Magic at Seven but Nine breaks spell

SEVEN benefited from another piece of magic on Thursday night as Dynamo: Magician Impossible was the evening's top entertainment program.

THE Seven network benefited from another piece of magic on Thursday night.

Another Dynamo: Magician Impossible special recorded its best result from its three Thursday night screenings with a metropolitan audience of 968,000. It was the third most popular program for the night and the best entertainment program by some measure.

But Seven’s thin reality programming after the magic (despite Please Marry My Boy rising 36,000 from last week to 491,000) meant it managed only a 20.0 per cent channel share against Nine’s 21.5 per cent.

Nine’s share was solid thanks to The Footy Show’s fourth-best result for the year (and third-best in Melbourne), with 866,0000 viewers in the capital cities, and 756,000 for Big Brother.

In the hour from 6pm, Nine and Seven split the spoils with Seven News ranked as the top show in the five capital cities for the night with 1.160 million, the barest possible ratings margin ahead of Nine News’ 1.159 million. Nine won in Melbourne by 186,000 viewers, but that gap tightened at 6.30pm to 134,000. With 224,000 viewers, Seven News Melbourne racked up its worst Thursday result for the year - although conversely Nine could be just as worried by the gap Seven News is building in Brisbane. A Current Affair had 961,000 against Today Tonight’s 941,000.

Nine’s strong showing was enhanced by a 5.2 per cent channel share for GO! after two episodes of The Big Bang Theory averaged 427,000 and 348,000 viewers.

Ten had a 13.6 per cent metro channel share ahead of ABC1’s 13.4 per cent and SBS One’s 5.2 per cent, boosted by its hit drama, Vikings.

Ten’s best was the Masterchef Australia Masterclass (666,000), its highest Masterclass result for three weeks.

ABC1’s hit comedies Upper Middle Bogan and It’s A Date held steady, each losing less than 40,000 viewers from last week for 823,000 and 744,000 respectively.

OZTAM OVERNIGHT RANKINGS, AUGUST 29
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,160,000
2 NINE NEWS Nine 1,159,000
3 DYNAMO: MAGICIAN IMPOSSIBLE Seven 968,000
4 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 961,000
5 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 941,000
6 HOME AND AWAY Seven 938,000
7 ABC NEWS ABC1 896,000
8 THE FOOTY SHOW Nine 866,000
9 UPPER MIDDLE BOGAN ABC1 823,000
10 BIG BROTHER Nine 756,000
11 IT'S A DATE ABC1 744,000
12 7.30 ABC1 704,000
13 CATALYST ABC1 683,000
14 HOT SEAT Nine 679,000
15 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA - MASTERCLASS Ten 666,000
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