Opening ceremony kills in Melbourne. Good
numbers but not a killer outing, except in Melbourne: which is how the rest of
Australia has viewed the 2006 Commonwealth Games all along.
The
opening ceremony averaged 3.475 million people from 8.30pm to around
10.45pm; the countdown program averaged 2.278 million from 7.30 to 8.30pm,
about what Dancing With the Stars averaged (a touch more actually) on Tuesday. The use
of Michael Leunig inspired cartoon ideas (the boy and
the duck?) as part of the central theme was too Melbourne for most of the viewers. Not many
people in Brisbane and Adelaide or
London, Mumbai or the western suburbs
of Sydney, would
have understood what that was about. You
could say that much of the opening ceremony was designed for readers of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald where Leunig cartoons are popular.
The
Nine commentary team wasn’t objectionable. Ray Martin gushed, but was
restrained, Liz Hayes was her breathless self, a bit like her 60 Minutes pieces
to camera but Nicole Livingstone stood out. She is
improving rapidly: she’s a great caller of the swimming, especially with her
technical knowledge, and she did well last night. Nine
should have considered using her more prominently than just on the swimming:
she’d make a better host than either Gary Lyon or James Brayshaw on the morning shift. For
Nine and its multi-million dollar plunge back into Games broadcasting, it wasn’t
a bad result, but not as national as it would have liked. The
highest share was in Melbourne with 65.5%, the
lowest in Perth with 32.1% (because the broadcast
actually started at 4.30pm). In
Sydney the Games
opening audience averaged 888,000. Melbourne’s audience was 1.5
million. Brisbane, 531,000. Adelaide, 316,000. And Perth, 237,000.
Last night’s TV
ratings
The Winners | Well, Wednesday night and the Commonwealth Games opening dominated events, as expected, so what else happened? Any winners elsewhere? Well, yes, Nine took a pounding in the early evening, thanks in part to the early start of the live Games coverage in Brisbane and Adelaide (Perth didn’t really matter, the performance of the Nine News and A Current Affair there did not help Nine at all). With ACA pre-empted in Brisbane and Perth, Today Tonight did well with 1.463 million, Seven News with 1.358 million, narrowly ahead of Nine News with 1.348 million, the closest finish on a week night for some weeks. The Biggest Loser on Seven with 1.215 million beat Home and Away on Seven with 1.173 million. A repeat of House on Ten attracted 1.029 million. The ABC’s New Inventors (652,000), Spicks and Specks (707,000), Little Britain (765,000) and The Glass House (669,000) were all affected but, along with Ten, provided a viewing alternative to the Games opening. |
The Losers | Losers? Well, Bert’s Family Feud picked up to 520,000, but Deal or No Deal was ahead with 798,000, down a touch on recent levels. Temptation with 961,000 was a bomb, given the Games-related competition and heavy promotion. It desperately needs some sort of tarting up over the Games break. Strangely, while ACA at 6.30pm was pre-empted in Brisbane and Perth , Temptation wasn’t . |
News & CA | Nine News came close, because of a boost in Perth, due to the Games. But in all honesty it should have done better with all the buzz about the Games. Seven News won in Sydney and the two news broadcasts tied in Melbourne with 420,000 viewers each. Nine News was a big winner in Brisbane , but lost Adelaide. Today Tonight beat ACA in Sydney and Melbourne. The ABC 7pm News averaged 795,000 viewers, the 7.30 Report 606,000, hurt by the start of Nine’s Games coverage. |
The Stats | Nine with 51.6%, Ten with 17.4%, Seven with 16.9%, the ABC with 10.7% and SBS with 3.3%. |
Glenn Dyer’s comments | As expected Nine won, Seven ran dead by dropping Prison Break (and Lost tonight) and ran third behind Ten which also ran a little dead with a repeat of House, no Jamie Oliver or Bondi Rescue. These nights do not count, except in bragging rights for Nine; of course if Seven manages to fluke a win, it suddenly becomes big news, doesn’t it? Watching Nine’s morning coverage Thursday, you can see why its a hick from the sticks . Melbourne-orientated coverage. Gary Lyon and James Bradshaw are going to be the new hosting team for the AFL Footy Show, that’s why Nine has them fronting the morning coverage. Gary Lyon sounds like he’s had one to many shirtfronts, Brayshaw looks like he should have ducked that last ball in first class cricket. Put their rough as guts approach next to Ray Martin and Nicole Livingstone last night and there is no comparison. The smoothness and professionalism of Ray Warren in the delayed coverage of the swimming heats (why did we have to have to hear from Delta Goodrem about her singing last night while the swimming heats were on?) also reflected badly on Lyon and Brayshaw. Nine will miss Eddie McGuire, who, for all his sins as a Collingwood tragic, knew how to use his voice, knew something about sport and could sell anything. |
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