Viewers tune-out of At Home With Julia despite furore

The publicity (thanks to Channel Nine, the Murdoch tabloids and several silly Federal Opposition backbenchers) about the nude under the flag scene on At Home With Julia just didn't have an impact.

The Winners: Seven’s night, easily. Ten’s and Nine’s audiences fell sharply, especially Nine’s.

Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.198 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.189 million
The Gruen Transfer (ABC) (9pm) — 1.162 million
Spicks and Specks (ABC) (8.30pm) — 1.074 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.048 million
World Strictest Parents (Seven) (7.30pm) –1.004 million

The Losers: A weak night. Nine and Ten were weak, as expected.

Take Ten: Glee returned for the new season; straight from the US to just 760,000 viewers. That was third. The Renovators at 7.30pm, 754,000.

And Nine: Ocean Giants Nine at 7.30pm, 693,000. 90 minutes of RPA on Nine from 8.30pm, 591,000. Who Do You Think You Are at 10pm, 238,000. That was fourth.

It was another night where the schedule was strewn with flops.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney by 40,000, but not solely because of the 15,000 margin Hot Seat had over Deal Or No Deal from 5.30pm to 6pm. In Melbourne, Seven news had a huge 116,000 margin over Nine News, 368,000 to 252,000.

Today Tonight won everywhere, including a massive 140,000 margin in Melbourne over ACA: 335,000 to 195,000. In fact, A Current Affair had another night with less than a million viewers, its 12th night in a row in that position. Its last million-viewer audience was on September 6 when it had 1.06 million people. This is said to be its worst ratings run on record.

Today and Sunrise suddenly moved much closer yesterday morning: it was a case of Sunrise losing viewers and Today adding them.

Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.198 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.189 million
Nine News (6pm) — 915,000
ABC News (7pm) — 906,000
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 816,000
The 7PM Project (Ten) (7pm) — 689,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 598,000 (+ 27,000 on News 24 simulcast)
Ten News (5pm) –492,000
6.30 with George Negus (Ten, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 340,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 203,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 202,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 175,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 94,000 (+ 23,000 on news 24 at 8.30pm)
SBS News (9.30pm) — 78,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 361,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 356,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 32.9%, from Nine (3) on 22.1%, Ten (3) was on 20.8%, the ABC (4) was on 20.0% and SBS (2) was on 4.2%. Seven leads the week with 33.3% from Nine on 27.2% and Ten with 18.8%.
Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 23.2% from Nine on 15.9%, ABC 1 was on 15.5%, Ten was on 13.7% and SBS ONE on 3.5%. Seven leads the week on 25.7%, Nine was on 21.4% and Ten on 13.0%.
Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 5.1%, from Eleven with 4.8%, 7mate on 4.5%, GO on 3.7%, ABC 2 on 3.2%, Gem in 2.4%, ONE on 2.3%, ABC 3 on 0.7%, SBS TWO on 0.7% and News 24 on 0.6%. That’s an FTA viewing share last night of a high 28.1%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.3%, from Eleven on 3.7% and 7mate on 3.4%.
Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 33.0%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 27.5%, the ABC (4) was on 18.3%, SC Ten (3) was on 16.9% and SBS (4) ended on 4.3%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 23.2%, from WIN/NBN on 20.3% and ABC 1 on 13.2%. SC Ten was on 11.3%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.0% from GO on 4.5% and 7mate on 4.2%. The 10 digital channels had a total share of 28.7% in prime time last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week on 33.9% from WIN/NBN on 29.3%. The five most watched programs in regional areas last night were: 1. World’s Strictest Parents — 462,000; 2. Seven News — 459; 3. ACA — 456; 4. Home and Away — 435,000; 5. Nine News, 423,000.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 26.7%, from Nine (3) on 17.9%, Ten (3) was on 16.9%, the ABC (4) was on 16.3%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 16.2% and SBS (2) was on 3.4%. The 15 FTA channels had an 83.8% share of TV viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a high 23.2%, the five pay channels, 60.6%. Nearly 40% of last night’s TV audiences were not watching the main channel offerings of the five networks.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (2.91%)
TV1 (2.50%)
Lifestyle (2.21%)
111 Hits (2.04%)
UK TV (1.98%)

The top five pay TV programs were:

AFL: AFL 360 (Fox Sports 1) — 101,000
EastEnders (UKTV) — 81,000
Coronation St (UKTV) — 77,000
MASH (Fox Classics) — 74,000
The School Of Rock (Nickelodeon) — 73,000

Major Markets: A clean sweep by Seven. It won overall and in the main channels in every market. Nine was second overall in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Ten was second in Brisbane and Nine was third. Ten was third everywhere bar Melbourne where it shared that spot with the ABC. The ABC was third everywhere in the main channels behind Nine in second, except Brisbane where it was second. 7TWO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, while 7mate won Perth. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten in every metro market.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The so-called flag episode of At Home With Julia didn’t rate well. The 773,000 viewers last night was down 116,000 on last week and down from the opening audience of 1.066 million. The publicity (thanks to Channel Nine, the Murdoch tabloids and several silly federal opposition backbenchers) about the nude under the flag scene just didn’t have an impact. Viewers voted with their remotes. But it still won the 9.30pm timeslot because the commercial network’s programs were so poor. Poh’s Kitchen on the Road at 8pm, up to 555,000.

The ABC had another good night showing programs that work with viewers. the most popular program, The Gruen Transfer is an outsourced program from Andrew Denton’s company, so what do the ABC luvvies say about that?.

The top five programs nationally were:

Seven News — 1.772 million
The Gruen Transfer — 1.554 million
Home and Away — 1.552 million
World’s Strictest Parents — 1.514 million
Spicks and Specks — 1.492 million

Late night news blues. The death Channel Ten’s late news means no commercial network will have a late news broadcast, leaving SBS’s 9.30pm broadcast as the only sole news program. Lateline has a news component at the top of its broadcast. News 24 of course has news through the evening. But it’s pretty weak when neither Seven, Nine and Ten can be bothered with a late-night news broadcast in this country. Next 6.30 with George Negus? Its recent fade in the ratings puts it in the gun at the increasingly nervous network.

Tonight: Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year special on Nine, then The AFL and NRL Footy Shows. Four Weddings on Seven returns. Ten has Rush, after The Renovators. The ABC has Crownies, SBS has Gourmet Farmer.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports