstar with audiences just over and then just under half a million. Last night it was Nine’s turn to feel the pain with 340,000 staying the journey for the long George Michael: Freedom doco. (The special was originally planned to screen at 7.30pm.) Freedom included some compelling interviews and went into the details of George Michael’s case against Sony Music and the anguish it caused.
The Block did get a mention last night, but it was on A Current Affair, which did 682,000 after two nights in the 800,000s. Other reports covered Christmas bargains, bad dads and an Ikea exploding desk.
Taking over the 7.30 slot was a repeat episode of 20 To One which did 382,000.
Nine kept the music theme going later in the night with George Michael Live In London, which did 148,000 with a finish close to 11.30pm.
TEN
When one primary channel is feeling the pain of a year low it means somebody else is doing very well. Last night that was TEN, which recorded its highest midweek share since January thanks to the penultimate night of The Bachelorette.
Primetime started with Family Feud on 341,000.
The Project featured the wonderful Magda Szubanski talking about Sisters and same-sex marriage and before that boxers Gary Corcoran and Jeff Horn were guests. The program began with 340,000 at 6.30pm and then grew to 556,000 after 7pm. (If you have a copy of the Tuesday episode featuring Kathy Griffin on your recorder it may be a collector’s item. tenplay hasn’t uploaded that episode still and there are no clips of Griffin’s segment on the site either.)
Much heartbreak for viewers of The Bachelorette when Sophie had to cut one of the final three. It was Apollo who won’t make the final tonight. No surprise that unbackable favourite Stu remains to go up against outsider Jarrod. The audience was the biggest ever for a regular episode of either The Bachelor or The Bachelorette.
The almost movie-length launch episode of Sisters then did 624,000. The strong cast was a big draw for viewers who voted the series launch #2 for the night in the key demos behind only The Bachelorette.
ABC
The channel’s biggest Wednesday primary share of the year was fuelled by a new look after 9pm with two sitcoms extending primetime for many viewers.
Hard Quiz saw experts in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Smashing Pumpkins and Oasis facing off against each other with the program on 665,000 after 593,000 last week.
On Gruen it was good to see the return of Karen Ferry from Leo Burnett for the second time this season, last night joined by BMF’s Christina Aventi. It was another strong episode with Aventi suggesting Hillsong could be the “unofficial Christian tinder”, while host Wil Anderson wondered if he should get into the profitable business of religion and start Wilsong! The episode did 849,000, meaning it was only outrated by the 6pm news bulletins and Sophie Monk.
Rosehaven featured more challenges for the team from McCallum Real Estate in Tasmania. The series returned with 639,000 after a season average around 500,000 across the first season. The previous biggest audience was the first episode in 2016 on 595,000.
The pilot episode for The Letdown followed with a debut audience of 397,000 for the sitcom that started after 9.30pm. When this episode was first screened in May last year it did 434,000.
SBS
A repeat episode of Extreme Railways did 258,000 for its episode featuring host Chris Tarrant crossing the Andes in South America.
The third of the four Sunshine episodes then did 147,000 after last week’s Wednesday/Thursday episodes had audiences of 228,000/168,000.
Riviera then did 100,000.