Seven had four of the top five rating programs last night, with the INXS miniseries pulling in just shy of two million metro viewers, followed closely by Sunday Night and MKR.
INXS: Never Tear Us Apart attracted 1.974 million metro viewers, according to preliminary overnight figures from OzTam. Sunday Night's special investigation into the Gittany murder pulled in 1.793 million viewers, followed by MKR (1.64 million) and Seven News (1.292 million).
Nine took fifth place with The Block: Fans vs Faves, which attracted 1.274 million viewers. Nine News Sunday took sixth (1.223 million) with Schapelle in seventh (1.022 million) and the Sochi Women's Snowboard Slopestyle Final on Ten in eighth with 996,000.
Media analyst Steve Allen, managing director of Fusion Strategy, told AdNews Ten's Sochi coverage was doing "better than expected" and if the network could maintain its current ratings throughout the week it would be a "very good result".
"We've only got 12 real chances but still there seems to be a real willingness to watch Winter Olympics," Allen said. "And considering how much audience wasn't available [due to Seven and Nine stacking the night] it just shows some things have got pulling power."
Allen said the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance, which came in at 18th with 466,000 metro viewers, was "worth three times the ratings it got" and predicted it would attract "some of the biggest time-shifted audience ever".
"It will lift its audience [in catch-up] by 50 and maybe even 100%," he said. "There was such a solid line-up on Nine and Seven that people couldn't even watch during the evening. [The premiere of So You Think You Can Dance] was the best episode they've ever put to air."
Fusion Strategy is due to release its ratings forecast later today. Allen said Ten is "going to be squeezed all year long" and is "not going to get the ratings they deserve". "If they keep putting up the kind of format they are at the moment, they deserve better ratings. Nine and Seven are just squeezing each other so hard, all Ten can do is pick up the crumbs. And they're not going to let up."
In terms of consolidated audience share, Seven won the night with 37.6%, followed by Nine (27%), Ten (20.5%), ABC (11.9%) and SBS (3.1%).
Sunday 9 February 2014
1. INXS: Never Tear Us Apart (Seven) – 1.974 million
2. Sunday Night (Seven) – 1.793 million
3. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 1.64 million
4. Seven News – 1.292 million
5. The Block: Fans vs Faves (Nine) – 1.274 million
6. Nine News Sunday – 1.223 million
7. Schapelle (Nine) – 1.022 million
8. Sochi Live Women's Snowboard Slopestyle Final (Ten) – 996,000
9. 60 Minutes (Nine) – 866,000
10. ABC News – 790,000
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