ABC drama The Newsreader takes a ratings hit as reality TV and sport dominate

Reality TV and sport dominate the TV ratings for the first quarter of 2025 as commercial broadcasters managed to hold or increase share at the expense of ABC and SBS.

Anna Torv and Sam Reid in The Newsreader, which has seen a ratings drop in its third season. Picture: ABC

The first episode of The Newsreader’s third season on ABC features a ratings battle between fictional TV presenters Helen Norville (Anna Torv) and Dale Jennings (Sam Reid).

Their respective careers soon unravel, with Norville’s show cancelled as her former colleague’s life spirals out of control.

In real life, the ABC drama series has also faced a crisis — in the ratings. While critics remained impressed with the scope of the third and final season of The Newsreader, audiences had moved on.

That is one of the key take-outs from the first quarter of free-to-air TV viewing habits for 2025.

The good news for broadcasters is that the total number of people watching climbed year on year. Comparing the first 13 weeks of 2024 and 2025, commercial broadcasters all attracted more viewers than the same time last year: Nine (+6 per cent), Seven (+5 per cent) and Network 10 (+4 per cent).

So too did ABC (+3 per cent). The outlier was SBS with a dip (-2 per cent).

A review of the audience shares also saw the commercial broadcasters steady or improving while both ABC and SBS dropped share points year-on-year.

The Newsreader has been the sole Australian drama premiere in that period. After securing a national audience of 800,000 for the launch of season two, the series never dipped below 500,000. (All figures quoted are for national audience, Total TV.)

But season three of the show only managed to climb above 500,000 once — the launch episode, which drew 644,000.

Also disappointing for the public broadcaster was season three of Muster Dogs. All episodes of season two were close to 900,000 or better. For season three it only made it close to 900,000 twice, with half the series on or below 800,000.

The TV hit of the first quarter of the year has been season 12 of Nine’s Married At First Sight. The series again topped the ratings, and barring an upset, will also be the year’s most watched television on free-to-air outside football finals and the State of Origin.

The MAFS audience average was over 2.3 million for every night of the week it screened.

The next best non-sport or news related content in the first three months of the year was Seven’s Australian Idol which averaged over 1 million viewers on Sunday and Monday nights.

Joining MAFS at the top of the first quarter ratings rankings were Test cricket and the Australian Open tennis tournament.

The only Australia vs India Test match played this calendar year was the clash in Sydney in the first week of January. Screened on both Foxtel and Seven, it was the third most-watched program of the year on the free-to-air network with average audiences close to 1.5 million or better across the three days it lasted, as Australia won the match and the series. Also performing well again this year was the Australian Open. The men’s and women’s finals both made the top 10 for the quarter with 2 million watching Jannik Sinner win over Alexander Zverev and 1.5m watching Madison Keys defeat Aryna Sabalenka.

The audiences for both finals were close to the previous year, with the men’s down around 70,000, while the women’s was up 200,000.

The Australian Open tennis performed well in the ratings. Picture: AFP

The No.1 commercial TV news service again belongs to Seven with its weekday bulletin averaging 1.29m to Nine’s 1.15m. Seven News also has the edge on Sunday and Saturday nights. ABC News averaged an audience of 840,000 on weeknights, making it the channel’s top program.

Network 10’s best across the 13 weeks was the launch episode of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! on 1.09 million, followed by the Australian Grand Prix on 1.06 million.

There was a gap then to 10’s Sam Pang Tonight which launched with an audience of 1 million before tumbling to 707,000 in week two.

One bright spot for the ABC was the performance of Darby and Joan, the drama made by CJZ featuring Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi. It was initially launched on streaming service Acorn TV in 2022.

It managed to average close to 800,000 for the ABC, easily its most-watched drama so far this year and ABC’s second most-watched show.