Wednesday 16 July 1997
By eBroadcast Staff and agencies.

GTV CHANNEL NINE secured its position as the number one television station in Melbourne with its twentieth consecutive win for the 1997 official rating year.

Week 20 (July 6-12) finished with Nine in front with a 32.4 audience share, followed by Seven with 27.8, Ten at 20.9, ABC with 15.3 and SBS at 3.6.

The cornerstone of Nine's success remains its 6:00pm-7:30pm with National Nine News and A Current Affair continuing to thrash the opposition, while Sale Of The Century, now in its 17th year, is enjoying outstanding ratings this year.

Nine's regular line-up including The Footy Show, Hey Hey It's Saturday, Friends, In Melbourne Tonight, Our House, Money, Sixty Minutes, Burke's Backyard, The Price Is Right, ER, Midday, Catch Phrase, Water Rats, Good Guys Bad Guys, Good Medicine, Australia's Funniest Home Video Shows, Getaway and Caroline In The City have all recorded winning performances this year.

With twenty weeks remaining of the official ratings year, Nine is confident of maintaining its winning form, particularly with its solid schedule which includes the return of This Is Your Life, followed by the premier series Moment Of Truth which attracted a massive audience of 702,000 for the first episode. Suddenly Susan, a new addition to the Monday night line-up proved the winning choice with over 650,000 viewers.