A whopping 2.66m viewers watched Green Moon win the 2012 Melbourne Cup yesterday -just pipping the 2.65m who watched in Dunaden’s 2011 win.
The number is one of the biggest audiences of 2012, just behind the State of Origin decider.
Seven strategically coded its broadcast into various segments, just as most broadcasters do for key sporting events. The number doesn’t include all the other Aussies who were gathered around TV sets in bars and offices (Update: including regionals it was 3.59m). Nor does it contribute to Seven’s primetime share, which begins at 6pm. But it does help drive viewers into primetime.
Seven Network won with a 31.9% share, then Nine 23.8%, TEN 20.8%, ABC 17.0% and SBS 6.6%.
Aside from the 2.66m who watched The Race, the other numbers for Cup coverage were Presentation: 1.95m, Mounting Yard: 1.63m, Late: 927,000 and Early: 665,000. Other Seven numbers were The X Factor (1.54m), Seven News (1.33m), Winners and Losers (1.25m), Today Tonight (1.19m), Home and Away (990,000), Deal or No Deal (601,000), Once Upon a Time (394,000) and Smash (136,000).
Nine News (1.13m) led for Nine then Big Bang (1.01m / 854,000), ACA (982,000), Big Brother (967,000), 2 Broke Girls (694,000), Hot Seat (635,000), Two and a Half Men (516,000), Mike and Molly (357,000) and Survivor (187,000).
NCIS (849,000) was best for TEN. Modern Family was 696,000, TEN News was 633,000, Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals was 612,000 / 605,000, NCIS: LA was 602,000, The Project 6pm was 392,000 and TEN Late News was 300,000.
ABC News hit 1.12m for ABC1 then 7:30 (829,000), Foreign Correspondent (649,000), Obama: What Happened to Hope? (470,000) and First Tuesday Book Club (292,000).
56 Up was strong for SBS ONE on 403,000 then Insight (260,000), World News Australia (188,000) and Dateline (139,000).
Neighbours led multichannels with 292,000.
Tuesday 6 November 2012
Amended.