Ready, Set, Ratings 2009

16Feb09

National TV ratings week ending 14 Feb 2009

Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

It was a week of guns, breasts, balls and ashes, with Nine dominating on the first three and Seven dominating on the last for our first week of ratings. Underbelly 2 gave Nine such a commanding lead on Monday, backed up by the cricket, that Seven could not recover, despite strong bushfire coverage.

Nine won the first official ratings week with 31.6 per cent of the prime time audience (Seven 27.5, Ten 20.4, ABC 15.5, SBS 5.0). The ABC is in a slump, with no programs in the top 30 and its million-plus efforts confined to Spicks and Specks and The 7.30 Report. SBS did best with Top Gear (808,000), Mythbusters (473,000), Long Way Down (383,000) and Rockwiz (359,000).

Ten would be disappointed with The Biggest Loser, but delighted with the continuing success of its new 9.30pm shows Lie To Me and Life on Mars. Are brisk three-word titles the new black in television?

The most watched shows on Pay TV last week included Soccer World Cup Qualifier Japan v Aus (Fox Sports 3) 273,000; The Simpsons (Fox 8..) 204,000; NCIS (TV1) 174,000; and Bushfires live coverage (Sky news) 158,000.

What Australia Watched:
1 UNDERBELLY: A TALE OF TWO CITIES -EP1 Nine 2,582,000
2 UNDERBELLY: A TALE OF TWO CITIES -EP2 Nine 2,397,000
3 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Seven 1,896,000
4 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,896,000
5 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,786,000
6 TRIPLE ZERO HEROES Seven 1,725,000
7 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,688,000
8 CUSTOMS Nine 1,671,000
9 SEVEN NEWS – EXTENDED – BUSHFIRE EDITION Seven 1,637,000
10 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,634,000
11 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,608,000
12 ONE DAY CRICKET – AUS V NZ GAME 3 SESSION 2 Nine 1,567,000
13 SEVEN NEWS EXTENDED – BUSHFIRE EDITION Seven 1,539,000 238,000
14 NCIS Ten 1,457,000
15 ONE DAY CRICKET – GAME 4 SESSION 2 Nine 1,444,000

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