Gently goosing the ABC

17Aug09

National Ratings, week ending August 15
Source: David Dale, Sun Herald Blogs

Channel Ten managed only 14.6 per cent of the prime time audience on Friday night, easily beaten by the ABC on 20.4 per cent, thanks to George Gently, its new detective series. No wonder the shares for the week (and probably for the rest of the year) ended up thus: Seven 28.0 per cent, Nine 26.3, Ten 21.6, ABC 17.5 and SBS 6.6. We can expect Celebrity MasterChef to be rushed to air within weeks.

This was Pay TV’s account of itself: “The English Premier League football season kicked off on Saturday night with 76,000 people watching Live: Football: EPL Chelsea v Hull on FOX Sports. In other sport, 316,000 viewers watched Live: NRL Broncos v Sharks, 277,000 watched Live: Cricket: Ashes: Day 3 Session 1 (the biggest audience for the Ashes series so far), 264,000 viewed Live: NRL Raiders v Dragons and 192,000 people saw Live: AFL Bris Lions v Western Bulldogs (all on FOX Sports).

“The Simpsons topped the week in entertainment programming with 150,000 viewers on FOX8, America’s Next Top Model (also on FOX8) was seen by 135,000 people and NCIS on TV1 had 109,000 viewers. Daddy Day Care premiered on TV1 with 107,000 viewers, Disney Channel’s broadcast of The Parent Trap was watched by 95,000 people and Project Runway Australia on Arena was seen by 93,000.

“In week 33, STV channels represented 21.7% of all metropolitan viewing between 6am and midnight, 20.4% of all regional viewing and 56.4% of all viewing in subscription TV homes.”

What Australia Watched:

1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,909,000

2 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Seven 1,672,000

3 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,560,000

4 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,528,000

5 TWO AND A HALF MEN Nine 1,521,000

6 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,508,000

7 TALKIN’ ‘BOUT YOUR GENERATION Ten 1,492,000

8 WORLD’S STRICTEST PARENTS-UK Seven 1,453,000

9 SPICKS AND SPECKS ABC1 1,448,000

10 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,388,000

11 GETAWAY Nine 1,372,000

12 SURF PATROL Seven 1,354,000

13 DOMESTIC BLITZ Nine 1,344,000

14 20 TO 1 Nine 1,334,000

15 AIR WAYS Seven 1,334,000

Popularity: 5%