ABC beats Nine and Ten as Four Corners’ inside story of the broadcaster’s corporate meltdown scores 719,000 viewers

Last night's episode was titled 'Bitter End'
Last night’s episode of Four Corners saw 719,000 metro viewers tune in.
The episode, which aired at 8:30pm and investigated the ABC’s corporate crisis which resulted in the demise of its managing director Michelle Guthrie and chair Justin Milne, helped the national broadcaster beat commercial rivals Nine and Ten, with an audience share of 17.6% for the evening.
Four Corners was edged out by Ten’s Have You Been Paying Attention?, which managed 724,000 metro viewers in the same time slot.
Meanwhile Seven’s Bride & Prejudice, which started at 7:30pm and ran until 9:00pm, averaged 668,000 metro viewers.
Nine’s Family Food Fight, which went head to head with Bride & Prejudice had a metro audience of just 384,000.
In the key advertising demographics, Have You Been Paying Attention? was the most-watched program across the 16-39, 18-49 and 25-54 demographics.
Despite not managing to beat Seven’s winning 19.2% audience share, the ABC topped Nine’s 15.2% share, Ten’s 12.8% and SBS’ 4.9% share.
For the multi-channels, 7mate was the most watched station with a 4.9% share.
The most watched program last night was Seven News at 6pm as it averaged 1.013m metro viewers, beating Nine News’ 918,000.
Confirmed 2 things. Milne should not have been chair. Guthrie should have been ceo.
We already knew that Fifield has no idea and spends his time as minister writing complaints about the abc.
We also knew the then PM thinks media is about technology, which is why two bad choices were put on charge.
None of the recent decisions about the abc board or ceo (recent being the choices since the 1980s) have reflected a desire for governance and strategy of a media company. Of course the commercial boards haven’t done any better, with clueless people in charge and on the board of most.
Maybe the next government will understand that a well directed abc will have strong disciplines around quality and community value. Maybe they will appoint leadership that knows what that is when it comes to News, entertainment and community interest.
Or maybe not. And I will be happy with sbs.