Ten hits ratings high with Offspring finale

ENTERTAINMENT programs on Ten and ABC1 trumped Nine and Seven last night in a reversal of fortune for the third and fourth networks.

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ENTERTAINMENT programs on Ten and ABC1 trumped Nine and Seven last night in a reversal of fortune for the third and fourth networks.

The finale of Ten's Australian drama Offspring built on last week’s million-plus metropolitan audience, averaging 1.106 million viewers in a season's best result.

And on the back of Masterchef Australia’s third biggest audience for this series (923,000) and another 2013 high for the improving The Project (692,000), Ten recorded its second successive 17-plus per cent Wednesday channel share, its best share results since March.

The result comes as something of a relief the day after affiliated regional network Southern Cross Media attributed weakness in its regional television business to Ten’s poor ratings.

Seven won the night with a 19.4 per cent channel share in a close race ahead of Nine’s 18.0 per cent, Ten’s 17.0 per cent and ABC1’s 15.2 per cent. But Ten won among 25-54 year-olds with a 21.7 per cent share ahead of Nine’s 18.9 per cent and Seven’s 18.7 per cent. Offspring and Masterchef were the top two programs in all the key advertising demographics.

ABC1 has finally managed to brighten its wan Wednesday night comedy line-up with the return of the Gruen and Chaser franchises.

Gruen Nation, hosted by Wil Anderson and featuring Network Ten executive general manager Russel Howcroft, delivered an average 1.028 million metro viewers for the public broadcaster - its best Wednesday result for the year. The Chaser’s election special The Hamster Decides averaged 867,000 viewers and both programs won their timeslot.

Seven News (1.285 million) and Nine News (1.218 million) were the most popular programs for the night in the metropolitan markets with Seven News within 44,000 of Nine News in Sydney and 63,000 in Melbourne and ahead in other markets.

Seven’s variety program Slideshow won the key 7.30pm timeslot with 1.032 million metro viewers and 1.612 million viewers nationally.

OZTAM OVERNIGHT RANKINGS, AUGUST 14
1 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,285,000
2 NINE NEWS Nine 1,218,000
3 OFFSPRING Ten 1,106,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Nine 1,086,000
5 SLIDESHOW Seven 1,032,000
6 GRUEN NATION ABC1 1,028,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,003,000
8 ABC NEWS ABC1 956,000
9 HOME AND AWAY Seven 955,000
10 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 923,000
11 BIG BROTHER Nine 894,000
12 THE HAMSTER DECIDES ABC1 867,000
13 QI ABC1 821,000
14 7.30 ABC1 743,000
15 THE PROJECT Ten 692,000
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