Television

Seven wins week by a nose   Author: eNews staff and agencies | Nov 12, 2007, 20:29

Nine got close to Seven last week, the closest for almost two months as the Number 1 network's program's faded.

The likes of Bionic Woman, Heroes, Criminal Minds on Wednesday, Prison Break and Ghost Whisperer were off the boil and couldn't add to the strong lead Seven established with its now customary strong nights on Monday and Tuesday.

Nine got to within 2.3% of nipping past Seven.

Still while closer than it has been, Nine obviously lacks enough firepower to do the business and exploit Seven's slowing momentum.

Nine though is showing that it has nothing in its cupboard. The poorly made and received Dirty Jobs finished up in the 7 pm timeslot a week ago Sunday night and was replaced by an even bigger failure called Commercial Breakdown which bombed on Monday nights.

It will make it easier for Seven and Ten, but won't help struggling 60 Minutes at 7.30 pm.

Seven won last week with a share of 28.6% (28.9% a week earlier) for the week, to 26.3% (25.6%) for Nine. Ten was on 21.8% (22.1%), the ABC was on 18.2% (18.1%) and SBS was on 5.1% (5.3%).

Seven won Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

Nine won Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Seven won Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Seven's Better Homes and Gardens was the most watched program on Friday night and the ABC's British comedy drama, New Tricks, was the most watched on Saturday night.

Seven had 11 programs in the top 20 shows, Nine had four, the ABC has three and ten had two.

There were four foreign programs in the list of top 20 most watched programs. New Tricks was the top overseas program, with House next. they were the only two foreign produced programs in the top 10. CSI and My Name Is Earl were the next two most popular overseas programs.

The most watched program was the Melbourne Cup on Seven with 2.191 million. That was down on the 2006 cup which was watched by 2.271 million on Seven.

It was the smallest audience this decade and was hit by the absence of a number of overseas and interstate fancies due to the horse flu.

Saturday's cricket test broadcast on Nine drew an average of 794,000 viewers for Nine from around 11 am to just before 6 pm.

Seven News and Today Tonight won the 6 pm to 7 pm battle over Nine, despite a close finish on Friday night. Nine News won Melbourne and Brisbane, Seven News won Sydney, Adelaide and Perth/.

Today Tonight beat ACA in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. ACA won Brisbane. 60 Minutes finished at Number 38 last week, an unusually low finish for the veteran program.

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