Seven wins ‘11

No surprises for anyone to read that the Seven Network has come out as the overall winner in the 2011 ratings battle – its fifth annual win in a row.

Seven ends the year (Weeks 7-48, excluding Easter, 6pm-12mn, 5 cities) with a 31.0% share, followed by Nine (26.3%), Ten (21.4%), ABC (15.9%) and SBS (5.4%).  For Seven it’s an increase from last year’s share of 28.7% while Nine, ABC and SBS recorded drops compared to 2010, and Ten rose only slightly from 21.2% as it launched its new channel Eleven this year and revamped former sports channel One.

Broken down to individual channels, Seven (23.0%) was ahead of Nine (19.5%), Ten (15.8%), ABC1 (12.4%), SBS One (4.6%), 7TWO (4.6%), GO! (4.0%), Eleven (3.5%), 7mate (3.4%), Gem (2.8%), ABC2 (2.3%), One (2.1%), SBS Two (0.8%), ABC News 24 (0.7%) and ABC3 (0.6%).  The growth in the multi-channel audiences has seen all primary channels recording a decline on 2010’s numbers.

7TWO overtook Nine’s GO! as the top-rated multi-channel, while Ten’s new youth-themed channel Eleven ends its first year in third spot.

It was a year where Seven could do little wrong, achieving a clean sweep of 40 overall prime-time wins out of 40 weeks, due to a strong early evening line-up of Seven News, Today Tonight and Home And Away and its reality portfolio – The Amazing Race: Australia, Dancing With The Stars (pictured), My Kitchen Rules, Australia’s Got Talent and a revamped The X Factor – all performing well giving the network a massive lead up to mid-evening.  Thursday nights got a boost with Beauty And The Geek, and the long-running Better Homes And Gardens gave Seven a boost on Fridays.

Seven also scored a massive hit on Sunday nights with British series Downton Abbey.

Drama series Packed To The Rafters was still a standout performer but didn’t rate quite as well as in 2010, having lost a number of key cast members in the last year, and with some risky scheduling by Seven that saw the series given a lengthy mid-season break and then winding up the 2011 series prematurely.  But the mid-season break for Rafters saw it replaced by the new series Winners And Losers, a strong ratings performer though not a match for Rafters.

In the morning battle, Sunrise is still dominant in the breakfast timeslot nationally but Nine’s Today is performing stronger in Sydney and Melbourne.  The Morning Show continues to rule the mid-morning timeslot, claiming victory over Nine’s Kerri-Anne (which was cancelled last week) and The Circle.

But not everything quite went Seven’s way.  The network’s new period drama Wild Boys, featuring Daniel MacPherson and former Rafters star Zoe Ventoura, got off to a strong start but failed to maintain an audience and will not return in 2012.  Game show Deal Or No Deal, once a dominant performer at 5.30pm, is fading against Hot Seat, and drama series City Homicide went out with a whimper.  And last week’s special Kyle And Jackie O’s Night With The Stars was presented with a lead-in of two million viewers (with the “winner announced” on The X Factor) but saw viewers switch off in droves.

New imported series No Ordinary Family, Detroit 187, Teen Wolf, Suits and Law And Order: LA all failed to click with viewers. 

For the Nine Network the year started confidently, with promises that the network would be the “home of comedy” in 2011.  It was soon apparent, however, that the only ones laughing were the other networks.  The supposed flagship of the new comedy line-up, Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth, was a spectacular dud, even leading to a public apology by Elton himself, and was axed after only three weeks.  New US shows $#*! My Dad Says and Mike And Molly also failed.

The once dominant US sitcom Two And A Half Men was on the decline on the back of the Charlie Sheen scandal and his subsequent sacking from the series, but The Big Bang Theory – ironically from the same producer as Men – became a strong performer, to the point where Nine has become somewhat over-reliant on its popularity, ended the ratings year with 14 episodes scheduled in prime-time over five nights.

The multi-million dollar deal which saw Hamish Blake and Andy Lee come across from the Ten Network saw their new series Hamish And Andy’s Gap Year start to a strong ratings result but overall popularity waned as the series progressed, although it rated well in younger demographics.

The Joy Of Sets with Tony Martin and Ed Kavalee promised a humourous and affectionate look at the various aspects of television, but viewers didn’t take to it at all with later episodes playing out in a late-night timeslot.

Nine’s first half of the year was also not helped by lack lustre performances by new Eddie McGuire vehicles Million Dollar Drop, Between The Lines and a revival of This Is Your Life.

Nine had some smiles, however, by strong ratings for the ongoing Underbelly franchise, with a series of telemovies and the 1920s-themed series Underbelly: Razor rating well. 

The TV Week Logie Awards rated well (1,323,000, over four hours) up against the series return of MasterChef Australia (1,569,000, 90 minutes), while the NRL State Of Origin series returned excellent figures with all three games well exceeding the 2 million viewer mark.

But while the first half of the year was not a great one for Nine, its second half was  somewhat better and can be largely attributed to adopting the reality genre in the stripped 7.00pm timeslot, starting with a new-look The Block which became a ratings hit.  Some strategic coding by Nine in the ratings system has seen The Block – The Winner Announced claim the #1 program of the year – all seven minutes of it.

(Such coding of programs, a tactic employed by all three commercial networks, have made a mess of the Top 20 list – as below – where individual episodes of series and specific segments of special events are singled out to give them higher or multiple positions in the rankings.)

Nine then used the 7.00pm timeslot for its late-year series Celebrity Apprentice, also returning strong results. The popularity in the reality genre for Nine will see it launch an Australian version of singing competition The Voice, and reviving Big Brother in 2012.

But while it was a year that Seven could do little wrong, for Network Ten it was a year where there was little they could get right.  The network’s heavy investment in expanding its news and current affairs portfolio saw 6PM With George Negus (later 6.30) fail to maintain any audience traction up against the tabloid opposition, although the network should at least be credited for attempting to lift the bar in the standard of prime-time current affairs reporting and giving the show a fair run before finally axing it in October.

The 6.30pm Ten Evening News failed to click with viewers and was axed after two months, and Ten’s subsequent extension of the 5.00pm bulletin to a 90-minute format saw its numbers drop considerably.  The mess of the network’s weekend newscasts, which saw the national 5.00pm newscast dropped and then re-instated and the 6.00pm state-based bulletins launched and then dropped in favour of an extended national news bulletin, has not done it any favours either. 

The 7PM Project has now been extended to an hour, and re-named The Project.  Its overall average has dropped as a result and it is to be seen if the expanded format can build on its numbers in 2012.

Ten’s reality giant MasterChef Australia was back for a third series this year.  Although the program continued to rate well, the mood of the audience was well down on previous years and the show’s finale – split into two shows to ‘force’ viewers to sample The Renovators sandwiched in between – rated well lower than the two previous season finals and its Junior MasterChef spin-off also failed to maintain a strong audience.

The new show The Renovators (pictured) promised to do for home makeovers what MasterChef did with cooking – crank the challenges, production values and the budget to the hilt, and to saturate the schedule.  The problem was that viewers didn’t take to The Renovators as they had come to adopt MasterChef, therefore dragging down Ten’s entire schedule.  It will also be no coincidence that Nine’s revamped The Block made its debut just prior to The Renovators and hence stole much of its thunder.

Ten’s drama slate has looked somewhat depleted this year, with Neighbours being moved across to Eleven.  Ten’s second series of Offspring was a strong performer and will be back next year, but action-packed police drama Rush again failed to gain a decent audience and will not appear in 2012.

Apart from MasterChef’s two-part finale, Ten’s only appearance in the year-end Top 20 was the AFL Grand Final, ending the network’s ten-year association with the league as the free-to-air rights next year go solely to Seven.

Ten’s re-working of comedy show Good News Week into Good News World was a critical and ratings disaster, while the new topical discussion show Can Of Worms got a modest audience response but was not helped by some erratic scheduling.  The second series of the Australian version of Undercover Boss also failed to rate with viewers.

The network did have better results with the return of The Biggest Loser and Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation.

Imported shows Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-O, The Defenders and Ringer have also returned poor results, while the big-budget series Terra Nova – filmed on location in Australia – started strongly but has failed to maintain viewers’ interest.

Over at ABC ratings are not of primary concern but the ABC1 channel has scored some critical and ratings hits during the year.  The two-part series Paper Giants: The Birth Of Cleo (pictured) was a ratings hit in April, while the eight-part adaptation of the book The Slap was widely acclaimed and received strong Thursday night figures for the broadcaster.

The long-running Spicks And Specks also rated well during the year with its final-ever episode last week scoring over 1.5 million viewers.  The Gruen Transfer and its spin-off Gruen Planet were also popular on Wednesday nights.

Highlights for SBS during the year included Cadel Evans’ victory in the Tour de France (704,000), followed by documentary series Go Back To Where You Came From (pictured), where six Australians were taken on a reverse journey of those taken by refugees that have landed at our shores.

In digital multi-channels, the most-watched broadcast was Day 9 of Wimbledon on 7TWO, attracting 737,000 viewers, followed by movies Transformers and 2012 on GO!.  Neighbours was a consistent performer for Eleven, often winning nightly digital channel rankings but its average over the year saw it ranked at the 10th most popular program on digital channels for the year.

But the biggest TV event of the year is one that fell outside of the official ratings survey.  The April wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, with coverage across four free-to-air networks and a number of pay-TV channels, was watched by millions but took place during the two-week ratings break taken around Easter so its numbers are not included in the year-end tally.

From today networks go into summer non-ratings mode, though viewing data is still collected and reported to networks over the non-ratings period.

The 2012 ratings year begins on 12 February and continues through to 1 December, with a two-week Easter break in April.

Seven wins 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

Free-To-Air Top 20 Programs (Rank, Title, Network, Duration, Audience (five cities)):

1 THE BLOCK -WINNER ANNOUNCED (Nine) 0:07:06 3,370,000
2 AUSTRALIA'S GOT TALENT-THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 0:10:06 2,980,000
3 UNDERBELLY: RAZOR -EP1 (Nine) 1:01:21 2,794,000
4 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Ten) 0:16:00 2,745,000
5 THE BLOCK -AUCTION (Nine) 0:45:50 2,736,000
6 THE 2011 MELBOURNE CUP CARNIVAL: MELBOURNE CUP-THE RACE (Seven) 0:06:05 2,667,000
7 TEN'S AFL FINALS 2011: GRAND FINAL COLLINGWOOD V GEELONG (Ten) 3:02:30 2,641,000
8 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 3RD - MATCH (Nine) 1:50:58 2,492,000
9 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - FINALE NIGHT (Ten) 1:01:34 2,402,000
10 UNDERBELLY: RAZOR -EP2 (Nine) 1:01:16 2,352,000
11 THE BLOCK -GRAND FINAL (Nine) 1:07:10 2,309,000
12 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 1ST - MATCH (Nine) 1:41:24 2,245,000
13 RUGBY LEAGUE GRAND FINAL (Nine) 1:51:01 2,172,000
14 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE NSW V QLD 2ND - MATCH (Nine) 1:44:00 2,165,000 
15 MY KITCHEN RULES-WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 0:10:00 2,127,000
16 THE X FACTOR - THE WINNER ANNOUNCED (Seven) 7 0:08:00 2,026,000
17 THE 2011 MELBOURNE CUP CARNIVAL: MELBOURNE CUP-RACE PRESENTATIO (Seven) 0:33:27 1,967,000
18 AUSTRALIA'S GOT TALENT-TUE (Seven) 1:34:32 1,936,000
19 THE 2011 GRAND FINAL PRE GAME (Ten) 0:20:58 1,914,000
20 DOWNTON ABBEY (Seven) 1:11:48 1,906,000

Free-To-Air Digital Multi Channel Top 20 Programs (Rank, Title, Channel, Duration, Audience (five cities)):

1 WIMBLEDON 2011 - DAY 9 (7TWO) 1:37:11 737,000
2 TRANSFORMERS -EV (GO!) 3:00:14 486,000
3 2012 -EV (GO!) 3:14:57 441,000
4 AUST FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2011 - RACE (One)2:00:00 428,000
5 WIMBLEDON 2011 - DAY 7 (7TWO) 2:46:45 408,000
6 SURVIVOR: REDEMPTION ISLAND -EV TX1 (GO!) 0:58:00 371,000
7 HEARTBEAT-SAT (R) (7TWO) 1:07:09 350,000
8 JONATHAN CREEK (7TWO) 1:07:32 349,000
9 SURVIVOR: REDEMPTION ISLAND -EV (GO!) 1:36:15 344,000
10 NEIGHBOURS (Eleven) 0:30:35 343,000
11 M-FIRST BLOOD (7mate) 2:00:51 338,000
12 PAUL BLART: MALL COP -EV (GO!) 1:56:36 337,000
13 HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE -EV (GO!) 3:20:46 337,000
14 DOC MARTIN-EP.2 (7TWO) 1:02:01 335,000
15 HEARTBEAT (R) (7TWO) 1:06:18 330,000
16 HEARTBEAT-EP.2 (R) (7TWO) 1:05:31 325,000
17 THE VICAR OF DIBLEY-TUE (R) (7TWO) 0:49:38 322,000
18 HEARTBEAT-SAT EP.2 (R) (7TWO) 1:02:40 315,000
19 HEARTBEAT-WED (R) (7TWO) 1:08:04 314,000
20 DOC MARTIN (7TWO) 1:03:09 308,000

Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2011. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM.

Seven wins 2010

The Seven Network has won the ratings battle for the fourth consecutive year – but all three commercial networks will have something to smile about.

Seven won the ratings year (which concluded yesterday) with an overall audience share of 28.7 per cent (6pm-12mn, 5 cities), followed by Nine (27.7), Ten (21.2), ABC (16.9) and SBS (5.6).

As far as individuals channels go, Seven (24.6) won against Nine (23.5), Ten (19.7), ABC1 (14.5), SBS1 (5.0), GO! (3.8), 7TWO (3.5), 7mate (2.7), GEM (1.7), ABC2 (1.6), One (1.4), SBS2 (0.6) and ABC3 and ABC News 24 (both 0.5).

Topping Seven’s ratings list is Packed To The Rafters (pictured), Australia’s Got Talent, the AFL Grand Final (and the re-match), Such Is Life: The Troubled Times Of Ben Cousins, the Melbourne Cup and the men’s final of the Australian Open.

Seven News, Today Tonight, Sunrise, The Morning Show and Weekend Sunrise all outrated their Nine Network rivals.

My Kitchen Rules (pictured) returned strong ratings but failed to dampen any enthusiasm for the return of Ten’s Masterchef Australia. The X Factor, despite all the hype, promotion and expense, failed to hit any significant ratings highs but returned decent ratings with a last-minute increase as the series came to a climax.  Dancing With The Stars also returned solid ratings as it ran its tenth series and Beauty And The Geek drew big numbers for what is normally a lack lustre Thursday night.

But not everything went Seven’s way this year.  The White Room, The Bounce, Australia Versus and Beat The Star were all prime-time ratings flops.  Iron Chef failed to gain a significant hold on the audience.  Home And Away, which has just ended its 23rd year, was beaten by repeats of US sitcom Two And A Half Men on Nine, and the future of City Homicide appears uncertain.

The Nine Network (i.e. Nine, GO! and GEM) is claiming victory in the advertiser-friendly demographics of 18-49, 16-39 and 25-54 age groups, although Nine’s primary channel was beaten by Ten in 16-39 age group viewers.

Nine’s biggest hit of 2010 was drama series Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile.  Nine also scored well with the NRL State Of Origin and NRL Grand Final.  Reality show The Farmer Wants A Wife returned solid ratings, while The Block (pictured), however, perhaps fell short of expectations but still managed decent numbers. Hey Hey It’s Saturday, which aired on Wednesday nights before being reinstated to its traditional Saturday night spot, has struggled to maintain significant support outside of Melbourne and its future is yet to be decided.  Top Gear and its Australian version rated well.  Sydney-based police drama Cops LAC failed to click with viewers.

The TV Week Logie Awards scored slightly lower than last year though this time it had to contend with competition from Masterchef Australia.

Nine continues to draw heavily on Two And A Half Men to boost its numbers, not just on Nine but also on digital channel GO!  Eddie McGuire’s Millionaire Hot Seat is now paying dividends against Seven’s Deal Or No Deal.

For Network Ten, as well as the primary channel taking out the 16-39 age group, the biggest hit was once again Masterchef Australia.  Like last year the series broke new post-2001 ratings records with more than 4 million viewers tuning in to see the winner, Adam Liaw (pictured) announced.  The series spin-off Junior Masterchef started on a ratings high but despite the inevitable ratings drop that followed it still sat at the top end of the ratings ladder.

Apart from the Masterchef titles the top of Ten’s list of ratings performers were predominantly imported programs – Modern Family, NCIS, Glee and Undercover Boss – although Shaun Micallef’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation was a strong performer as was the Australian adaptation of Undercover Boss and the new factual series Keeping Up With The Joneses.  The special Hamish And Andy’s Caravan Of Courage: Great Britain And Ireland and the telemovie Hawke were also ratings hits. 

New drama series Offspring (starring Asher Keddie, pictured) returned good Sunday night figures, particularly with younger viewers, although the Thursday night series Rush has struggled to be consistent and has seen ratings fall.  Both shows have been renewed for 2011.

The elephant in Ten’s room this year, however, is the Commonwealth Games.  The 11-day competition, traditionally a ratings winner, failed to return any significant ratings results for Ten, although it did give a boost to sports channel One.  The effect of the Games, which took Ten’s entire prime-time schedule out of circulation for two weeks, has seen shows like The 7PM Project and Neighbours lose any sense of ratings momentum they might have had pre-Games and saw viewers flock to digital channels in search of other viewing options.  The 7PM Project has seen its numbers slowly claw back to somewhere near decent, but Neighbours continues to stumble and has hit hit new ratings lows this year but will live on next year on Ten’s new digital channel, 11.

ABC’s The Gruen Transfer was among its highest raters this year, and its election-themed spin-off, Gruen Nation, topped the national broadcaster’s ratings list this year.  Spicks And Specks and The Chaser’s Yes We Canberra were strong performers, along with imported shows Midsomer Murders, Doc Martin and New Tricks.  Drama series Rake, starring Richard Roxburgh, got off to a high-rating start but ratings quickly fell.  The network also had to get the axe out – a rare occasion – for its Wednesday night series, Strictly Speaking, which returned ratings that even had ABC hanging its head in shame.

SBS, which has lost the Top Gear franchise to Nine, saw ratings fall this year, though the network scored well with the FIFA World Cup, from South Africa, with the match between Ghana and Australia being watched by over 1.3 million viewers.

Networks now go into summer non-ratings mode until February, though viewing data is still collected and reported to networks over the non-ratings period.

Seven wins ‘09
It’s Seven in ‘08
Seven wins ‘07

TV names battle it out in federal election

Last night’s Federal Election might not have returned a clear result but there were some familiar faces along the way.

Sarah Henderson (pictured), representing the Liberal Party, had contested the Victorian marginal seat of Corangamite, including areas surrounding Geelong.  Henderson will be familiar to television viewers from her work as a newsreader and reporter at Network Ten in Melbourne as well as appearing on ABC programs The Investigators, The 7.30 Report and Holiday.  She has also worked at radio 3AW and has worked in management roles at Network Ten and National Indigenous Television (NITV).  At the time of writing the result for Corangamite was still inconclusive with a narrow margin between Henderson and the ALP’s incumbent, Darren Cheeseman, but ABC has this afternoon predicted a narrow ALP win.

Former ABC journalist and presenter Maxine McKew (pictured), who famously snatched the Sydney seat of Bennelong for the ALP from former prime minister John Howard in 2007, lost out last night against the Liberal Party’s John Alexander, former tennis star and commentator for the Seven Network.  McKew has since lashed out at the ALP, saying the ALP’s campaign lacked clarity and that the recent dismissal of prime minister Kevin Rudd has had to have had an impact on the public vote.

Steve Titmus (pictured), a former newsreader for Southern Cross Television in Tasmania and representing the Liberal Party, was unsuccessful last night in his bid for the northern Tasmanian seat of Bass.

Meanwhile, the campaign for the attention of viewers last night was won by ABC with its marathon coverage headed by Kerry O’Brien returning a rating of 28.0 per cent (combining ABC1 and ABC News 24 which were in simulcast).  Nine came second on 20.3 per cent, followed by Seven (16.8), Ten (10.5) and SBS1 (3.3 per cent).  Viewers also demonstrated a definite appetite for alternative programming, with digital channels 7TWO scoring 8.1 per cent, GO! 6.9 per cent and even SBS2 getting a higher than usual 1.2 per cent.

Source: Geelong Advertiser, Wikipedia, Sydney Morning Herald, The Examiner, ABC, TV Tonight

ABC News 24 hits a million viewers

ABC’s new high-definition news channel ABC News 24 has clocked up over a million viewers in its first ratings survey.

The channel, which launched on 22 July, only started reporting ratings data from last Sunday.  The first week of the channel’s ratings data shows that 1.3 million viewers in the five capital cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth) watched ABC News 24 for at least 5 consecutive minutes during the week.

Despite the promising audience numbers ABC News 24 only reported an overall prime-time audience share of 0.5 per cent of free-to-air only households in the five cities.  This is compared to ABC’s other digital channels ABC2 on 1.7 per cent and ABC3 on 0.6 per cent.  So it would appear that ABC News 24 is attracting plenty of browsers but they are not necessarily staying tuned long enough to have a greater impact overall.  But it is only early days for the channel and at the same time it is only available as a high-definition channel, effectively blocking access to any digital viewers with standard-definition tuners.

ABC1 reported an audience share of 14.8 per cent, giving the national broadcaster a total of 17.6 per cent across its four channels.

In a media release from ABC, news director Kate Torney welcomed the results:

“To achieve a reach of 1.3 million for the first week of available audience figures is great news and assures us that people are switching on ABC News 24.  There’s obviously a news focus at the moment with the election campaign, but for a launch of a new channel we are pleased with the results.”

The Seven Network (Seven + 7TWO) won the week with 28.6 per cent, followed by Nine/GO! on 27.7 per cent and Ten/One on 20.8 per cent.  SBS managed an overall total of 5.2 per cent across its two channels.

Breaking the numbers down to individual channels, Seven (24.9 per cent) won ahead of Nine (23.6), Ten (19.1), ABC1 (14.8) and SBS1 (4.6), followed by digital channels GO! (4.2), 7TWO (3.7), ABC2 and One HD (1.7 per cent each), ABC3 and SBS2 (0.6 per cent each) and ABC News 24 (0.5).

Source: TV Tonight

Seven wins ‘09

No real surprises here.  The Seven Network has claimed victory for the 2009 season, based on the 40 weeks of prime-time (6.00pm-12.00am) ratings competition.

It is Seven’s third consecutive year at the top – this year managing an audience share of 28.8%, followed by Nine (26.8%), Ten (22.2%), ABC (16.4%) and SBS (5.9%).  Taking the various networks’ digital channels into account, Seven/7TWO wins on 28.1%, followed by Nine/GO (26.6%), Ten/One (22.4%), ABC1/ABC2 (17.0%), SBS1/SBS2 (5.9%).

Seven’s primary chanel won 34 out of the 40 ratings weeks, though when adding primary and digital channels together, the Nine/GO combination brings Seven/7TWO’s total wins down to 29 weeks.

In the more advertiser-friendly demographics, Seven will claim victory in the 18-49 and 25-54 age groups (although adding Nine + GO will see them just edge ahead in 25-54), while Ten will claim victory in the 16-39 age bracket.

Although Seven continued to maintain strong consistency with its early evening line-up – Deal Or No Deal, Seven News, Today Tonight, Home And Away – and continued to score highly with its weekly drama Packed To The Rafters, there was one series that surprised everyone and created the year’s biggest buzz – Ten’s Masterchef Australia. 

There was a lot of scoffing when Ten announced that it had taken on the Masterchef format to replace Big Brother, but the new show turned around the 7.00pm timeslot for Ten and the grand finale captured a total of 3.726 million viewers (OzTam, 5 cities) – making it the most-watched program for the year, even out-rating the AFL Grand Final (2.878 million), the Melbourne Cup (2.673 million) and the NRL Grand Final (2.528 million).

Ten also managed a surprise hit when it launched Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation in the wake of losing Thank God You’re Here to the Seven Network.  The new Shaun Micallef show returned high figures with an average of 1.601 million viewers over its series, while Thank God You’re Here in its first series on Seven averaged 1.515 million viewers.

The Nine Network had a couple of stand-out hits this year – the second series in the Underbelly franchise (averaging 2.158 million viewers) and two top-rating Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion specials (2.149 million and 2.213 million).  Nine also scored well with the NRL State Of Origin series (2.121 million average) and the TV Week Logie Awards (1.664 million).

ABC’s best figures came from Midsomer Murders (1.421 million), New Tricks (1.221 million), Spicks And Specks (1.219 million), The Chaser’s War On Everything (1.203 million) and The Gruen Transfer (1.176 million).

The 2010 ratings season starts on Sunday 7 February and continues through to Saturday 27 November, with a two-week break over Easter.  Next year will also mark a significant change in ratings reporting as it will also incorporate time-shift viewing via devices such as VCRs, personal video recorders (PVR) or branded equipment such as Tivo or Foxtel IQ.

It’s Seven in ‘08
Seven wins ‘07

Seven wins '07

The Seven Network has won the ratings year 2007. No real surprise in that as Seven has had an outstanding ratings year, taking out 38 out of the 40 survey weeks. Nine won the other two.

The survey year ended with Seven on 29.1%, Nine 26.9%, Ten 21.9%, ABC 16.7% and SBS 5.5%.

It was a year where Seven could do little wrong, and where Nine continued to stumble but with new CEO David Gyngell at the helm, Nine is set to aggressively challenge Seven's lead in 2008.

Seven enjoyed continued success this year with its stand-out hit Dancing With The Stars as well as It Takes Two and the new shows Australia's Got Talent and The Rich List earlier in the year. Another hit for Seven was Kath & Kim which came across from ABC. The foxy morons delivered the highest average of any series this year, regularly passing the 2 million mark, a rare feat in this era of declining free-to-air audiences. Even repeats of the first ABC series, dating back to 2002, gave Seven great results.

Reality shows also did well for Seven with Border Security and The Force, but Nine also had good results in the genre with RPA Where Are They Now and Missing Persons Unit.

In drama, Home And Away continued to deliver strong figures going into its 20th anniversary but the 7.00pm timeslot was a tight contest with Temptation and ABC News also getting their share of strong results. Seven's other drama stalwart All Saints also had a great year on the back of the Dancing With The Stars/It Takes Two lead-in.

The new Melbourne drama City Homicide also paid good dividends for Seven with consistently high audience figures. Nine launched Sea Patrol during the year that started with strong results but suffered a drop as the series progressed, but will be back next year. Nine's other major drama McLeod's Daughters also suffered a decline, and will now finish up next year.

News and current affairs, traditionally Nine's domain, was Seven's strength this year with Sunrise continuing to trounce Today, Weekend Sunrise ahead of Sunday, Seven News ahead of National Nine News, and Today Tonight ahead of A Current Affair. Although in Melbourne, it was a much closer battle between the two networks as Today dominated in the southern capital, and both Seven News and National Nine News fought it out with not much between them. Nationally, Nine's 60 Minutes also held up well in the competitive Sunday 7.30pm timeslot.

The news year also ended well for Seven with its Sunrise-slanted federal election coverage Your Call 07, "without the boring bits", seeing Nine's coverage headed by Ray Martin beaten by the movie re-run The Empire Strikes Back on Ten. However, ABC's election night coverage with Kerry O'Brien beat them all.

Deal Or No Deal continued to dominate the 5.30pm timeslot, seen as crucial by Seven and Nine as the lead-in timeslot to the news, at the expense of Nine's Bert's Family Feud which was cancelled during the year. Nine replaced Bert with a cheap UK import Antiques Roadshow which has surprisingly given strong competition to Deal Or No Deal. However despite Seven and Nine fighting it out in the timeslot, Ten wins the hour with Ten News.

The popularity of Sunrise in the breakfast timeslot saw Seven expand the formula with The Morning Show. The new show became an immediate hit at the expense of Nine's Mornings With Kerri Anne and Ten's 9am With David And Kim.

But the year didn't always go Seven's way. A few ratings mishaps were felt with some of its choices of prime-time movies, and also some of their US imports suffered ratings drops. Ugly Betty started on a high but soon fell to average results. Las Vegas and Bionic Woman also failed to get a significant result here. The late-year launch of National Bingo Night started off with strong figures, but quickly fell after a repeated smear campaign by Nine's A Current Affair. And in the interesting battle of Jamie Durie (on Seven) versus Jamie Durie (on Nine), there were mixed results with Seven's new series Australia's Best Backyards having a neck-and-neck battle with two-year-old episodes of Nine's Backyard Blitz. Nine also got good results with Don Burke's return to television with a one-off special, and top ratings for its telecast of the TV Week Logie Awards, movies Shrek and Shrek 2, and cricket and rugby telecasts. The NRL Grand Final recording 2.4 million viewers nationally.

Nine launched 1 vs 100 in January with Eddie McGuire but despite a promising launch, it suffered a ratings fall and was cancelled mid-year. Outgoing CEO McGuire did return to host a relaunched Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - going live-to-air on Monday nights - but struggled to reach the popularity of previous years. Not even the return of McGuire to the screen was enough to save Nine's new US series Viva Laughlin featuring Hugh Jackman, debuting on the same night. The show's fate seemed to be sealed when a US critic labelled it "the worst show in the history of TV" and suffered dismal ratings on its premiere. The US network CBS canned it after two episodes, and Nine consequently cancelled it after just the one.

But the ratings battle isn't just between Seven and Nine. Network Ten had another successful series of Thank God You're Here and also US import House. Rove McManus returned to TV in April after a prolonged break, with Rove making the risky move to Sunday nights and increasing on last year's figures. McManus also hosted Ten's new game show Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? which delivered strong figures.

Ten had little else to rave about apart from good ratings performances from AFL including the Grand Final which got the highest figure of any program this year - 2.563 million in the five capital cities.

Ten's big name formats Big Brother and Australian Idol suffered falling ratings this year compared to last year. The former suffering from playing it safe this year in the wake of last year's "turkey slap" incident, and the latter being hit by Kath & Kim, though still maintained a decent following. The second series of the Australian The Biggest Loser performed well, managing over 2 million viewers for its series final. The US series So You Think You Can Dance gave Ten great ratings on Thursday nights, boding well for the Australian version to launch next year.

Soapie veteran Neighbours declined in ratings this year, prompting Ten to wheel out a two-month teaser campaign to promote a relaunch in July - promising fresh storylines, new characters and better production values. Figures spiked when the relaunch happened, but soon fell back to their usual level.

The national broadcaster ABC had success this year with their midweek comedies The Chaser's War On Everything, Summer Heights High and The Librarians. The game show Spicks And Specks also continued to achieve fantastic figures. ABC also recorded high figures for British dramas Midsomer Murders and New Tricks.

SBS had a controversial year - headlined by their decision to structure commercial breaks inside programs rather than between them. Twelve months on, the change appears to have had negligible effect as the network recorded a 0.1 per cent increase on its prime time rating compared to 2006.

The network recorded its better figures on Monday nights due to the popular Mythbusters and Top Gear and comedies including South Park, Pizza and Wilfred. Saturday night regular RockWiz was also a strong performer for the network.