Glenn Dyer’s TV ratings: too many restaurants

Quite a few reputations whacked last night — from the Australian cricket team to Restaurant Revolution on Seven and The Hotplate on Nine, How To Behave Badly on the ABC, to Go Back To Where You Came From. Possibly the only program whose reputation was “enhanced” from last night was the return of the meat market, AKA The Bachelor, which easily accounted for the two restaurant shows on Nine and Seven, which both deserved good whacking.

The national TV audience for the third test halved from the end of the first session (1.026 million) as the Australian position at lunch worsened at an alarming rate. The second session averaged 485,000 national viewers. After the appalling effort from the Australians overnight, how many viewers will return tonight?

Thanks to the cricket on Gem, Nine won the night easily in metros. Seven faded and Ten held up, as did the ABC. In the regionals, the split with big city audiences again showed up with viewers outside the capital cities supporting Seven and its restaurant show. With the cricket Nine was a narrow winner in the regions but in the main channels, Seven won. However in the metros, not one Seven program could manage a million or more viewers last night. Go Back To Where You Came From on SBS ONE dropped 120,000 viewers for episode two last night — 433,000 nationally from the 553,000 start on Tuesday — too predictable. And the latest episode of How Not To Behave on ABC at 8pm averaged 617,000 and is starting to look like how not to rate. There are a total of 15 episodes of this one which has the smell of Tractor Monkeys about it — interesting idea but why is it still on air?

The Bachelor started its 2015 season with a national audience of 1.104 million. The first session of the test had 1.026 million nationally on Gem. The second episode of The Hotplate on Nine’s main channel had 920,000 and the second episode of Restaurant Revolution had 783,000. In the regionals, Home and Away (1.178 million nationally, but it beat them all bar the news and ACA) was tops with 473,000 viewers, the Test cricket had 322,000, Restaurant Revolution had 268,000, The Bachelor had 258,000, The 7pm part of The Project had 248,000 and 7.30 had 344,000.  So The Hotplate had the least support last night in the regionals, which is an accurate reflection of the content. Restaurant Revolution though was supported by rusted-on Seven viewers.

At breakfast, Seven did have a sliver of good news as Sunrise with 337,000 had its biggest win over Today (289,000) for a couple of weeks.

Network channel share:

1. Nine (33.4%)
2. Seven (23.3%)
3. Ten (19.8%)
4. ABC (16.7%)
5. SBS (6.8%)

Network main channels:

1. Nine (15.7%)
2. Seven (15.0%)
3. Ten (14.7%)
4. ABC 1 (11.4%)
5. SBS ONE (5.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. Gem (12.9%)
2. 7TWO (5.0%)
3. GO (4.9%)
4. ABC2 (3.6%)
5. 7mate (3.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Nine News 6.30 — 1.492 million
2. Seven News — 1.265 million
3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.185 million
4. ABC  News — 1.182 million
5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.178 million
6. The Bachelor (Ten) — 1.104 million
7. Nine News 6.30 — 1.077 million
8. Third Ashes Test Day 1, Session 1 (Gem) — 1.026 million
9. Hot Seat (Nine) — 958,000
10. Seven News/Today Tonight — 950,000

Top metro programs:

1. Nine News 6.30 — 1.077 million
2. Nine News — 1.061 million
3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.017 million

Losers: Seven. Now, the start of the third test on Gem did skew audiences figures last night. That’s true. But there was enough evidence from the night’s data to make a couple of points. The first is that if the two restaurant programs on Nine and Seven (and especially Seven’s Restaurant Revolution) were attractive enough to viewers, they would have started stronger on Tuesday night and held on to more viewers last night than they did, even with the cricket on Gem. They didn’t and The Bachelor did better because it skews towards 16 to 39 viewers, who don’t much like cricket, especially female viewers. And yet they are the group the two restaurant programs really need. Seven’s effort is in desperate need of some mouth to mouth work — even without the cricket, it will struggle — the concept is really My Restaurant Rules from 11 years ago. The Hotplate on Nine is nothing to write home about either. Soft, looking like a direct pinch from My Kitchen Rules meets Masterchef meets Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. In fact both programs are not a patch on the recent series of restaurant nightmares experienced by Mr Ramsay. Both are going to be ratings nightmares for their respective networks. And to think the commercial networks want the Federal government to get rid of the remaining 4.5% licence fees to produce more hotplates and revolting restaurants. It will be used to fatten bottom lines, pay bankers and maintain shareholder dividends. Spare me days, please.Metro news and current affairs:

1. Nine News 6.30 — 1.077 millions
2. Nine News — 1.061 million
3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.017 million
4. Seven News — 973,000
5. Seven News/Today Tonight — 905,000
6. 7pm ABC News  — 790,000
7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 683,000
8. 7.30 (ABC) — 604,000
9. Ten Eyewitness News — 598,000
10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 483,000

Morning TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) – 337,000
2. Today (Nine) – 289,000
3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 132,000
4. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  81,000 + 36,000 on News 24) — 117,000
5. Mornings (Nine) — 108,000
6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 60,000

Top five pay TV channels:

1. LifeStyle  (2.2%)
2. Fox8  (2.0%)
3. A&E, UKTV, TV HITS, Crime and Investigation (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 96,000
2. Peppa Pig (Nick Jr) — 89,000
3. Peppa Pig (Nick Jr) — 78,000
4. Sterlo: On The Couch (Fox Sports 1) — 73,000
5. Paw Patrol (Nick Jr) — 71,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) and network reports.