Ratings for Network Ten’s Australian Idol live final slumped this year, with just 1.41 million viewers watching Natalie Gauci crowned as the winner, compared to 2.2 million last year.
Last year Ten claimed a 66.9% commercial share in its key demographic of 18 to 49 for the Australian Idol – The Winner Announced Show, but it dipped to 50% this year.
At its peak Idol pulled in 1.78m viewers, compared to 2.4 million last year.
While Idol won in every major demographic, the number of viewers across all three of its final shows were considerably down on 2006 when Damien Leith was crowned the winner.
Australia Idol – The Final Verdict, which was broadcast from 8.17pm to 9.37pm, pulled in a total audience of 1.42m, compared to 2.11m in 2006, while Australia Idol – Live from the Opera House from 7.31pm to 8.17pm bagged 1.3m this year compared to 1.7m viewers in 2006.
Seven News was the most watched programme in the five city metro areas on Sunday night, with 1.474m viewers, according to OzTam data.
Nine’s 60 Minutes was the fourth most watched programme, coming in at 1.358m, and ahead of Australia Idol – Live from the Opera House. The Kath & Kim Movie was eighth, at 1.262 million.
Ten said that the number average weekly unique visitors to its Australian idol website was up 18% on 2006 to nearly 120,000. Average time spent online was also up 36.5% to more than 11 minutes. The number of video viewers also doubled to 7 million.
