Old People's Home For 4 Year Olds
(Image: ABCiView)

Well, the big TV story of 2019 happened last night — out of the blue the second part of the ABC’s five-part Old People’s Home For 4 Year Olds leapt from relative obscurity into the hearts of Australian TV viewers. From a modest 685,000 for the debut a week ago, word of mouth saw its audience surge by nearly a third to 910,000 and it was the 10th most watched program across the country on the night. It beat SeaChange on Nine with 761,000, demolished Seven’s The Proposal with 453,000, and whacked Ten’s old stager, NCIS (a repeat) which could only manage 279,000 viewers.

It is the largest improvement in a TV audience from the debut to the second episode for ages and reflects the public’s appreciation of good storytelling, and, perhaps, a lack of the usual confrontational style programs you get night after night on the commercials (Married at First Sight, The Block, My Kitchen Rules, Australian Survivor, House Rules, etc, etc.).

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (29.2%)
  2. Seven (25.0%)
  3. Ten (19.6%)
  4. ABC (18.2%)
  5. SBS (8.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (20.6%)
  2. Seven (16.3%)
  3. Ten (13.5%)
  4. ABC (13.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.9%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. 10 Bold (3.9%)
  2. GO, 7mate (3.1%)
  3. 7TWO (2.9%)
  4. Gem (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.54 million
  2. Seven News — 1.44 million
  3. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.21 million
  4. Nine/NBN News — 1.167 million
  5. The Block (Nine) — 1.163 million
  6. Australian Survivor (Ten) — 1.05 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.14 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 992,000
  9. 7pm ABC News — 955,000
  10. Old People’s Home For 4 Year Olds (ABC) — 910,000

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 996,000
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight (Seven) — 929,000
  3. Nine News 6.30 —913,000
  4. Nine News — 877,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 751,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 641,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 495,000
  8. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) —469,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 461,000
  10. 10 News First — 347,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 464,000 (Metros: 271,000)
  2. Today (Nine) —288,000 (Metros: 194,000)
  3. ABC News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 267,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 193,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) —103,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) —80,000