Fiery Breakfast War Wages Between Nine And Seven, Both Claim Ratings Win

It’s the age old battle between Seven and Nine – who dominates the breakfast TV slot – and it seems that less than 10 weeks out from the last week of the year, we have our answer.

Well, sort of.

Both Seven and Nine are claiming the crown, despite both deciding to use different metric systems to support their claims. Nine is maintaining its victory on the basis of winning 21 out of the 40 weeks in the ratings year, per OzTAM figures, while Seven asserts its success based on overall average audiences for the same 40 weeks.

In the five city Metro, excluding Easter and Olympics, Today has averaged 317,000 viewers to Sunrise‘s 310,000, per OzTAM. But including Olympics Sunrise averages 318,000 over Today‘s 316,000.

A Seven spokesperson told B&T, “Weekly wins is not an audience metric. Average audiences across a television year are. It is a close tussle in breakfast television across the five metropolitan markets.

“The one indisputable fact is that more Australians watch Sunrise than any other breakfast television programme. Nine’s claims about being the leading breakfast programme across Australia are not correct.

“We dominate across Australia.”

Meanwhile, in a statement from Nine, the network claims, “With 40 weeks in the official ratings calendar, Today has now won 21 weeks out of the 35 weeks so far this year across the five mainland capitals, putting it in an unbeatable position and awarding it a five City Metro ratings victory for 2016.

“It marks the first time that Today has won the yearly breakfast battle across the five City Metro since 2003.

“Weekend Today is also on the cusp of claiming ratings supremacy over Weekend Sunrise. Weekend Today has so far won 20 weekends in 2016. A win this weekend will see it win the yearly weekend breakfast battle for the first time ever.”

Per TV Tonight, a Nine spokesperson added, “Seven’s response is very much like Donald Trump saying he’ll only accept the result if he wins!”

Darren Wick, director of news & current affairs for the Nine Network, today paid tribute to his staff and viewers regarding the outcome.

“Every single day, the Today team – both on air and behind the scenes – set out to deliver a show that our viewers will find informative and entertaining. We’re thrilled that so many Australians are liking what we do and tune in to watch Today every morning.”

In the meantime, there’s still five more weeks of the two breakfast programs for everyone to agree on the actual winner.

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