The Summer TV ratings survey period which ran from Week 49 2020 to Week 6 this year wrapped on Saturday night. The climax of the TV domestic cricket season coincided with the survey end and Seven ended with a win for the night and the week with a dominant primary share as well as network leadership.
Mini golf format drifted, but started its job in Week 6
Seven ranked #1 for six nights of the week from Monday through until Saturday. The channel’s most potent weapon was the launch of Holey Moley with 983,000 watching the mini golf on Monday night. The Holey Moley audience dropped significantly across three nights as some viewers balked at committing over four hours to the new format – Tuesday was on 737,000 and Wednesday did 543,000.
While Holey Moley did stumble, it had a better launch week than My Kitchen Rules managed in the timeslot a year ago. My Kitchen Rules: The Rivals launched with 498,000 on the Sunday and then rose to 517,000 on the Monday. Tuesday’s episode plunged to 402,000 before Wednesday improved gently to 428,000.
In addition to Seven News and the return of Home and Away (545,000), Seven’s only other Week 6 program securing an audience over half a million was the Big Bash League. There were over 600,000 watching both sessions of the Grand Final on Saturday night as the Sydney Sixers were too good for the Perth Scorchers.
Grand Reunion led Nine’s week
Nine’s best Week 6 performance came on Sunday night with a combo of the Married At First Sight Grand Reunion on 865,000 and then 60 Minutes on 678,000. The second part of the MAFS catch-up was on 785,000 on Monday. Nine News and A Current Affair (651,000) both made the top 20. Travel Guides’ special Australia-only episodes screened on Tuesday and Wednesday to audiences of 639,000 and 596,000 respectively.
Amazing Race starts on half a million
10’s best for the week was the climax of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! with 893,000 tuned in for the announcement of the winner and 788,000 watching the start of that final episode. The primary channel’s next best was The Sunday Project pushing above 500,000 for one of its biggest ever Sunday audiences. Not far behind that crowd was the launch episode of The Amazing Race Australia on Monday with 501,000. The Tuesday and Wednesday episodes subsequently did 494,000 and 447,000.
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ABC News made the top 20 with its Sunday and weekday bulletins. The broadcaster’s next heaviest hitter just missed the top 20 with Hard Quiz ranking #21 for the week with its return audience on 619,000. Death in Paradise, the return of Four Corners and The Weekly were all just under 600,000.
SBS had four programs that rated over 200,000 starting with The Truth About Sleep from the prolific Dr Michael Mosley on 245,000. Britain’s Most Historic Towns and Great Continental Railway Journeys were both on 213,000 with Trump’s American Carnage on 201,000.
The Summer’s hottest shows
In the first week of December, the ABC had the three biggest non-news shows in Gruen, Hard Quiz and Australian Story with each close to 650,000.
Gruen and Hard Quiz then again held that honour in the subsequent two weeks, joined by audiences close to 600,000 watching the final sessions of play for the Third Test between Australia and India on Seven.
The cricket was the most-watched non-news in Christmas Week, a few days that saw Carols in the Domain on 634,000 and Carols by Candlelight on 991,000.
The biggest audiences across the summer were for ABC’s New Year’s Eve programming with 1,628,000 watching the midnight fireworks. Seven’s audience for the Second Test that week peaked at 760,000 for the last session on day two.
10’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! launch in Week 2 was one of just three programs to crack 1m or better across summer. The other was one night of Seven News Sunday.
In mid-January the Week 3 cricket audience grew to 829,000 for day four of the Third test. The five nights of I’m a Celebrity that week were all over or just under 700,000.
With the Australian Open delayed until this month, 10’s I’m a Celebrity and Seven’s cricket coverage made the biggest mark in the back half of January in Weeks 4 and 5.
Seven won eight of the 10 weeks of summer survey all people, Nine ranking #1 in the other two.