Sunrise or Today? New statistics reveal which breakfast TV show has better audience engagement
Sunrise versus the Today show – it’s a ratings battle that’s been raging for decades.
And according to new figures released on Thursday, one breakfast show reigns supreme when it comes to the crucial field of audience engagement.
The Sunrise viewership average per-person is 54 minutes on weekdays, five-minutes longer than the Today show.
Sunrise or Today? New stats have revealed that Sunrise reigns supreme in the field of audience engagement – a metric advertisers say correlates to how much they’re willing to spend
Today hosts Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon – who are hosting together for the first time in 2020 – manage to keep viewers watching for an average of 49 minutes.
Sunrise has the advantage of stability, with Samantha Armytage and David Koch now in their seventh year as co-hosts of Seven’s flagship breakfast program.
Audience engagement, or the average amount of time a viewer will watch a program before tuning out, directly correlates to how much advertisers are willing to spend on the show.
‘Audience engagement, on top of viewer numbers, is one of the biggest talking points in the modern media landscape,’ media analyst Steve Allen told the Herald Sun.
David Koch (pictured) and Samantha Armytage maintain viewer engagement for an average of 54 minutes for Sunrise on weekdays
‘Advertisers and their agencies really consider time spent watching, particularly at breakfast where people often dip in and out,’ he continued.
‘In breakfast television, every minute counts,’ added Sunrise executive producer Michael Pell said.
This constitutes a clean sweep for Sunrise, who also comfortably leads the battle for total viewership in both metropolitan markets and nationally.
They beat out competitors Karl Stefanovic (L) and Allison Langdon (R), with viewers spending an average of 49 minutes before changing the channel or tuning out
Thus far in 2020, Sunrise averages 295,000 viewers across the five metropolitan capital cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth).
Today is languishing behind with an average viewership of just 181,000 in the metro markets.
The gap is even wider when considering national viewership (including regional areas) with Sunrise averaging 503,000 in 2020, compared to 322,000 for Today.
Stability: Sunrise has the advantage of stability, with Samantha and David now in their seventh year as co-hosts of Seven’s flagship breakfast program. 2020 is Karl and Allison’s first year hosting together