The Australian has an article summarises the first quarter that singles out The Newsreader for special attention
ABC drama The Newsreader takes a ratings hit as reality TV and sport dominate
Some excerpts from a long article:
Reality TV and sport dominate the TV ratings for the first quarter of 2025 as commercial broadcasters managed to hold or increase share at the expense of ABC and SBS.
The good news for broadcasters is that the total number of people watching climbed year on year. Comparing the first 13 weeks of 2024 and 2025, commercial broadcasters all attracted more viewers than the same time last year: Nine (+6 per cent), Seven (+5 per cent) and Network 10 (+4 per cent).
So too did ABC (+3 per cent). The outlier was SBS with a dip (-2 per cent).
The Newsreader has been the sole Australian drama premiere in that period. After securing a national audience of 800,000 for the launch of season two, the series never dipped below 500,000. (All figures quoted are for national audience, Total TV.)
But season three of the show only managed to climb above 500,000 once — the launch episode, which drew 644,000.
The TV hit of the first quarter of the year has been season 12 of Nine’s Married At First Sight. The series again topped the ratings, and barring an upset, will also be the year’s most watched television on free-to-air outside football finals and the State of Origin.
The MAFS audience average was over 2.3 million for every night of the week it screened.
The next best non-sport or news related content in the first three months of the year was Seven’s Australian Idol which averaged over 1 million viewers on Sunday and Monday nights.
Joining MAFS at the top of the first quarter ratings rankings were Test cricket and the Australian Open tennis tournament.
Network 10’s best across the 13 weeks was the launch episode of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! on 1.09 million, followed by the Australian Grand Prix on 1.06 million.
There was a gap then to 10’s Sam Pang Tonight which launched with an audience of 1 million before tumbling to 707,000 in week two.
One bright spot for the ABC was the performance of Darby and Joan, the drama made by CJZ featuring Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi. It was initially launched on streaming service Acorn TV in 2022.