Australia bids Rafters family goodbye

PACKED To The Rafters concluded with a middle-of-the-road ratings result from its middle-Australian audience.

PACKED To The Rafters concluded with a middle-of-the-road ratings result from its middle-Australian audience.

The final two episodes, which were spliced together as a finale, held a steady average metro audience of 1.3 million viewers with the first averaging 1.328 million viewers and the second, in which Ma and Pa Rafter (Rebecca Gibney and Erik Thomson) were the ones to leave home, 1.324 million.

It wasn’t this year’s best audience - the program attracted 1.54 million for its 2013 launch and 1.4 million in April - and it was a long way from its halcyon days in which it regularly topped two million metro viewers in the late 2000s.

But it was a strong result over two hours that helped Seven to another nightly win with a 25.1 per cent share against Nine’s 20.1 per cent and Ten’s 14.1 per cent.

As one series departed, another debuted on ABC1 to strong numbers. Annabel Crabb’s dalliances with federal politicians in Kitchen Cabinet made an impressive transition from ABC2, where it was averaging around 300,000 viewers, to ABC1 where it was the channel’s top entertainment program for the night with 779,000. That compared well with current affairs show 7.30 (797,000) and the ABC's 7pm news bulletin (925,000).

The other strong performance last night was for Ten’s fast-tracked US drama Under The Dome, which held most of last week’s premiere audience with 998,000 viewers and improved on the lead-in from Masterchef Australia (798,000).

Another series of The Mole opened on Seven with 864,000 viewers, slightly below expectations.

Nine’s best for the night behind its market-leading Nine News were The Block Sky High (1.292 million), A Current Affair (1.208 million) and the documentary special Agnetha: Abba and After (962,000).

OZTAM OVERNIGHT RANKINGS, JULY 2
1 NINE NEWS Nine 1,331,000
2 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS Seven 1,328,000
3 PACKED TO THE RAFTERS-FINAL Seven 1,324,000
4 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,321,000
5 THE BLOCK SKY HIGH Nine 1,292,000
6 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,208,000
7 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,092,000
8 UNDER THE DOME Ten 998,000
9 HOME AND AWAY Seven 966,000
10 AGNETHA: ABBA AND AFTER Nine 962,000
11 ABC NEWS ABC 925,000
12 ABC NEWS UPDATE ABC 867,000
13 THE MOLE Seven 864,000
14 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 798,000
15 7.30 ABC 797,000
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