Australians were more interested in watching commercial TV reality programs than this year’s Treasurer’s Budget Speech that was broadcast live on ABC last night.
The 7.30 telecast drew an estimated metropolitan audience of 695,000 down from 733,000 last year and 947,000 in 2014. It was beaten at 7.30pm by Nine’s The Voice with 1,275,000 viwers, Ten’s MasterChef with an audience of 948,000 and narrowly by Seven’s House Rules with 702,000.
The ABC budget special that followed drew an audience of 580,000 while Nine’s late night Budget Special had an audience of just 245,000.
Nine was the most popular network in a fairly close contest with 27.9% ahead of Seven that dropped to 26.8% while Ten had its best Tuesday of the 2016 survey on 21.5%. ABC also notched up a Tuesday high of 18.3% while SBS had 5.6%.
Also on Nine, Nine News (1,102,000 and 1,088,000) and A Current Affair (987,000) were top ten entries for the network with the first episode of Lip Sync Battle on 735,000 dropping to 408,000 for the second. The afternoon’s Hot Seat saw 638,000 tune in.
Seven News (1,211,000 and 1,070,000) and Home and Away (851,000) were best for Seven while Seven Year Switch (820,000) improved on its lead in from House Rules (702,000). Later, Best Bits managed 292,000 while The Chase had a 2016 high of 716,000 at 5.30 after 408,000 tuned in at 5pm.
Over on Ten, following MasterChef, NCIS averaged 639,000 with The Project next best on 619,000 and 437,000. Earlier, Family Feud had 579,000 and Ten Eyewitness News 566,000 with NCIS Los Angeles later on 427,000 and 255,000.
ABC’s Federal Budget-dominated night also included ABC News with 864,000 and Foreign Correspondent on 463,000. Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery averaged 376,000 with Antiques Roadshow on 348,000.
SBS’s schedule was topped by Great Continental Railway Journeys (275,000), Insight (204,000), and Dateline (173,000).
At breakfast Nine’s Today recorded its biggest audience since February 2015 with 382,000 ahead of Seven’s Sunrise that had 351,000.
Following, Today Extra had 152,000, The Morning Show 147,000 while Studio 10 had 60,000.
See [Tuesday 3 May 2016] (http://forums.mediaspy.org/t/tuesday-3-may-2016/1238)for a more detailed look at the ratings numbers in the Media Spy forums.
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