The TV Ratings Race 25 Oct 2008
28Oct08

National TV ratings: source David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

Channel Nine knows it can’t possibly win the ratings year, but it’s trying a few tricks to make the defeat less humiliating. Last week the strategy came unstuck. After finding its new crime series The Mentalist was pulling 1.4 million viewers on Sunday night, Nine moved it to Wednesday to take on Seven’s Criminal Minds. But 400,000 viewers did not join it on the journey. Minds kept its 1.3 million and The Mentalist plummeted to 986,000.

Seven averaged 30.6 per cent of the prime time audience for the week, while Nine got 26.5, Ten got 20.3, ABC got 17.5 and SBS got 5.0.

The ABC was delighted to discover that 1.2 million Australians in the mainland capitals were curious about what happened to Harold Holt. The Prime Minister Is Missing didn’t reveal much that was new — except that Normie Rowe is almost as good an actor as he is a singer — but made a strong case for future documentaries about great Australian mysteries. The ABC also scored with Spicks and Specks (1.2m) and its News (1 million, equal with the once mighty Nine news).

The most watched shows of the week, as usual, belonged to Seven: Packed to the Rafters , Find My Family, The Force and The Zoo (full Top 40 chart below). Channel Ten’s best performers were NCIS and Australian Idol . For SBS, Top Gear Australia has crashed to 598,000, which would be a summons to the axeman on any other commercial network.

Most watched shows on Pay TV were America’s Next Top Model (213,000 for Fox 8), The Simpsons (204,000 for Fox and the cricket test in India (202,000 for Fox Sports 2).

What Australia watced, week ending October 25
1 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,867,000
2 FIND MY FAMILY Seven 1,826,000
3 THE FORCE Seven 1,760,000
4 THE ZOO – TUE Seven 1,718,000
5 BORDER SECURITY Seven 1,679,000
6 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,496,000
7 THE MENTALIST Sunday Nine 1,465,000
8 CITY HOMICIDE Seven 1,437,000
9 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED EP2 Nine 1,428,000
10 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,406,000
11 60 MINUTES Nine 1,359,000
12 TWO AND A HALF MEN -WED Nine 1,348,000
13 CSI Nine 1,343,000
14 SEVEN NEWS – SUN Seven 1,332,000
15 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,322,000