• First night of Big Brother 2020 sees Seven back in business
• Returning reality show competitive against The Voice & MasterChef
• Big Brother outright Monday #1 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54
Seven News 1,200,000/1,101,000
Nine News 1,098,000/1,041,000
A Current Affair 818,000
ABC News 761,000
The Project 376,000/620,000
7.30 576,000
10 News 565,000/290,000
The Latest 226,000
The Drum 222,000
Sunrise 204,000
SBS World News 185,000
Today 170,000
News Breakfast 167,000
Seven: The Big Brother launch episode eviction segment audience of 930,000 was ahead of its 7.30pm competition The Voice and MasterChef. Seven split the debut episode of Big Brother into three parts:
Big Brother Arrival 853,000
Big Brother 866,000
Big Brother Eviction 930,000
Seven wanted the show to bring the age of its audience down and in that the program excelled. All three segments ranked the top three programs 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54 last night. The program listed Seven’s Monday primary channel share from 17.6% to 20.9% week-on-week.
Angus Ross, Seven’s network programming director commented this morning:
“We’re thrilled with last night’s launch of Big Brother. Big Brother, and our whole content led growth strategy, is about attracting those 25-54s which are key for our partners. Last night, that’s exactly what Big Brother did, as the #1 show for 25-54s as well as being the #1 non-news show for all viewers. On top of that, it was also the #1 show in the younger demographic of P16-39 as well as other key advertising demos. It was also the most-watched live entertainment program on BVOD ever. Big Brother is just getting started and we look forward to continuing to engage viewers as the show progresses.”
Laura Coriakula from Melbourne only lasted one episode of Big Brother, being the first to be eliminated. “I’m very shocked. I did not see that coming,” she said after the show. “I honestly thought the way that Kieran was carrying on I didn’t have to fight. It would have been nice to stay longer but every moment I was being myself. I wasn’t here to fake anything. I like being first at everything so there you go, first evicted.”
See also: Big Brother Ep 1 Recap: In and out as 12 enter and Laura goes home
Elsewhere on Seven last night Home and Away started its week on 669,000 while later in the night 9-1-1 was on 385,000.
Nine: A Current Affair started its week on 818,000 after an average of 731,000 last week. Despite the good audience at 7pm, Nine went on to record its lowest survey primary share this year.
The Voice had a second night under 900,000 with 874,000 on Sunday and now 849,000 on Monday.
The doco Queen: Days of Our Lives got another run later in the night with part one doing 376,000.
10: The MasterChef top 10 went into battle for the first time against each other in a twins challenge. Four people emerged unsuccessful – Sarah, Reece, Poh and Brendan – and will face off in a pressure test tonight which will leave nine contestants. The audience of 855,000 saw MasterChef narrowly outrate The Voice and it was neck and neck with the start of Big Brother.
Have You Been Paying Attention? managed to win its timeslot, although it was with its smallest audience this year and its first time under 800,000.
ABC: The Monday night line-up saw Back Roads taking over from Australian Story at 8pm. The start of season six featured the first part of a trip across the Nullarbor with 655,000 watching.
Four Corners then did 461,000 with Media Watch on 464,000.
Q+A was then on 301,000.
SBS: Secrets of the Royal Wardrobe was the #1 ranked program with 190,000, narrowly ahead of SBS World News on 185,000 and Michael Mosley: Coronavirus Special on 182,000.
