Aussies love affair with Bathurst’s Great Race was on show again yesterday when Ten’s telecast pulled an average 905,000 viewers during the day with 1.02 million tuning in for the podium presentation.
The race, run in wet conditions, had plenty of spills and crashes which caused the TV coverage to run over by a good 45 minutes. This in turn knocked off close to 100,000 viewers from each of Nine and Seven’s 6pm news bulletins.
Yet, once again the star of the night was Nine’s The Block that pulled an impressive 1.57 million viewers and handed the broadcaster the win after it snared a dominating 36.4 per cent of the audience share. Seven was second with 22.9 per cent, Ten managed 17.7 per cent, the ABC had 17.4 per cent and SBS 5.6 per cent.
Nine’s 60 Minutes was also impressive, managing 1.09 million. Seven’s Sunday Night (albeit in an earlier time slot) could only muster 637,000 viewers.
Seven’s Little Big Shots has also lost some of its lustre, pulling 881,000.
Over at Ten, the Sunday Project managed a bit of halo effect from Bathurst, snaring its best result since launch with 459,000.
For the ABC, its evening went thus: Doc Martin (832,000), 7pm news (828,000), The Doctor Blake Mysteries (793,000), Fearless (290,000) and Classic Countdown (246,000).
For once, trains didn’t dominate at SBS, instead The Greeks was its best, albeit with a disappointing 158,000.
