Week 35 TV: Seven & Nine tie on primary share, Seven #1 network

hungry ghosts

• Angus Ross, Seven’s network programming director, comments

The arrival of The Block couldn’t win the week for Nine, but it got close. Nine and Seven were tied on a primary share of 19.3% which is a similar result to the previous week ago for Seven and an improvement of 0.6 for Nine.

What stopped Nine getting the primary channel win was Seven’s two-part Farmer Wants a Wife finale which trailed The Block launch on Sunday but then outrated the renovators on the Monday. The AFL was also a factor in Seven’s win again with audiences of close to 500,000 for each of the games covered across Sunday, Thursday and Friday.

10 Bold was the #1 multichannel for 10 just days before it launches 10 Shake in September.

Seven’s trio of multichannels delivered the biggest boost with a combined 9.5% from 7TWO, 7mate and 7flix pushing Seven to a clear network win.

Seven Week 35

Primary share: 19.3% (19.4%)
Network share: 28.9% (28.8%)
Multichannels: 7TWO 3.6% (3.5%) 7mate 3.7% (3.7%) 7flix 2.2% (2.3%)

The return of the Farmer Wants a Wife format to TV wasn’t a huge love hit – just one of the farmers was still with their chosen one in the reunion special. But when it comes to a successful TV production that 1 out of 5 lifts to close to 5 out of 5. The program was well cast and looked great on the screen. The assembled group of production talent might have been too many chiefs, but it seemed to work in Seven’s favour. The show was made by Eureka and Fremantle which brought together Chris Culvenor, Paul Franklin and Ricky Proost with Jonathan Summerhayes who worked with Seven’s Sonya Wilkes with a final tick of approval from Seven’s James Warburton, Angus Ross and Andrew Backwell. Anyway, it worked. And gives Seven a second new 7.30pm format in their schedule after Big Brother. Farmer offered major year on year time slot growth in key demographics and huge audiences on 7plus.

Angus Ross, Seven’s network programming director, said: “We’ve reinvented our 2020 entertainment schedule with proven, powerful formats and Farmer Wants A Wifehas continued the ratings momentum created by our relaunch of Big Brother. Number one nationally, major growth in key demos and streaming numbers that have kept 7plus number one – it’s a multi-platform winner.”

Can Seven do the same with The Voice?

Nine Week 35

Primary share: 19.3% (18.7%)
Network share: 27.7% (27.1)%
Multichannels: GO! 2.5% (2.4%) Gem 2.4% (2.5%) 9Life 2.2% (2.3%) 9Rush 1.2% (1.2%)

The launch of The Block with three episodes lifted Nine’s share, but not by much. The launch episode did 951,000 with the following two episodes each close to 750,000.

The only other non-news offerings close to or over half a million were Halifax-Retribution (521,000 and a second ep on 469,000) and Emergency on 499,000.

ABC Week 35

Primary share: 12.8% (13.2%)
Network share: 17.1% (18.0%)
Multichannels: Kids/Comedy 2.4% (2.6%) ME 0.4% (0.4%) News 1.5% (1.8%)

Hard Quiz cracked 700,000 again, with others over 600,000 Vera, Brush with Fameand Mad As Hell.

10 Week 35

Primary share 10.8% (10.8%)
Network share: 17.0% (16.9%)
Multichannels: Bold 4.0% (3.9%) Peach 2.2% (2.2%)

Despite a Covid-19 shutdown, The Masked Singer had enough in the bank to let 10 continue to roll out episodes. Both reveal segments made it over 800,000 while the rest of both episodes was just over and just under 700,000.

The return of Gogglebox Australia was just over 600,000 while the two episodes of The Bachelor were in the 500,000s.

SBS Week 35

Primary share: 5.8% (5.6%)
Network share: 9.4% (9.1%)
Multichannels: Viceland 1.5% (1.4%) Food 0.9% (1.0%) NITV 0.3% (0.2%) World Movies 1.0% (1.0%)

The World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys was again the channel’s best with 342,000. Great Asian Railway Journeys was not far behind on 296,000.

The channel successfully programmed The Salisbury Poisonings across four successive nights with a solid 257,000 average in the 8.30pm time slot. Not so successful perhaps pushing Matchbox Pictures’ Hungry Ghosts into the 9.30pm slot. It started the week on 131,000 and by Thursday had withered to 87,000.

* Figures in brackets are Week 34 shares.

Top photo: Hungry Ghosts

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