Seven take Week 5

Channel Seven have clinched the all important fifth week of television ratings and head into the Easter break leading three weeks to Nine’s two.

It was looking like anyone’s game heading into Saturday after Nine’s blockbuster Thursday night which saw Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares: UK succeeding RPA as the Number 1 show on a Thursday night and another Thursday night win for Nine.

RPA has been a very successful series for Nine, so to move Ramsay into that slot and succeed with 1.5 million viewers was very important for the network. Getaway’s numbers just over the 1 million mark while The Footy Show surprisingly debuted strongly with 1.2 million viewers nationally.

Seven struggled on Thursday with The Amazing Race at 7:30 the only Seven show after 7:30 able to crack seven figures with Family Guy, Out of The Question, Lost and American Dad closer to the 500 000 mark.

Nine won Thursday and again narrowly won Friday with its combination of Live Rugby League/Airline and Miss Congeniality propelling them to within 0.3 of Seven heading into Saturday.

Nine bombed on Saturday with the once very successful Australia’s Funniest Home Video’s returning terrible figures of 859,000 while the repeats of Shrek 2 and The Longest Yard struggled to get half a million viewers.

Saturday’s poor performance left Seven with a win with final figures reading:

Seven 28.2%Nine 27.6%Ten 22.5%ABC 16.6%SBS 5.1%

Now we take a two week break to let the Easter Bunny visit, the networks refresh and the rest of the year takes charge. AFL will be in full swing and a host of new shoes launched which will make things interesting.

Don't get too comfortable over the Easter break.