Australian TV ratings ending 18 Oct 2008

21Oct08

In last Tuesday’s episode of Packed To The Rafters, the mother (Rebecca Gibney) refused to watch a Channel Seven show, City Homicide. Her opinion was apparently shared by 200,000 mainland capital viewers, who deserted CH on Monday for Nine’s new season of CSI.

Not that CH’s slippage to 1.4 million worried Seven, which still had nine of the ten most watched programs of the week (topped by Rafters and Find My Family ). Its major disappointment would have been the 1.2 million for the US version of Kath and Kim, which drew 700,000 less than our own hotties last year. On its second Sunday, KKUSA dropped to 729,000, which is an invitation to the axeman. And that was with Kevin Rudd as a lead-in, drawing 1.1 million to a Seven news special.

Nine’s top show was Wednesday’s Two and A Half Men but The Mentalist did so well on Sunday (1.3m) that Nine has decided to make it the replacement for Fringe (which drew only 679,000 last Wednesday). Last night The Mentalist’s audience grew to 1.4 million. Can it do as well up against Criminal Minds on Wednesday?

Channel Ten had a surprise hit with the obscure kidflick Nanny McPhee (1 million on Friday) which we can attribute to the Emma Thompson factor. Ten’s other comforts were NCIS (1.3m) and Australian Idol (1.2m) but former heroes House (885,000), Jamie Oliver (700,000), and Californication (523,000) continued to disappoint.

The ABC triumphed with Spicks and Specks, Midsomer Murders and the 7pm news. For SBS, Top Gear Australia (668,000) attracted 300,000 fewer than its British role model – a case of cultural cringe, or presenters who are trying too hard? The First Australians drew 343,000, which was a strong score for SBS and would be spectacular for Pay TV, which did best with Australia’s world cup soccer qualifier (293,000 for Fox Sports 2), the Indian cricket test session 3 (264,000 for Fox Sports 2), The Simpsons (191,000 on Fox and Octopussy (167,000 on Fox classics).

Seven averaged 30.1 per cent of the prime time audience, with Nine on 25.3, Ten on 20.5, ABC on 18

What Australia watched, week ending October 18
1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,881,000
2 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,831,000
3 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Seven 1,626,000
4 RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE Seven 1,615,000
5 THE FORCE – BEHIND THE LINE Seven 1,581,000
6 BORDER SECURITY – AUSTRALIA’S FRONT LINE Seven 1,526,000
7 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,524,000
8 MINDING YOUR MONEY – SEVEN NEWS SPECIAL Seven 1,493,000
9 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 1,453,000
10 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED EP2 Nine 1,451,000
11 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,411,000
12 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 1,401,000
13 CITY HOMICIDE Seven 1,398,000
14 MEDICAL EMERGENCY Seven 1,391,000
15 60 MINUTES Nine 1,358,000

Popularity: 1%