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Seven strikes back

As 'normal programming' begins to settle into the schedule, Seven takes the second week of ratings, despite Nine's demographic wins.

rafter-castThe Seven Network has won the second week of the 2009 ratings year.

Seven nabbed a 29.4% share over Nine’s 27.5% and TEN’s 21.5%. The ABC had 16.2% and SBS 5.4%.

After Nine won the first week of the ratings year on the strength of Underbelly, cricket and its telethon, Seven has hit backwith regular programming.

Seven won Tuesday to Saturday and it won all 5 cities. However Nine won key demographics 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54.

Top show for the week was again Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities with 2.46m viewers, a very high retention figure after its 2.52m premiere. Seven’s best was Packed to the Rafters at 1.73m. For TEN So You Think You Can Dance Australia was strongest with 1.37m, Spicks and Specks (1.07m) and Top Gear (879,000) were again the best for ABC and SBS respectively.

Also of note this week, TEN’s Guerrilla Gardeners had a disappointing debut of just 687,000 viewers suggesting either the network’s advertising campaign of not revealing the identities of the team has backfired, or that TEN’s predominantly younger audience isn’t attracted to the idea of landscape makeovers regardless of its ‘law-breaking’ edge. TEN’s Mondays would seem to be troubled already, particularly Dexter 531,000 which has already screened on Pay Television.

Nine’s Aussie Ladette to Lady pulled a big audience on the back of Underbelly with 1.36m but it had lost over 500,000 by the following night. Nine also dumped Flashpoint, unsatisfied with its 632,000 viewers. Two and a Half Men‘s new episode managed 1m -have Nine overplayed its card?

Seven’s Sunday Night (1.33m) dropped nearly 300,000 from its premiere, but has had to contend with cricket on Nine. From this week it has a level playing field.

Week 8

15 Responses

  1. I’m with Mark on this one. They get rid of a brand new show in favour of a show that the average person cannot stand. L2L didn’t do well in its country of origin and yet they still persist with this drivel.

  2. andy said on February 23rd, 2009 10:21 pm: “Well, the only people who lose are those who are silly enough to wait for their favourite shows to turn up on Australian TV.”

    “These “silly” people are usually all forced to “wait” for their favourite shows because they cannot afford a high speed unlimited internet connection which enables them to illegally download shows. What other choice do people have but to wait and hope that their shows get a decent number to even survive to the next week? We all know that the ratings system is seriously flawed, but it is what all the unsympathetic network execs base their decisions on.”

    ##########

    I’m one of those silly people Andy, there is more than one way to skin a cat mate, I do it legally, I watched the 14th ep of Fringe (and it’s a cliff hanger grrrr) last night, I’m now settling down to x amount of weeks of Legend of the Seeker, Dollhouse, BSG, Crusoe, the second season of Sanctuary later this year, and from next week Supernatural, not forgetting The Simpsons and a whole heap of new show coming on US & UK TV in the second half of 2009.

    I will watch ABC and SBS, they actually deserve some support but free commercial channel TV in Australia can go the hell in a handbasket, shame the economic downturn didnt claim them. Not ONE HD though 😀

  3. The only TV ratings i care about are how the shows i watch do in the US. All the American TV messageboards seem to focus on are how well it did demographically and occasionally in total people. Not whether it beat the opposition by .1%, therefore being the ‘king’ of the ratings. I really like the articles you do David, but i have to say these types should be let go IMO.

  4. “Well, the only people who lose are those who are silly enough to wait for their favourite shows to turn up on Australian TV.”

    These “silly” people are usually all forced to “wait” for their favourite shows because they cannot afford a high speed unlimited internet connection which enables them to illegally download shows. What other choice do people have but to wait and hope that their shows get a decent number to even survive to the next week? We all know that the ratings system is seriously flawed, but it is what all the unsympathetic network execs base their decisions on.

  5. Predictable result for the week. I agree Seven has consistency whereas Nine just has too many shows that are around the 1 mill mark (or below), apart from of course Underbelly which is the biggest hit any of the networks have had since Kath & Kim. Interesting about the total people vs. demo results, and that neither Seven (nothing to be surprised about – most of their shows are deliberately aimed at older rather than younger people) or surprisingly TEN were able to snatch a demo win.

  6. lol Neonkitten I was thinking the exact same thing – “Seriously, people – why the **** do we give a *** which network “wins”????” when reading this article!

  7. The Guerrilla Gardeners campaign actually made me think that they weren’t allowed to reveal their identities ever… I honestly thought that it was going to be a show with the people’s faces all blacked out.

    I think it was because from memory the advertising campaign said “we can’t reveal their faces” not “we can’t reveal their faces yet…”

  8. well the screamingly obvious problem with 9 is that they barely break the 1mil mark in primetime from tues-sat which is when the other networks have rafters, factuals, allsaints, NCIS, lie to me, AGT, spicks&specs, CM, gangs of oz, and BH&G.

    i can’t see any major reasons that this week will be much different to last. so i predict another win from 7.

  9. Mark: *applause*

    We need more of that.

    This “ratings” fiction that’s measured from a sample that’s way too small to mean anything useful and which is also hand-picked by the very networks that run the company that measure the ratings…

    Well, the only people who lose are those who are silly enough to wait for their favourite shows to turn up on Australian TV.

    Seriously, people – why the **** do we give a *** which network “wins”????

  10. if 7 can win these first few weeks they will be on a good track to win the year. their strong 2nd half should win itself. it was just the first half where 9 has all of it’s big rating show together that were going to be a challenge for them. The only good rating show that 9 have for later on is sea patrol whereas 7 has TGYH, more rafters, more factuals, kath and kim?, the pacific, dancing with the stars.

  11. 9’s really a one hit wonder so the result is not surprising. And any decent show they have the rights to is either not shown, shown out of order, moved around or too often starts up to 15 minutes late. Its quite literally turning people off. No doubt 10 wins in under 39’s. And 7 is consistant with little competition from 9.

  12. Nine may have a total hit like Underbelly, but Seven is more consistent with it’s programming each and every day. I’m reminded of the old tale of the tortoise and the hare…

  13. We kinda knew 7 would be back with normal programming, Aussie Ladette to Lady is not long for this world (aka ch9) Dexter is not going to do any better in it’s more than a season behind PayTV for already a niche type show with limited appeal and show every one raves about but not many watch in the mainstream.

    I knew ch9 would dump Flashpoint without playing the full season and answering the big questions which it does in 2.04. Surprised Sunday Night dropped so much, not that I’ve watch it much but I didn’t watch 90 Minutes either LOL

  14. not surprising since we are back to normal shows. the first week was a one off with the cricket and bushfire etc. i think seven will be winning weeks for a while now.

  15. Nine dumps Flashpoint, but keeps L2L? Un-freakin-believable.

    More content that people will just obtain via darknet now I suppose.

    Do the FTA network programmers really imagine that they can still keep people waiting for decent programmes that have already screened elsewhere in the world to highly positive reviews?

    Maybe – just maybe – the whole ratings system needs to be examined in the open and completely revisited?

    How’s that for a potential TV Tonight article…how the FTA ratings system actually operates? [I was going to say “works”, but, well, it doesn’t.]

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