Ratings Roundup: Australia

PREMIUM: Light entertainment airing on Seven led the prime-time ratings in Australia last week, with The X Factor pulling in the biggest audience, excluding news and current-affairs programming. 

Market leader Seven Network’s version of the FremantleMedia format topped the ratings on Monday and Tuesday, pulling 1.588 million and 1.562 million viewers, respectively, in the five mainland metropolitan markets.

Seven topped the ratings again on Wednesday with magic show Cosentino: The Grand Illusionist. The program, starring Paul Cosentino, who was runner-up in the 2011 Australia’s Got Talent, drew 1.285 million viewers, according to OzTAM.

Not counting news or current-affairs programming, Big Brother on Nine Network was the leader on Thursday with 863,000 viewers, and the Australian Football League led Friday for Seven with 1.061 million, while Rugby League on Nine drew 823,000. On Saturday, they switched places with Rugby League number two overall at 1.043 million, followed by AFL with 1.014 million.

The top scripted program of the week was Nine’s comedy-drama series House Husbands on Sunday, which ranked fifth for the day with 1.226 million viewers. Number two of the week was Seven’s drama series Winners and Losers on Tuesday with 1.087 million. Number three was Ireland-U.K. sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys on Sunday with 1.042 million, the top audience for a scripted import.

On Sunday (September 23), in the battle of flagship current-affairs shows, Seven’s Sunday Night was the winner with 1.630 million (biggest audience of any show during the week), while Nine’s 60 Minutes (based on the American model) pulled 1.390 million. Seven and Nine consistently run one-two in the ratings, with market shares over 30 percent, far ahead of the other broadcast networks.

On Monday Nine’s crime series Underbelly (1.013 million) was the top scripted show and U.S. sitcom Modern Family (591,000) on Network Ten was the top scripted import.

On Tuesday, behind Winners and Losers, the top scripted import was U.S. sitcom The Big Bang Theory on Nine (750,000).

Number one among scripted shows Wednesday was long-running soap Home and Away on Seven (964,000), with U.S. police series Criminal Minds on Nine leading the scripted imports (953,000). The same two shows led scripted programming on Thursday.

On Friday, the top scripted show was imported crime series Scott and Bailey from the U.K. on public channel ABC1 with 638,000 viewers (number 11 for the day).

BBC’s Doctor Who on ABC1 was the top scripted television show on Saturday (556,000 at number nine), while U.S. feature Con Air drew 568,000 viewers for Seven (number eight of the day).