Stan Grant’s highly publicised departure from the ABC following racism allegations hasn’t exactly translated to big numbers for his final episode of Q+A last night.
The weekly gabfest was about average, posting 310,000 OzTAM metro viewers that made it the 19th most watched show of Monday.
However, it didn’t stop Grant going out with aplomb and a veiled attack on his detractors after he announced he was taking an indefinite break from journalism.
“Sometimes we just need to take time out, sometimes our souls are hurting, and so it is for me,” Grant said, as tears welled in his eyes. “I’m not walking away for a while because of racism – we get that far too often. I’m not walking away because of social media hatred. I need a break from the media. I feel like I’m part of the problem. And I need to ask myself how or if we can do it better.
“If your aim was to hurt me, well, you succeeded. And I’m sorry,” he said at the end of last night’s episode. “I’m sorry that I must have given you so much cause to hate me so much, to target me and my family, to make threats against me … I’m not just responsible for what I do, but for what you do.”
Grant’s speech got a standing ovation from the audience.
The departing host was joined on last night’s episode with a host of federal politicians that included Labor’s Michelle Ananda-Rajah, Liberal Zoe McKenzie, independent David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie Network member Tammy Tyrrell and the Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather.
Patricia Karvelas will host Q+A next week ahead of the show taking a mid-season break.
Meanwhile, a Farmer Wants A Wife Reunion was the most watched entertainment show of the night pulling 649,000.
10’s You Been Paying Attention?/MasterChef combo did 563,000 and 483,000.
Seven won Monday with 29.9 per cent of all of last night’s eyeballs (all channels). Nine had to settle for 24.7 per cent. 10 narrowly pipped the ABC, 19.5 to 19.1 per cent respectively. While SBS did 6.8 per cent.
Seven’s news was the most watched show of Monday with 1.01 million viewers. Nine’s news had 826,000 and ACA posted 709,000.
10’s The Project had 307,000.
In the battle of the afternoon shows, Seven’s The Chase had 569,000 and Nine’s Hot Seat did 443,000.
The ABC’s evening ran thus: 7pm news (600,000), 7.30 (481,000), Media Watch (459,000), Four Corners (432,000), Australian Story (398,000) and, of course, Q+A (310,000).
