Another random snapshot of what we were watching on TV. This time it’s the week ending 3 June 2000.
We’d fought off the Y2K bug and the GST was just around the corner. The Games Of The XXVII Olympiad in Sydney were a few short months away.
And we were still watching analogue TV.
The Nine Network topped the prime time ratings (ACNielsen, 5 cities) for the week ending 3 June 2000 — scoring 31.4%, followed by Seven (30.0%), Ten (20.3%), ABC (15.2%) and SBS (3.0%). Nine won comfortably in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, while Seven won in Adelaide and Perth.
In the regional markets: Queensland was won by WIN (32.2%), Northern NSW was easily won by NBN (37.5%), WIN (32.9%) was top in Southern NSW and also in Victoria (36.4%). The Seven network affiliates in each market ranked second, while Ten affiliates ranked third in Queensland, Southern NSW and Victoria but fourth place in Northern NSW where it was beaten by ABC.
In Tasmania, Southern Cross Television (44.1%) was almost ten points clear of runner up WIN.
The Top 20 shows for Week 39 (May 28-June 3, 2000): | ||||
Rank | Program | Network | Day(s) | Viewers* |
1 | Backyard Blitz | Nine | Sun | 2436000 |
2 | National Nine News | Nine | Sun | 2379000 |
3 | Special: Great Winter Ideas | Seven | Tue | 2122000 |
4 | Friends | Nine | Mon | 1990000 |
5 | Seven News | Seven | Sun | 1985000 |
6 | Burke’s Backyard | Nine | Fri | 1959000 |
7 | Harry’s Practice | Seven | Sun | 1887000 |
8 | ER | Nine | Thu | 1884000 |
9 | Hot Property | Seven | Wed | 1857000 |
10 | Spin City | Nine | Mon | 1847000 |
11 | Blue Heelers | Seven | Wed | 1833000 |
12 | Movie: Austin Powers | Nine | Sun | 1825000 |
13 | Ground Force | Seven | Wed | 1814000 |
14 | Getaway | Nine | Thu | 1809000 |
15 | 60 Minutes | Nine | Sun | 1742000 |
16 | Ally McBeal | Seven | Mon | 1729000 |
17 | National Nine News | Nine | M-F | 1723000 |
18 | National Nine News | Nine | Sat | 1716000 |
19 | Our House | Nine | Wed | 1709000 |
20 | A Current Affair | Nine | M-F | 1692000 |
* Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth Source: Mediaweek, as supplied by ACNielsen. |
Network Ten‘s highest place in the weekly rankings was a Thursday night screening of The Simpsons, ranked at 38th spot with 1,336,000 viewers. The network’s highest rating Australian program was The Panel at #44 with 1,267,000.
ABC‘s top program was British series Monarch Of The Glen, ranked 24th with 1,652,000. Its top Australian program was the late news at #41 with 1,308,000, followed by drama series Seachange (#49, 1.206m).
SBS did not have any program ranked in the Top 100.
The weeknight 6.00pm timeslot was won by National Nine News (#17, 1.723m) followed by Seven News (#37, 1.366m) and Ten’s repeats of sitcom The Nanny (#75, 905,000).
At 6.30pm A Current Affair (#20, 1.692m) was well ahead of Seven’s Today Tonight (#48, 1.214m) and Ten’s Neighbours (#66, 1.021m). Neighbours even managed to outrate TT in Sydney.
Sale Of The New Century (#29, 1.546m) won at 7.00pm, ahead of Home And Away (pictured)(#35, 1.428m), ABC News (#59, 1.095m) and Seinfeld (#68, 988,000).
The battle of the Sunday night movies was won by Nine’s Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (#12, 1.825m), followed by Ten’s Dante’s Peak (#65, 1.048m) and Seven’s Courage Under Fire (#93, 746,000).
Nine’s Burgo’s Catchphrase (#84, 789,000) beat Seven’s Wheel Of Fortune (pictured)(#92, 749,000) in the 5.30pm game show battle.
Other notable rankings include Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (#21, 1.688m), All Saints (#32, 1.459m), Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show (#33, 1.444m), Water Rats (#50, 1.200m), the Grand Final of talent quest Starstruck (#42, 1.297m), Ten News At Five (weeknights, #56, 1.120m) and The Footy Show: AFL (#97, 723,000).
The Seven Network special The Deep End, an interview between Andrew Denton and Ian Thorpe, was ranked #31 with 1,464,000 viewers.
In Sydney the top show was National Nine News (Sunday, 673,000) followed by Backyard Blitz (670,000), Seven’s lifestyle special Great Winter Ideas (617,000) and Burke’s Backyard (603,000).
Melbourne’s top show was Sunday’s National Nine News (834,000) followed by Backyard Blitz (745,000), Harry’s Practice (682,000) and then local magazine show Postcards (679,000) which had been shifted from 5.30pm to 7.00pm to bridge the half-hour gap between Backyard Blitz (pictured) and 60 Minutes.
In Brisbane the top rating show was Backyard Blitz (451,000) followed by Sunday’s National Nine News (436,000), Great Winter Ideas (pictured)(371,000) and movie Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (350,000).
While Adelaide and Perth were included in the national totals, local rankings were not included in the Top 100 list.
Source: Mediaweek, 13 June 2000, with ratings data supplied by ACNielsen.