Sky News’ Morrison interview fails to wow audiences

The merry-go-round that is Sky News’ interviews with Prime Minister Scott Morrison this year continued last night on Paul Murray Live. A fabulous audience of just 90,000 watched — unchanged from a week ago when the program was sans-PM, and down from 101,000 on Tuesday night. Not an extra viewer was added!

It is the fourth interview our PM has done with the News Corp PR service this year — two with Murray, one a week or so ago with Chris Kenny and the first for the year back in early March with Peta Credlin (which, by the way, garnered 38,000). 

That’s three Sky talking heads to fill in for David Speers who would have done the lot if he’s stayed at Sky and not gone to the ABC and Insiders. Speers’ first report for Four Corners on Monday night was watched by 1.05 million people nationally. That’s what his talent and the ABC’s reputation gets. That it took Sky three people to fill the hole Speers left speaks volumes.

 Elsewhere it was a close night, a bit for everyone bar Doctor Doctor on Nine — 720,000 nationally meant it ran a weak fourth at 7.30 behind MasterChef (1.26 million) and Hard Quiz (1.06 million) on Ten, 7.30 (1.11 million) on the ABC and Britain’s Got Talent (860,000) on Seven.

Network channel share:

1. Seven (25.8%)
2. Nine (24.9%)
3. Ten (21.1%)
4. ABC (20.0%)
5. SBS (8.2%)

Network main channels:

1. Seven (18.4%)
2. Nine (16.9%)
3. ABC (14.8%)
4. Ten (14.7%)
5. SBS ONE (4.9%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. 10 Bold (4.3%)
2. 7TWO (3.1%)
3. GO (2.8%)
4. 7mate (2.7%)
5. Gem (2.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 1.967 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.841 million
3. Nine/NBN News — 1.476 million
4. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.469 million
5. 7pm ABC News — 1.327 million
6. Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.261 million
7. ACA (Nine) — 1.195 million
8. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.118 million
9. 7.30 (ABC) — 1.115 million
10. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.064 million

Top metro programs:

1. Seven News — 1.291 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.192 million
3. Nine News  — 1.135 million
4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.106 million

Losers: Seven and Nine — deadish

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News — 1.291 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.192 million
3. Nine News  — 1.135 million
4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.106 million
5. 7pm ABC News — 929,000
6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 852,000
7. 7.30 (ABC) — 779,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 615,000
9. ACA & 7.30 (Nine) — 597,000
10. Ten News First — 466,000
11. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 359,000

Morning (National) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 525,000/314,000
2. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 360,000/238,000
3. Today (Nine) — 356,000/238,000
4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 304,000
5. Mornings (Nine) — 198,000
6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 98,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. Gogglebox Australia (LifeStyle) — 181,000
2. Selling Houses Australia(LifeStyle) — 144,000
3. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 90,000
4. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 86,000
5. Supercars eSeries (Fox Sport) — 76,000