“Free-to-air disaster” dampens strong Sunday night crowd

Sunday night football may already be dead and buried, with Gerard Whateley revealing the dire television numbers that threaten to kill off the concept with immediate effect.

Round 22 saw __Carlton__face St Kilda in a rare Sunday night timeslot, adjusted to allow clear air for the AFLW’s curtain raising season opener between the two sides at Marvel Stadium.

Typically only utilised on Sundays leading into a public holiday, the timeslot was trialled by the AFL in what was a crucial matchup between two sides fighting for a spot in the finals.

And it ticked all of the visual boxes.

With an attendance of 43,434, many suggested that the Sunday night slot was here to stay. especially considering the AFL’s battle to balance an extra fixture in the coming years as Tasmania and a 20th team loom.

However, rather unfortunately, the television audience numbers reflected quite the opposite to what many suspected, including Gerard Whateley.

“Here’s something I had completely wrong - the television audiences for the Sunday night game,” Whateley told SEN.

“Adam Simpson posed the question yesterday – what is the place of Sunday night footy? Not terribly strong, or popular, as it turns out.

“The live crowd was excellent… the television audience was awful.

“I thought it had a chance of getting a three-times bigger audience than on Sunday afternoon, but it in fact got a significantly smaller audience than the week before.

“Gold Coast versus Melbourne – this is free-to-air average audience – the previous week, 3:15pm game, 455,000.

“Carlton versus St Kilda in the prime time, 363,000, which is an awful number. The previous week on Channel 7, The Voice in the same timeslot, 1.36m viewers.

“One million fewer viewers in prime time for the footy than The Voice, and the Carlton St Kilda average audience versus The Block and MasterChef – 1.3m and 830,000.

“That’s a free-to-air disaster, the Sunday night game. Talk about questions that answer themselves.

“I wonder if the dynamic is either, ‘we’ve had enough of footy by Sunday night’, or the patterns in family life are to watch these shows.

“The Voice, The Block, MasterChef, and you can’t get the TV If you’re the footy nut in the house. Or you’ve got your rituals already established.

“This is how it’s measured. 363,000 – not even close to what happened in the afternoon the previous week.

“I had that completely wrong. I thought it would have been a bonanza, prime time on Sunday night.

“I would say it has a very limited future bar those games ahead of public holidays, which feel like they have worked previously.

“The question asked, the case study run, it feels like it’s been answered by a resounding thumbs down by the football public.”