Channel 9’s Today show sinks to 10-year low in breakfast battle with Seven’s Sunrise
NINE’S embattled breakfast show has taken a hit in Tuesday’s ratings, posting its lowest audience mark in more than a decade.
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NINE’S Today show has sunk to its lowest ratings mark in more than a decade, continuing the breakfast program’s embattled year.
Overnight figures in the breakfast TV wars show Seven’s Sunrise averaging 268,000 people across the five-city metropolitan markets, while Channel 9’s Today plunged to 199,000 viewers - a shock drop under the critical 200,000 mark.
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The gap between the shows was even more pronounced when regional figures were factored in, with Sunrise pulling an audience of 445,000 people nationally to Today’s 320,000 viewers.
The last time Today sunk so low was in 2006 when it drew just 187,000 viewers.
Sunrise has already claimed this year in weekly wins, after notching up 21 weekly wins over Today in July.
The result is more bad news for a program still being plagued by negative commentary over the chemistry and combination of Today’s hosts, Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner.
But the ratings difference could have come down to the shows’ Emmys coverage — with Sunrise flying over entertainment reporter, Edwina Bartholomew who delivered live crosses from the red carpet; while Nine was not accredited and relied on its US news correspondent.
The breakfast result also reverses the network’s prime-time fortunes, with Nine’s The Block posting solid figures (averaging 980,000 viewers on Tuesday night, followed by Ten’s Survivor on 654,000, ABC’s 7:30 on 591,000 — featuring an exclusive interview with the woman who accused Barnaby Joyce of sexual harassment — while Seven’s dating show, Take Me Out trailed behind in the same timeslot, with just 503,000 viewers.
Nine won the night with a 31.0% share of the total audience, followed by Seven (26.3%), Ten (18.8%), ABC (16.4%) and SBS (7.4%).