Seven crushes rivals
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Week 41 gave Seven a crushing defeat over its commercial rivals.
Seven romped home with 31.6% to Nine’s 24.5% and TEN’s 21.5%. The ABC had 17.5% and SBS’ 4.5%. The lead of 7.1% was the biggest Seven has taken over Nine all year, and a full 10% ahead of TEN. Seven won every single night, and also won the week in all cities.
In a devastating blow to its morale Nine had no shows in the country’s Top 20 programmes (TEN had one, while the ABC had 3). Its top entry was at #24 for National Nine News (Sunday). David Gyngell’s symbolic announcement of the 2012 Olympics as a show of Nine trying to win back its crown could not have come at a better time.
Kath and Kim resumed its place as the biggest show of the week, just topping 2m viewers. Seven’s other big shows were The Force, Border Security, Dancing with the Stars, City Homicide, Seven News, Hot Property, RSPCA Animal Rescue, Medical Emergency, Bionic Woman, My Name is Earl, Home and Away, Better Homes and Gardens, V8 Supercars Round, Today Tonight and All Saints. But it’s not all perfect. Las Vegas continues to struggle against the ABC and TEN. It isn’t helping Prison Break much either.
Aside from its Sunday News, Nine’s other big shows were A Current Affair, The Singing Bee, 60 Minutes, Temptation, Missing Persons Unit, Getaway and Funniest Home Videos. Thursday and Sunday were rare bright lights in Nine’s schedule, as Nine readies a new Monday line-up for next week. The Gift got off to a better start than Dirty Jobs. The Singing Bee did ok in its first outing. But the critically-acclaimed new Damages has failed to find an audience and has been moved to a later slot.
TEN continues to enjoy Wednesday audiences, with House their top show of the week. Australian Idol, The Simpsons, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? and Life. Mondays aren’t so great for TEN, but Fridays and Saturdays are lousy. The network was fourth behind the ABC both nights.
The Chaser chased up ABC’s biggest audience, and Spicks and Specks, New Tricks (the top show of the night), Summer Heights High and ABC News were all strong. On Thursday in Melbourne ABC News had a bigger audience than either Nine or Seven. Rain Shadow had a good debut with 1.1m viewers.
Saturday has become SBS’ best night ahead of Mondays. Newstopia premiered with 221,000 on Wednesday.