It was rare to see Channel 9 finish to 3rd place in an official ratings week, with 10 nabbing 2nd. In that year (2009), Channel 10 had a very strong lineup thanks to MasterChef Australia, SYTYCDA, The Biggest Loser Australia, AFL, Drama shows. IIRC, Channel 10 had won 2 weeks in 2009 ratings year.
At the end of the official ratings year (2009), Seven won all 5 cities. Nine finished 2nd (except Perth, where it fell to Channel 10).
There was also Talkinâ About Your Generation (TAYG), which rated big for 10 on its 7:30pm Tuesday night timeslot.
It also happened in 2014, when Ten had the Commonwealth Games. Nine still won that week in Sydney, though, with Ten second.
During that week in 2014 Games, who won the week in terms of (5-city metro)?
Ten. It was first in Melbourne and Brisbane; Seven won Adelaide and Perth and Nine took out Sydney. Ten was higher than Nine elsewhere.
If my memory/knowledge of Australian TV in 2009 is correct, it wouldâve been the week Matthew Johns resigned from Nine (although did have an interview with Tracy Grimshaw on ACA shortly afterwards) due to the fallout from that major scandal and Four Corners story?
Correct. Seven won all the other markets that week.
Peter Overton even had a win against Ian Ross on one of the nights.
Some 1986 ratings numbers for Survey 4, 1986, Brisbane and Perth
In Brisbane, Seven wins in prime time but Nine wins overall (just!). Nineâs afternoon looks unbeatable, no doubt with Midday, Days Of Our Lives and The Young And The Restless. Seven relying largely on midday movies and re-runs through to the kids shows after school.
In Perth, Seven wins across the board but Nine is a close 2nd in prime time and only 3 points behind overall. Seven wins afternoons with US soaps Another World, Days Of Our Lives and The Young And The Restless, while Nine has Midday and a 1.30pm movie.
Source: B&T, 29 August 1986
Some early ratings results for Blankety Blanks which had debuted only a few months earlier. It was not common for magazines like TV Times to publish ratings numbers so this was pretty rare. Newspapers seemed to have a tiny bit more licence to do so via weekly summaries in the Green Guide, etc., but magazines never went into much detail with ratings.
Source: TV Times, 21 May 1977
Any reason they didnât fly him to and from Sydney?
Maybe he liked the train?
Hmm maybe he didnât like flying. Just an odd observation.
A private cabin overnight on the Southern Aurora would be a lot more flash than flying an hour or so to Sydney.
At the risk of spamming the forum, I recently stumbled on an old Mediaweek magazine and did a wrap up of the ratings for that week
Those ratings really show how much the TV landscape has fragmented over the past 17 years or so.
Individual Sydney & Melbourne market figures of over 700k for the Sunday night episode of The Block. These days, many shows would be happy to receive 700k across all five metro markets!
2.4m just for a regular episode.
Such a world away from where we are at now.
For some context of course, back then there were no FTA multi-channels (except for SBS World News Channel) and streaming just wasnât a thing.
AFHV was a popular show back then in the old Hey Hey time slot at 6.30pm for Saturday night entertainment.
2003 was not a good year for Seven
Indeed, thatâs important to keep in mind.
Most Australian households still wouldâve been watching via analogue TV in 2003, probably on those silver coloured 4.3 CRTs (hard to imagine watching one now, I know) I seem to recall being popular around then. Flat screens werenât really prominent for another year or two and even then, it was far more common than not to see analogue 4.3 stretched to 16.9 on those for several years after - probably until early last decade.
Less people though. Over 1m more in Sydney now compared to 2003. 1.5m more in Melbourne
FTA only have themselves to blame.
2003 - when people sat down and actually watched tv. lol. Australian Drama rated well (Blue Heelers and All Saints). Movies rated too - 3 movies rated over 975,000 (True Lies, Shaft and The Generalâs Daughter).
Variety TV was a must watch - with over a million people watching - Rove and The Panel.
