Nine’s 60 Minutes TV metro audience drops 32%

Last week’s highs haven’t lasted for Nine’s 60 Minutes, with its metro audience slumping 32 per cent in seven days.

A screenshot taken from the 60 Minutes investigation into former Labor MP Adem Somyurek and allegations of branch stacking. Picture: Supplied.

A week is a long time in television, with Nine Network‘s long-running current affairs program 60 Minutes’s ratings down sharply.

The latest episode of 60 Minutes, featuring Nine‘s highest paid star Karl Stefanovic’s report on notorious conman Peter Foster and Tara Brown’ story on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, dropped more than 32 per cent from last week, finishing eighth on the metropolitan ratings table.

That compares to fifth spot last week following Nick McKenzie’s report on branch stacking by the Labor Party in Victoria.

The sharp ratings drop comes less than 24 hours after Nine’s head of news and current affairs Darren Wick reassured staff that 60 Minutes wasn‘t on the chopping block following media reports about its future, given the high cost of producing the show.

Advertising revenue across the Australian media sector has dropped more than 40 per cent since the coronavirus crisis as companies slash costs.

Nine’s parent company Nine Entertainment was one of the first media companies to abandon its annual profit guidance mid-March, blaming poor future ad visibility in the wake of COVID—19 and has suspended a string of newspaper sections and magazines, including Domain and BOSS.

The group, led by chief executive Hugh Marks, last month sold its New Zealand print and digital media business to local management for just $NZ1 (94c), ending a difficult 18 months across the Tasman after inheriting the business through its merger with Fairfax Media.

The media reports about 60 Minutes’ future followed Seven Network‘s decision last Friday to call time on its weekday afternoon news show, The Daily Edition, which has been running for seven years.

Seven’s move to axe the show follows the cancellation last October of its current affairs program Sunday Night, which went head-to-head with 60 Minutes, after 11 years.

60 Minutes, which has been on air since 1979, was watched by 561,000 people across the five metro cities, a market closely watched by advertisers, on Sunday night. That compared to a metro audience of 827,000 last week.

The show‘s national audience dropped 28 per cent to 850,000 from nearly 1.19 million viewers last week.

A Nine spokesman declined to comment on 60 Minutes ratings, which fluctuate regularly.

Seven and Nine‘s evening news programs continues to dominate TV viewing, with reality shows, MasterChef, The Voice and Big Brother rounding off the top-five shows across the metro cities. Nine has claimed victory with total audience viewing.