Top 20 Consolidated 28 Free to Air Programs

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Over recent years, there’s been a rapidly increasing use of time-shifting devices to watch TV. Whether it’s digital video recorders or the built-in time-shifting capabilities of some smart TVs and streaming devices, the audience for a channel and its shows might not all be sitting down at the same time to watch.

The Consolidated 28 ratings are designed to take this into account. Thanks to the advanced technology of the Unitam device that’s operating in every household on the ratings panel, it’s possible for OzTam to track viewing of particular shows not just when they go to air, but also when they’re played back later – at any time in the following four weeks. It doesn’t matter what device the shows are recorded with – as long as they’re played back through the TV at normal speed, they’re counted.

Top 20 Free to Air Consolidated

The Consolidated 28 list brings together viewer numbers from the live broadcast (also known as the Overnight ratings), the Consolidated 7 rankings (shows viewed some time in the week following broadcast) and the final Consolidated 28 numbers.

This paints a clear picture of the real viewer numbers for a particular show. While some shows tend to be watched live as they go to air, some pick up substantial extra viewers when people watch the episode later from their time-shifted recording. Long-term, this list provides the truest picture of how many viewers each show had.

The only drawback is that the data takes a full four weeks to be finalised – but this is still extremely useful for the TV networks to judge the true following of a show – and whether it stays on the air.

Like many of OzTAM’s lists, these rankings can also be broken down into specific age groups, but the list on this page shows you the numbers for viewers of all ages.

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Top 20 Consolidated 28 Programs
All Free-to-Air

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Rank	Description (grouped)	Channel\Network	Consolidated 28	Consolidated 7	Overnight	000s Increase on Consolidated 7	000s Increase on Overnight
1	SEVEN NEWS	Seven Network	1,091,000	1,091,000	1,091,000	0	0
2	SEVEN NEWS AT 6.30	Seven Network	1,054,000	1,054,000	1,053,000	0	1,000
3	NINE NEWS	Nine	969,000	969,000	969,000	0	1,000
4	NINE NEWS 6:30	Nine	946,000	946,000	945,000	0	0
5	ABC NEWS-EV	ABC	780,000	780,000	778,000	0	1,000
6	A CURRENT AFFAIR	Nine	741,000	740,000	739,000	0	2,000
7	BLUEY-AM	ABCKIDS/COMEDY	662,000	352,000	160,000	311,000	503,000
8	THE BACHELOR AUSTRALIA THURS	Network 10	642,000	633,000	591,000	9,000	51,000
9	THE CHASE AUSTRALIA	Seven Network	603,000	603,000	602,000	0	1,000
10	7.30-EV	ABC	585,000	585,000	583,000	0	2,000
11	THE PROJECT 7PM	Network 10	557,000	557,000	551,000	0	6,000
12	HOME AND AWAY	Seven Network	549,000	544,000	510,000	4,000	39,000
13	HOT SEAT	Nine	521,000	521,000	518,000	0	3,000
14	THE WORLD’S MOST SCENIC RAILWAY JOURNEYS	SBS Network	396,000	390,000	364,000	6,000	32,000
15	ESCAPE FROM THE CITY-EV	ABC	373,000	363,000	331,000	11,000	42,000
16	THE CHASE AUSTRALIA-5PM	Seven Network	364,000	364,000	363,000	0	1,000
17	10 NEWS FIRST	Network 10	363,000	363,000	363,000	0	0
18	THE FRONT BAR	Seven Network	362,000	361,000	334,000	1,000	28,000
19	SAMMY J-EV	ABC	361,000	357,000	356,000	4,000	5,000
20	CELEBRITY GOGGLEBOX USA	Network 10	341,000	340,000	307,000	2,000	34,000

© OzTAM Pty Limited 2020. The Data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) without the prior written consent of OzTAM. Program performance and ranking information subject to change when not based on final program logs. Ranking information is for individual episodes. Includes Preliminary data.