Sunrise is comfortably ahead in the major capitals this year,averaging 263,000 viewers toToday's 244,000. The gap widens when regional audiences are included,puttingSunrise on 455,000 andToday on 366,000. (Don't be fooled by these small numbers. More than 3 million Australians catch at least a few minutes of breakfast TV each week. The averages appear tiny,however,because no one watches from start to finish.)
Barring some unforseen catastrophe,Seven can assumeSunrise will cruise to a resounding victory by December. While Nine will endure this through gritted teeth,it knows there's no reason to panic.
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Wilkinson joined Karl Stefanovic onToday back in 2007. It took the pairalmost a decade to rack up 21 weekly wins.
In the few years prior,as an ascendant Sunrise leftToday in the dust,Nine burned through a busload of co-hosts. Instead of stopping the rot,this caused its ratings to sink even further. Through bitter experience,Nine learned that patience is essential in this battle.
Perhaps a bigger concern is the fact both programs are shedding viewers. This isn't unique toToday orSunrise;the entire free-to-air industry is being buffetedby online competition and changing viewer habits.
Compared to this time last year,Sunrise's average audience has dropped by 68,000 andToday is down by 63,000 which,proportionally,means Today's decline is slightly greater.
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Neither program is about to be usurped byNews Breakfast,hosted by Virginia Trioli and Michael Rowland,but they'd be foolishto underestimate their ABC rival.
Year-on-year,News Breakfast's average audience has softened from 254,000 to 245,000. In 2018,a loss that small is actually an accomplishment.