It was a common joke made at the time towards the end of the 70s but the channel was still coming 3rd, ahead of ABC. Some shows were rating dismally in single figure shares though, no doubt about that.
Ratings apparently didn’t exactly spike up with the change to 10 either.
I remember the backlash here on MS and was replaced on Friday
Also forgot about…
20 January 1986: Neighbours debuts on Network Ten after it had been axed by Seven. Unlike its days on Seven, it was now in a uniform 7.00pm timeslot across the network (4 cities)
Neighbours fan website Perfect Blend has a run down of Episode 171, the first to appear on Ten:
They had to rebuild all the sets because Seven destroyed them.
They are a day late 
Better late than never!
Missed this by just one day, but on January 21, 2005, Jim Waley was dumped as presenter of Nine News Sydney despite winning two from two ratings years quite comfortably.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/nine-dumps-jim-waley-20050121-gdkjdc.html
Fair to say the decision backfired spectacularly given the struggles Mark Ferguson has faced in attracting consistent ratings across two networks since then.
It was a mistake for Nine to dump the ratings-winner Waley for Fergo despite being the king of the 6PM News in Sydney for TCN.
Even more of a mistake for Nine was letting Ian Ross go to Seven when he IMO could’ve been a better replacement for the legendary Brian Henderson.
I reckon, had Waley seen out his contract, it would’ve been set up for Peter Overton to take over in 2008 (he eventually replaced Mark Ferguson in January 2009, a decision that proved to work out in the long term).
22 January 1973: ATN 7 strip programmes $25,000 Great Temptation Monday to Friday at 7.30pm. The 30 minute show, initially a one night a week replacement for Bob Dyer’s long running Pick-A-Box, had aired two nights week in 1972. The one hour daytime version, Temptation, continued to air weekdays. There were fears extending Great Temptation to five nights would kill the franchise and lead to the host of both versions, Tony Barber, being over exposed.
Great Temptation would continue until 1975 in various evening timeslots and the format would return under the name Sale of the Century in 1980 with Tony Barber as host on Nine.
Also on this day in 1973, ATN 7 broadcasts a preview round up of all the new Australian, British and American shows coming to the channel. The 9pm special features excerpts from the shows introduced by Bob Rogers, Tony Barber and Roger Climpson. Boney, Elephant Boy, Catch Kandy, Ghost Story and The Streets of San Francisco are amongst the new titles.
Was Catch Kandy a prime time show? I can remember watching it in the afternoons. Maybe they were repeats a couple of years later.
It was billed by Seven as a “family series” and aired 7pm Saturdays. I remember watching it in the afternoons after school during the late '70s.
Thanks. I wasn’t aware of the night time screening but I was probably too young to remember it. I can remember watching it after school too which is why I thought it might have been one of the first Aussie drama series for children.
What I do remember about that show was that one episode was filmed around Roselands Shopping Centre and that was exciting because I had been there and recognised it. Probably the first time I had ever seen a place I was familiar with, in a TV show.
I remember it featured a lot of on location shooting around Sydney Harbour and Taronga Park Zoo which was probably why it was quite quickly sold to Granada TV for broadcast in Britain.
Their concerns were a bit misplaced as it wasn’t overexposure that killed it. Its ultimate undoing would be in 1974 when 7 bumped it to 8.30pm to try and knock off Number 96 which was at its peak. Both day and nighttime versions of Temptation were gone by the end of 1974.
Tony Barber went on to host a daytime game show, Name That Tune, which didn’t last long. Grundy then revived his TV career in 1977 with Family Feud made at TVW7 in Perth before the show shifted to the Nine Network.
I’ve seen the title in old TV listings but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it or know anything about it. I just looked it up on IMDB and it had some interesting names in it… Shane Porteous, Lyn James, Carmen Duncan, Patrick Ward… all went on to prominent roles in later shows.
I just remember it was about a brother and sister running away from home and surviving on the streets of Sydney. I guess that storyline appealed to me because I often fantasised about doing the same thing. For some reason I also remember being annoyed by continuity errors between the first episode and the rest of the series. I think the kids in the main roles may have had a growth spurt in the time it took for the series to be picked up following production of the pilot.
EDIT: Just noticed some episodes have been uploaded to YouTube recently. Perhaps the continuity issue I remembered was Carmen Duncan being replaced by another actress in episode two. Interesting to see Ruth Cracknell here, too. Episode two was the one filmed at Roselands @JBar mentioned. That in itself is a fascinating look back at 1970s shopping centre design.
Built in 1965, I think it was the first shopping centre of its type in Sydney. It was the largest in the southern hemisphere for a long time. Went out there recently and even with extensions it’s comparably small these days.
24 January 2014 Seven reinstated “The Mission” following viewer backlash over the new theme.