In an emotional opening on ABC’s 7.30, presenter Leigh Sales pleaded with the Australian public to treat the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, telling the nation it’s up to the collective to curb the spread.
Her direct-to-camera address drew in 911,000 metro viewers, according to OzTAM.
She said: “You may be watching 7.30 tonight, hoping to learn what can be done to stop Coronavirus from here. If you think the answer is more resources for hospitals, you’re wrong.
“If you think it’s the government, wrong again. And it’s not the scientists working on a vaccine either. The answer is you.”
“You are our best hope of stopping Coronavirus. Your individual behaviour is the most important thing to prevent it spreading and everything else flows from that.”
You can watch the emotional plea below.
"You are our best hope of stopping #coronavirus. Your individual behaviour is the most important thing to prevent it spreading." – @leighsales #abc730 pic.twitter.com/fesqw1AcTP
— abc730 (@abc730) March 23, 2020
Nine won the night across all channels, primary channel and key demos. In primary channel, Nine did 22.8 per cent, Seven did 16.9 per cent, ABC finished the night with 16.0 per cent, 10 did 11.3 per cent and SBS did 3.9 per cent.
News remained the pick of the night, with the top nine programmes for the night (Nine’s MAFS aside) going to news. Here’s how the rest of the night went.
Nine
News did 1.19m, MAFS did 1.12m, ACA did 890,000, a news special on COVID-19 did 570,000 and Hot Seat did 571,000.
Seven
News did 1.23m, The Latest: Seven News did 649,000, The Chase Australia did 603,000 and MKR did 508,000.
10
Survivor did 736,000, The Project did 623,000 and Hughesy We Have a Problem did 333,000.
ABC
News did 955,000, Australian Story did 681,000, Media Watch did 585,000, Four Corners did 520,000, and Q+A did 563,000.
All channels share
Nine won the night across all channels with 30.0 per cent, Seven came second with 25.0 per cent, ABC did 21.5 per cent, 10 did 17.1 per cent and SBS did 6.4 per cent.
Demographic breakdown (all channels)
People 25-54
- Nine – 33.3 per cent
- 10 – 22.6 per cent
- Seven – 21.9 per cent
People 16-39
- Nine – 33.5 per cent
- 10 – 24.4 per cent
- Seven – 22.0 per cent
