Reality dominates in two-horse race

THE reality battle raged as the rest of the schedule rocked on Wednesday night.

THE reality battle raged as the rest of the schedule rocked on Wednesday night.

The Voice held its own with two million viewers (1.996 million) in the five capital cities and Seven’s My Kitchen Rules grabbed 1.405 million viewers.

While MKR is down 400,000 on its pre-The Voice ratings, Seven and Nine continue to wreak havoc on their competitors.

The return of Criminal Minds on Seven and the introduction of The Following on Nine has killed Ten’s Mr & Mrs Murder.

Nine’s new US drama, The Following, was down from its debut night to 816,000 (but ranked third in 16-39 and fourth in 25-54)) and Criminal Minds was down 118,000 on last week.

But with only 463,000 viewers on Ten, Mr & Mrs Murder was well down on its season average of more than 600,000 viewers and has been squeezed out of success.

The TV schedule is in such flux as programs are cannibalised in head-to-head battles that Eddie McGuire’s Hot Seat at 5.30pm ranked eleventh for the night with 683,000 viewers, its best result for the year.

The game show may be benefitting from the halo effect of The Voice but it has grown steadily and is now giving Nine a handy lead-in to its Nine News in the eastern states (Deal or No Deal leads in Perth).

A Current Affair’s ‘renovation rescue’ episodes worked for Nine, topping the 6.30pm slot with 1.182 million viewers, ahead of Today Tonight’s 939,000.

Nine News nudged Seven News nationally, leading by 140,000 viewers in both Sydney and Melbourne. Nine’s audience dropped precipitously through the night however, with What’s Your Emergency? only logging 342,000 viewers.

On ABC1’s Wednesday night comedy schedule, Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell, with 571,000 viewers, was the lone star.

Panel show Tractor Monkeys dropped below 400,000 viewers for the first time and sketch comedy The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting attained ‘cult’ status after dropping to 292,000 viewers from its debut of 448,000 the previous week.

Nine won the night in all people with a 29.3 per cent channel share, ahead of Seven’s 22.4 per cent, ABC1’ 10.3 per cent, Ten’s 9.4 per cent and SBS ONE’s 3.9 per cent. Nine won handily among 25-54 year-olds as a channel and as a network.

On pay-TV, Selling Houses Australia continues to perform, topping the platform on Lifestyle Channel with 179,000 viewers.

OZTAM OVERNIGHT RANKINGS, APRIL 10
1 THE VOICE Nine 1,996,000
2 MY KITCHEN RULES Seven 1,405,000
3 NINE NEWS Nine 1,293,000
4 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,182,000
5 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,154,000
6 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 939,000
7 HOME AND AWAY Seven 860,000
8 ABC NEWS ABC 855,000
9 THE FOLLOWING Nine 816,000
10 CRIMINAL MINDS Seven 778,000
11 HOT SEAT Nine 683,000
12 TEN NEWS AT FIVE Ten 683,000
13 7.30 ABC 639,000
14 SHAUN MICALLEF'S MAD AS HELL ABC 571,000
15 ABC NEWS UPDATE ABC 529,000
Copyright in the data is owned by OzTAM and may not be used or reproduced without permission.