Big miss for ABC putting Ms Represented on against the Olympics

On the ’70s TV hit Fantasy Island, Tattoo the loyal offsider would always rush to the bell tower and shout “The plane, the plane!” when the aircraft carrying the next group of fantasists approached the island. Watching the Olympics is a bit like that: around 3pm, Tattoo runs to the bell tower (aka the TV) and yells “The Games, the Games!” and, spookily, Seven emerges from the gloom.

The same happens around 7pm and reality and the soothing tones of Bruce McAvaney emerge. Although yesterday afternoon saw one of his great calls: the final of the men’s 400 metres hurdle and the race (so far) of the Games. Tonight it’s 10.05pm and the final of the men’s 800 metres and Peter Bol.

At 8pm yesterday though, I took back my life and watched the final ep of Ms Represented with Annabel Crabb. It’s by far her best work and one of the most important TV programs to appear on Australian TV because it looked seriously at an important area of Australian social and public life and treated women and politics seriously. It was a greater contribution to Australian journalism and public life than anything that has been yelled on Sky after dark over the years.

Only 595,000 watched last night and I can’t understand why the ABC would schedule this important series when it knew it would run up against the Olympics on Seven. That wasn’t very clever and has the appearance of an ABC TV management trying to bury what it thought would be a controversial series. It deserved clear air and Monday night instead of Australian Story (8pm) would have been ideal, with no Games competition. It was certainly streets ahead of the latest series of One Plus One. I loved Amanda Vanstone’s eyerolls (a feature of the series, as were Crabb’s eyebrows and glass repositioning to make a wordless comment).

Breakfast: Sunrise, 621,000 nationally and 394,000 metro; News Breakfast, 348,000 and 218,000; Today, 326,000 and 230,000.

Regional top five: Seven News 6.30, 659,000; Seven News, 637,000; Tokyo Games day 11, evening –536,000; Tokyo Games day 4, night — 450,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 397,000.

Network channel share:

1. Seven (50.0%)
2. Nine (20.1%)
3. Ten (14.3%)
4. ABC (10.8%)
5. SBS (4.8%)

Network main channels:

1. Seven (31.6%)
2. Nine (14.6%)
3. Ten (9.2%)
4. ABC (7.8%)
5. SBS ONE (2.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. 7mate (13.6%)
2. 7TWO (3.7%)
3. 10 Bold (2.8%)
4. 10 Peach (2.0%)
5. GO (1.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 2.04 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.985 million
3. Tokyo Games day 11, evening (Seven) — 1.679 million
4. Tokyo Games day 11, night (Seven) — 1.467 million
5. Nine News  — 1.4 million
6. Nine News 6.30 — 1.302 million
7. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.159 million
8. Tokyo Games day 11, afternoon (Seven) — 1.11 million
9. 7pm ABC News — 1.109 million
10. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.026 million

Top metro programs: 
1. Seven News  — 1.403 million

2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.326 million

3. Tokyo Games day 11, evening (Seven) — 1.143 million

4. Tokyo Games day 11, night (Seven) — 1.016 million 

5. Nine News — 1.061 million 

Losers: nothing because of the dominance of the Games.

Metro news and current affairs

1. Seven News 1.403 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.326 million
3. Nine News —1.061 million
4. Nine News 6.30 — 987,000
5. 7pm ABC News —757,000
6. ACA (Nine) — 720,000
7. 7.30 (ABC) — 561,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 406,000
9. Ten News First (ABC) — 379,000
10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 272,000

Morning (national) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 621,000/394,000
2. News Breakfast (ABC) — 348,000/218,000
3. Today (Nine) — 326,000/230,000
4. The Morning Show (Seven) — pre-empted by the Games
5. Today Extra (Nine) — 207,000
6. Studio 10 (Ten) —  60,000

Top five pay TV programs: 

1. Credlin (Sky News) — 72,000
2. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 57,000
3. Alan Jones (Sky News) — 46,000
4. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 41,000
5. AM Agenda (Sky News) — 39,000