Spill plays havoc with schedules but Origin prevails

JUST as Kevin Rudd upended his party, the ALP spill wreaked havoc in television schedules last night.

JUST as Kevin Rudd upended his party, the ALP spill wreaked havoc in television schedules last night.

Nine won the night with a 33.2 per cent channel share in the capital cities, ahead of Seven’s 16.1 per cent despite the audience for the Maroons’ State of Origin win being slightly down on Origin I’s numbers.

The match averaged 2.234 million viewers in the five capital cities, down from 2.433 million for the first match and 1.777 million (down from 1.878 million) for the pre-match coverage, which was truncated by news coverage of the ALP leadership spill.

Preliminary coding for last night’s ratings are unofficial, meaning The Block Sky High, which should have aired in Nine at 7pm, recorded 1.504m viewers when in fact Nine’s rolling coverage of the spill went beyond 7.45pm.

Nine News at 6pm recorded the best audience of all news bulletins last night with 1.339 million, followed by A Current Affair’s coverage at 1.295 million. Meanwhile Seven News had 1.211 million at 6pm and Today Tonight laboured to 993,000 viewers as it struggled to keep on top of the leadership spill.

ABC News recorded a strong audience, but not its best for the year, with 1.029 million viewers for its special coverage from Sydney and Canberra. That number increased to 1.132 million for the rolling coverage on 7.30, its best audience for the year. ABC1 & ABC News 24's combined reach was its best for the year.

And ABC’s rolling coverage, including Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb’s stoic imitation of a filibuster holding the fort until Lateline, delivered the year’s best Wednesday night numbers to ABC1 after 8.30pm. ABC1 had a 14.3 per cent channel share and ABC News 24 recorded a massive 5.9 per cent share for the evening, leading the multichannels, and its best ever prime-time share.

It averaged 388,000 for its simulcast of 7.30 and 371,000 in the 9pm hour. For once, ABC News 24 pushed ABC2’s kids’ programs out of the top of the multichannel ratings.

Sky News, tellingly the channel former PM Julia Gillard chose to announce the spill, also benefited with its line-up bumping Fox Footy, drama and movie selections from the top pay-TV rankings.

The rolling coverage at 10pm averaged 207,000 viewers and then 188,000 for Paul Murray Live. The coverage of the result of the vote, ostensibly in the ‘Richo’ and Sky National News timeslots, averaged 178,000 and 171,000 in a big night for the channel. Sky News achieved a prime time share of 2.2%, and reached 619,000 from 5pm-12mn (4% of the population).

OZTAM OVERNIGHT RANKINGS, JUNE 26
1 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 2ND - MATCH Nine 2,234,000
2 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 2ND - PRE MATCH Nine 1,777,000
3 NINE LEADERSHIP SPILL (7-7.30pm) Nine 1,504,000
4 NINE NEWS Nine 1,339,000
5 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,295,000
6 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,211,000
7 7.30 ABC 1,132,000
8 STATE OF ORIGIN RUGBY LEAGUE QLD V NSW 2ND - POST MATCH Nine 1,033,000
9 ABC NEWS ABC 1,029,000
10 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,008,000
11 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 993,000
12 ALP LEADERSHIP SPILL (8pm-8.30pm) ABC 978,000
13 ABC NEWS UPDATE ABC 767,000
14 HOT SEAT Nine 764,000
15 ALP LEADERSHIP SPILL (8.30-9.30pm) ABC 739,000

Programs have been re-named to reflect late changes to the schedule where known.
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