Formula One draws nearly 1.4 million viewers

THE first round of the Formula One World Championship was a boon for Network Ten with an average audience of 1.399 million viewers.

Button McLaren

THE first round of the FIA Formula One World Championship was a boon for Network Ten with an average audience of 1.399 million viewers for the race. The pre-race broadcast attracted 897,000 viewers.

Both numbers were massive increases on the 687,000 and 425,000 viewers last year, a result due largely to the two Australian drivers Mark Weber and Daniel Ricciardo driving into history in the first time two Australians placed in the top ten of the same Formula One race.

It was a home town event though with Melbourne’s audience of 650,000 almost doubling Sydney’s (327,000) and dwarfing Brisbane (178,000), Adelaide (141,000) and Perth (103,000).

The Formula One helped Network Ten to a 17.0 per cent channel share in primetime (6pm-midnight). OzTAM does not publicly supply ratings shares for the full day.

Seven won the evening with a 24.9 per cent channel share, according to preliminary OzTAM data.

It led Nine’s 18.9 per cent evening share, ABC1’s 11.8 per cent and SBS ONE’s 3.9 per cent. The best multichannel was GO! with a 4.4 per cent share.

The best program for the evening, again, was My Kitchen Rules with an audience of 1.71 million including more than half a million viewers in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Seven’s dominance began at 6pm with 1.179 million viewers for Seven News and another 1.304 million for Sunday Night.

Nine News was strong with 1.153 million viewers, including wins over Seven News in Sydney (by 147,000) and Melbourne.

Nine’s new nature documentary series The Great Barrier Reef also debuted well with 965,000 viewers.

Ten’s “Super Sunday” is waning a little. Modern Family averaged 940,000 viewers, New Girl 891,000 and the penultimate episode of Homeland 886,000. But Young Talent Time only pulled 689,000 in the early evening slot.

New ABC drama Great Expectations was best for the evening for the public broadcaster behind ABC News’ 925,000 with 699,000.

OZTAM OVERNIGHT RATINGS MARCH 19
1 MY KITCHEN RULES Seven 1,710,000
2 AUST FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2 1,399,000
3 SUNDAY NIGHT Seven 1,304,000
4 60 MINUTES Nine 1,187,000
5 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,179,000
6 NINE NEWS SUNDAY Nine 1,153,000
7 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF Nine 965,000
8 MODERN FAMILY TEN 940,000
9 ABC NEWS ABC1 925,000
10 AUST FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Ten 897,000
11 NEW GIRL Ten 891,000
12 CASTLE Seven 891,000
13 HOMELAND Ten 886,000
14 THE MENTALIST Nine 768,000
15 GREAT EXPECTATIONS ABC1 699,000