sonia kruger
Big Brother host Sonia Kruger (Image: Seven)

Big Brother ended for Seven last night and the final night “enjoyed” the same sort of reception from viewers than other “reality” programs have enjoyed — fewer viewers.

The winner’s announcement averaged 1.02 million nationally and the finale averaged averaged 982,000 for a program average of 1 million. Seven of course didn’t compare the performance with 2020 — last year’s hacking of Nielsen data meant the full national numbers weren’t released for days after the final went to air

But the metro data is available for comparative purposes. In 2020 the program averaged 876,000 for the winner’s announcement and 726,000 for the lead-up finale. That gave a program average of 801,000. Last night Big Brother program averaged 769,000 for the winner’s announcement and 672,000 for the finale, a program average in the metros of 721,000. The 80,000 fall was a loss of 10%. Not bad, but not a good look for the final when interest is supposed to be at its highest.

But once again, the real story was the surge in early evening viewer numbers for the night’s broadcasts from 5pm to 8pm. Well over 600,000 more viewers tuned into the ABC, Seven, Nine and Ten News, ACA, The Project and 7.30 — the driven by COVID-19 lockdowns and updates. Around 80,000 extra viewers tuned in to breakfast programs — around half of that switched on to ABC News Breakfast. Mornings on Seven saw another 300,000-plus national audience and ABC News from 9am to around 10am averaged 400,000 nationally.

Breakfast: Sunrise, 474,000/282,000; Today, 322,000/210,000; News Breakfast, 274,000/177,000.

Regional top five: Seven News, 646,000; Seven News 6.30, 602,000; Home and Away, 415,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 354,000; 7pm ABC News, 330,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.9%)
  2. Nine (27.4%)
  3. Ten (17.3%)
  4. ABC (16.9%)
  5. SBS (8.5%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (20.7%)
  2. Ninen (19.0%)
  3. ABC (12.1%)
  4. Ten (11.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.1%)

Top 5 digital channels:

  1. Gem (4.1%)
  2. 7TWO (3.8%)
  3. 7Mate (3.3%)
  4. 10 Bold (2.9%)
  5. 10 Peach (2.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.900 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.768 million
  3. Nine News — 1.526 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.422 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.133 million
  6. 7pm ABC News — 1.125 million
  7. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.078 million
  8. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.043 million
  9. Big Brother Winner (Seven) — 1.025 million
  10. Big Brother Finale (Seven) — 982,000

Top metro programs:
1. Seven News — 1.243 million
2. Nine News — 1.187 million
3. Seven News 6.30 — 1.076 million
4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.076 million.

Losers: The Weakest Link — 387,000 nationally – who cares?

Metro news and current affair

  1. Seven News — 1.243 million
  2. Nine News —1.187 million
  3. Seven News 6.30 — 1.149 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.076 million
  5. ACA (Nine) — 813,000
  6. 7pm ABC News — 757,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 603,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 519,000
  9. Ten News First (ABC) — 435,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 355,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 485,000/293,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 347,000/230,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 337,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC) —318,000/212,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 199,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 50,000

Top five Pay TV programs:

  1. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 79,000
  2. Credlin (Sky News) — 72,000
  3. Alan Jones (Sky News) — 71,000
  4. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 67,000
  5. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 58,000