It’s not the time of year when we try and read too much into the TV ratings. The official survey stops for the weeks on either side of the Easter public holidays and many of the big shows take a break.
This year, because of the late start to the survey year at Nine due to a delayed Australian Open, Easter has a different dynamic.
TV ratings winner: Nine Network 23.0% (31.3%)
Married at First Sight has rampaged right through the first week of Easter TV ratings, delivering Nine a second successive week of 1m+ metro audiences on every night the reality show was on air. It also delivered Nine winning TV shares on the first four nights of the week.
The only other Nine programming after the 6pm News to crack the top 20 for the week were 60 Minutes on 738,000 and A Current Affair on 682,000.
Under Investigation made it just over half a million to 521,000. The next best in primetime was Amazing Grace on 382,000.
Seven Network 17.5% (26.1%)
Seven News and Sunrise continued to dominate their timeslots. But when it comes to primetime highlights Seven is keeping its powder dry until after Easter and after MAFS.
The Thursday night AFL just made it over 500,000 while Home and Away was on 495,000.
10 Network 9.4% (16.5%)
The channel’s best result was the final of The Amazing Race Australia. The reveal of the victor was on 702,000 with the rest of the episode on 618,000.
Gogglebox performed next best with 496,000 on Thursday.
The Sunday Project again outperformed the weekday installment with 434,000 at 7pm on Sunday compared to 379,000 on weekdays.
The Cube continued to slip by just a handful of viewers with 306,000 watching on Wednesday this week after 310,000 the week prior.
10 Bold was the #1 multichannel of the week on 3.9% with episodes of NCIS and Law & Order: SVU the most-watched shows.
ABC Network 12.8% (17.6%)
Hard Quiz was leading the rankings for the broadcaster with 737,000 tuning in for the series six episode. Australian Story was on 630,000 for a fascinating glimpse of the life of Kate Ellis since she left parliament.
7.30 was all about Alan Kohler looking at retirement this week and in particular an interview with Paul Keating that was stretched out across the four episodes that had an average audience of 618,000.
The Wednesday comedies continued to perform well in the shadow of Hard Quiz – Fisk was on 591,000 and The Weekly did 575,000.
The final installment of Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire attracted the biggest audience of the three episodes – 479.000.
SBS Network 5.3% (8.5%)
Trainspotters continued to support the channel with 249,000 watching Great Australian Railways Journeys. Australia in Colour was also over 200,000 on 239,000.
Also in that territory were The Great Plague on 218,000 and Historic House Rescue on 206,000.
See also: Week 13 TV – Married at First Sight’s biggest week in Nine’s best-ever Q1