Seven steal Sunday and maul Monday

Jamie Durie’s offensive comments about Nine’s Domestic Blitz didn’t damage his show in fact The Outdoor Room won its time slot which overall helped Seven steal Sunday from Nine.

With 1.356 million viewers, Durie’s newest show just defeated Blitz who itself had 1.349 million viewers nationally. The 7:30PM battle was just as close but 60 Minutes accounted for Dancing with the Stars with 1.349 million viewers while Dancing had 1.334.

Nine lost Sunday on the poor performance of Nine News which was thrashed by 500 000 viewers from Seven News and CSI: Miami which dropped to 1.028 million.

Idol was ten’s best show with 1.193 million and the repeat of Thank God You’re Here was also on the good side of 1 million but Rove wasn’t.

Sunday’s are the most competitive night for television and it will be interesting to see if Nine’s latest backyard show, Battlefronts can be as successful as Domestic Blitz has been and challenge The Outdoor Room.

If there was one poor performance by Seven it was the soft ratings that Outback Wildlife Rescue returned which was still on the good side of one million but dropped almost 300 000 viewers from The Outdoor Room.

Are there now perhaps too many versions of rescues, animals and a combination of the outback?

There are not too many other options avialable to the networks as we have follwoed police, firmmen, ambulance officers, doctors, nurses, vets, coast guards so what is left? Security Guard Dogs would be an entertaining show or maybe we can follow garbage collectors on their rounds around the suburbs and discover all the weird, wild and whacky pieces of garbage they find.

Sunday ended up like this:

Seven: 27.3%
Nine: 24.8%
TEN: 21.4%
ABC: 20.9%
SBS: 5.7%

OzTam

As for Monday, it was Seven, Seven, Seven...

City Homicide was the nations most popular show with almost 1.8 million viewers whilst The Force and Border Security had 1.6 million viewers. Seven News beat Nine News by 300 000 viewers (slightly closer this Monday) but there was only 100 000 viewers difference between Today Tonight, which beat A Current Affair.

New Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares: USA bombed for Nine as the celebrity chef was unable to cook up a much needed ratings storm for Nine in the 8:30 slot. Ramsay only 732 000 viewers which was beaten by Ten’s new teen drama 90210 which for its first episode had 837 000 viewers before bottoming out in episode two with only 666 000 viewers.

Ten was even defeated by the ABC last night as Idol only returned 1.1 million viewers and Taken Out should be taken off air, only recording 656 000 viewers. For the ABC its News and the 7.30 Report had more than one million viewers while Media Watch and Denton were just under one million viewers.

Two and A Half Men was Nine’s most poplar show and even defeated Home and Away by 27 000 viewers.

It was however, another big win to Seven which saw the network thrash its competitors, reading:

Seven: 33.4%
Nine: 21.8%
ABC: 19.7%
TEN: 17.8%
SBS: 7.3%

Oz Tam

Seven still riding on that Olympic success

It appears that perhaps TV audiences have forgotten how to change the channel because last night Seven flogged it’s competition without the Olympics.

Seven owned 34.1% of the total audience share with Nine languishing behind with 22% and Ten with 20%.

The Top 6 shows of last night were owned by Seven with City Homicide topping the night’s most popular shows amassing almost 1.9 million viewers. New series of Border Security and The Force were also around the 1.8 million viewer mark while Seven News and Today Tonight each realled in over 1.6 million viewers thrashing Nine News and A Current Affair by 400 000 and 600 000 viewers respectively. Home and Away also bit back at the competition Two and A Half Men had been providing with 1.5 million viewers as opposed to Men’s 1.1 million viewers.

It is no surprise that Seven were all guns blazing last night and comprehensively beating Nine and Ten because these networks are providing no compeition, instead Nine screened two movies and Ten also scheduled the out of favour Burn Notice. Australian Idol’s figures were however soft but OK with 1.2 million viewers tuning in.

Expect Seven to dominate tonight as well when they launch Packed to the Rafters. 2 million may be on the cards.

Kochie versus 60 Minutes

It’s the Battle of Sunday night’s…

In the Red corner we have the challenger, Seven who has struggled to dominate Sunday’s with the falling Gladiators, My Name is Earl, Most Shocking and Grey’s Anatomy (unlike the winning Where Are They Now? / Ugly Betty / Grey’s Anatomy line-up of 2007)….

Against the Champion in the Blue Corner, Nine with a resurgence from 60 Minutes, strong ratings from Domestic Blitz (and before that Royal Flying Doctor Service / Medical Emergency) and the dominant CSI.


Seven are pinning their hopes on David Koch who will attempt to unearth 60 Minutes in the key 7:30PM Sunday night slot. Kochie’s Battle of the Choirs will be screened from Sunday week, June 15.

Competiting choirs vying for $100 000 = riveting television... NOT

Will it work?

I don’t think so.

Seven are on a time bomb with this one. 60 Minutes is back. Dancing With the Stars has been done and will be back, It Takes Two 2008 has been screened and figures were down, so why would choirs be any different?

Seven still have some ammunition within their armour in what has been a successful slot for Australian drama and/or comedy with Kath & Kim and Ugly Betty finding success in the 7:30 slot.

Packed to the Rafters would appear as the perfect fit to their 7:30 Sunday slot. Maybe it is coming and maybe I am going to be proved wrong about Kochie’s Choirs but I don’t think the show will be as big a success as Seven are hoping.

The network has also announced a new reality TV series, Make Me A Supermodel which is cashing in on the success of Fox 8’s Australia’s Next Top Model. The Seven series, Make Me comes from the British format which is a smart purchase for the network to appeal to it’s younger demographic. Somewhat of a surprise that Seven has bought the right’s to what appears on the surface to be a Channel Ten-esque show but nevertheless a clever strategic move.

Seven have also got a lot of new episodes of City Homicide to screen which the network’s scheduele is screaming out for as audience numbers are on the slide with Criminal Minds and Bones being used as 8:30PM shows.

Grey’s finishes up very soon as does Desperate Housewives so expect to see the new spin-off of Grey’s, Private Practice to air in the Grey’s slot, 8:30PM Sunday while City Homicide may replace Desperate Housewives again in what would be an interesting and unique challenge.

Aussie drama versus Aussie drama with City Homicide (Seven, 8:30PM Monday) up against Sea Patrol (Nine, 8:30PM Monday). I cannot remember the last time networks put one Aussie drama against another... can you?

Seven may resist doing this as it has not been done for some time and the Aussie drama sector may wish to protect itself against putting two products against each other.

Which still leaves the debut of Packed to Rafters unknown at this stage while Nine remain tight-lipped about McLeod’s Daughters.

Kochie (The Battle of the Choirs) versus 60 Minutes starts next Sunday, June 15.