National TV Ratings week 40

8Oct07

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Last weekend the AFL and NRL grand finals became the most watched
programs in the country this year, making Ten’s coverage of the Rugby
World Cup look as disastrous as the Wallabies’ campaign.

The Australia-England quarter-final kicked off at the
not-unreasonable hour of 11pm on Saturday but attracted only 795,000
viewers in the five major capitals, leaving it wallowing in 71st
position in last week’s ratings. With England shunting the Wallabies
out of the competition, Ten’s rugby ratings will likely plummet.

Meanwhile, Nine’s coverage of the NRL grand final won the ratings
last week with an average of 2.422 million viewers. The pre-match
entertainment also proved a winner, coming in sixth with about 1.6
million people watching Shannon Noll, Rogue Traders and the Hoodoo
Gurus belt out a song or two.

But the NRL grand final – with two teams from the two biggest
markets – could not draw more viewers than Seven’s AFL decider – which
won the previous week’s ratings.

With Australia out of the Rugby World Cup, Ten can at least draw some solace from Rove McManus’s turn at game-show hosting.

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? drew 1,187,000 viewers last week, losing just 39,000 viewers from its debut the week before.

Seven’s Bionic Woman remake debuted last week, coming in at
No. 7 with 1,590,000 viewers, even though it was missing the
slow-motion "bionic" actions that made the original so great.

Seven won the weekly ratings with 30.5 per cent audience share, followed by Nine with 26.7 per cent and Ten with 20.8 per cent.

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