Seven regains the momentum

Week 9 of the 2008 television ratings has seen Seven win the week quite comfortably but no guarantees this momentum will carry into Week 10.

Seven 29.0%
Nine 27.6%
Ten 22.0%
ABC 16.2%
SBS 5.3%

OzTAM

As it stands Seven leads the ratings race, winning 5 weeks to Nine’s 3 with one tie between the networks.

RSPCA Animail Rescue and repeats of Border Security where equally the most popular shows in Australia last week.

The final of It Takes Two, the Underbelly mother’s interview on Today Tonight and key episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters have Seven the edge. Seven News and Today Tonight continue to maintain a healthy lead over Nine whilst The Real Sea Change returned impressive numbers with next to no competition from Nine’s My Kid’s A Star.

Nine’s Moment of Truth and My Kid’s A Star are starting to bleed and costed Nine last week. They can longer afford to carry these underperforming shows which has all ready seen Moment of Truth replaced by new episodes of 20 to 1.

This week could be a whole different ball game with Ten concluding So You Think You Can Dance tonight, launching Big Brother tomorrow at 7 and the finale of The Biggest Loser on Thursday night meaning they could potentially win three nights this week. If only new episodes of Thank God You’re Here were produced followed by House on Wednesday you’d give Ten a good chance at winning the week on top of Bondi Rescue’s success on Tuesday.

Ten could still win Week 10, if not they will steal viewers from Nine and Seven forcing a very close week amongst the three commercial networks

The Clock is still ticking

Nine wins Sunday

Despite the negative publicity 60 Minutes has been last nights most popular show with 1.7 million viewers nationally.

Gordon Ramsay fever may have something to do with that as Nine’s newest successes was a major story on 60 Minutes which helped Nine win Sunday night.

60 Minutes has come under fire since Peter Overton’s story about an Adelaide marriage involving father and daughter subsequently being played out across radio and television which has seen viewers return in droves, up by 500 000 viewers since March.

Sunday night is the most competitive night on television with all three commercial networks boasting strong and aggressive schedules. Nine defeated Seven by only 0.2% and Ten were also right in it.

Nine 28.4%
Seven 28.2%
Ten 24.1%

Despite having the 60 Minutes lead-in Grey’s Anatomy (1.3 million) and Brothers & Sisters (984, 000) beat CSI (1.2 million) and Without A Trace (932 000). As noted by the op-inion yesterday, Seven had launched quite an aggressive marketing campaign, building up the importance of this week for a number of their shows.

So You Think You Can Dance continued to rate as the fifth highest rating show of the night with 1.5 million viewers, The Biggest Loser (1.3 million) and Rove held an audience of just over the 1 million mark.

The top 16 shows of Sunday had over 900 000 viewers each and were scheduled between 6-10:30pm across the three commercial networks with all top 5 Australian produced shows.

East of Everything which was one of the ABC’s most anticipated dramas of 2008 is struggling against Rove, CSI and Grey’s only capturing an audience of 717 000.

It is good to see the emphasis of Sunday night television across all the networks but it’s ashame that every night is not as competitive. Tuesday’s appear to always be Seven’s at the moment and Thursday’s Nine. With huge Sunday night audiences across all three commercial networks, perhaps they should translate some of this success to other nights.

What Australia watched, Sunday, April 20

1 60 Minutes Nine 1,732,000
2 Seven News - Sun Seven 1,682,000
3 Gladiators Seven 1,560,000
4 National Nine News Sunday Nine 1,520,000
5 So You Think You Can Dance Australia TEN 1,466,000
6 Grey's Anatomy Seven 1,347,000
7 The Biggest Loser TEN 1,315,000
8 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Nine 1,205,000
9 Animal Emergency Nine 1,147,000
10 RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service Nine 1,093,000
11 ABC News-Su ABC 1,086,000
12 Rove TEN 1,004,000
13 Police Files - Unlocked Seven 998,000
14 Brothers & Sisters Seven 984,000
15 My Name Is Earl Seven 962,000
16 Without A Trace Nine 932,000
17 Ten News At Five Sun TEN 810,000
18 Robin Hood ABC 775,000
19 The Einstein Factor ABC 722,000
20 East Of Everything ABC 717,000

Figures courtesy of Oztam