Sunday swings back to Nine

Will he or won’t he? The man on everybody’s lips, Peter Costello helped 60 Minutes and Channel Nine win Sunday night. It was a big win for Nine who relegated Seven to third place with Nine dominating the News (1.638 million), Battlefronts (1.286 million) and 60 Minutes (1.7 million) to win the night.

Jamie Durie’s The Outdoor Room was softened, with only 1.187 million viewers and Outback Wildlife Rescue had just over the million but it is Seven’s decision to move Dancing with the Stars to Sunday night’s that will have the network most concerned.

Once hosted by Daryl Summers, the show pulled on average two million viewers per week but on Sunday’s with Daniel McPherson the show last night only captured 1.167 million viewers. Still far from a failure but not competitive enough to challenge Nine’s 60 Minutes or Ten’s Australian Idol which itself had 1.224 million viewers.

Encore episodes, in other words, repeats of Thank God You’re Here are rating extremely well for Ten, last night claiming 1.136 million viewers itself, helping Ten to finish second but makes you wonder why Working Dog are not producing a series this year.

The night looked like this:
Nine: 29.8%

TEN: 22.8%

Seven: 22.5%

ABC: 19.6%

SBS: 5.3 %

OzTam

ABC’s Midsummer Murders finished in the Top 10 with 1.233 million viewers and so did Doctor Who with 1.169 million viewers.

Seven’s problem came with Private Practice which in its series return, bombed at 9:30PM only able to hold 722 000 viewers. It must be remembered that Nine had CSI: Miami in all states except Victoria who finally screened the first two episodes of Underbelly.

Despite most Victorians had allegedly all ready seen Underbelly illegally, the blockbuster series was still able to capture almost 600 000 viewers in Melbourne alone.

With Nine’s impressive start to the week, it should be a closer race this week but Seven will still win Monday and Tuesday but Wednesday could be more competitive if Fringe lives up to its expectations.

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

Nine wins Sunday

In possibly the most competitive and anticipated Sunday night in Australian television history, Nine came out on top with 60 Minutes defeating Dancing with the Stars as the evenings most popular television show.

Almost 1.6 million viewers tuned into 60 Minutes with Domestic Blitz (1.46 million) also defeating The Outdoor Room (1.3 million) in the coverted 6:30PM slot.

Seven News (1.526 million) narrowly defeated Nine News (1.507 million) with a major boost for Sydney’s Nine News (402 000) audience which defeated Seven News (389 000) with weeknight presenter, Mark Ferguson in the newsreaders chair.

Dancing with the Stars was still competitive with 1.33 million viewers but down on its previous highs which almost toppled the 2 million mark. Seven will be disappointed with that result with the new series receiving criticism for some of the deemed ‘inappropriate music’ and ‘raunchy costumes’ according to entertainment reporter Peter Ford this morning on 2UE’s Steve Price Morning Show.

Australian Idol was also strong claiming 1.3 million viewers while telemovie Scorched which was screened on Nine managed 1.1 million viewers.

The night was close but Nine still managed to defeat Seven by 2.7%, the figures looking like this:

Nine 27.7%

Seven 25.0%

Ten 23.5%

ABC 19.4%

SBS 4.4%

Daniel’s Dancing With the Stars on Sunday’s after Packed to the Rafters?

Daniel McPherson has been announced as the new host of Seven’s popular series, Dancing With the Stars.

Season’s 1-7 have been hosted by Daryl Summers who quit the show at the end of last year. While McPherson has had experience hosting similar formats, the ill-fated Channel Ten, X-Factor, he seems a shock selection after Larry Emdur, David Koch, Ray Martin, Andrew O’Keefe, Tom Williams and Grant Denyer had been mooted as potential replacements for Summers.

McPherson currently appears on Channel Seven’s top-rating drama, City Homicide so will have to juggle his commitments as will co-host Sonia Kruger who now has her own Breakfast radio gig with Judge Todd McKenny and as a reporter for Today Tonight.

Dancing has also been rumored to move from Tuesday’s to Sunday nights but not head-to-head with Australia’s most popular program, 60 Minutes. The role of 60 Minutes challenger maybe reserved for Seven’s new comedy drama, Packed to the Rafters starring Michael Caton, Eric Thompson and Rebecca Gibney.

Kath & Kim have previously succeeded against 60 Minutes but will Rafters have the same affect?

Moving Dancing to 8:30 protects the program from 60 Minutes and also with a younger host and cast for this series, takes the challenge to Rove, although one would imagine the ‘traditional’ audiences of Rove what not be interested in ballroom dancing?

With the appointment of McPherson, one of television’s most converted hosting roles has been filled and starts after the Olympics, stay tuned and good luck Daniel.