Set to a spectacular backdrop of fireworks and New Year revellers on Sydney harbour, the ABC last night farewelled a long, gruelling year with what was, at times, a long, gruelling telecast.
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Even the show's co-host, the comedian Julia Zemiro, was heard over the closing credits to say, "Oh, thank God" when it was over.
However, there was no repeat of the controversy surrounding last year's New Year's Eve broadcast.
Critics turned out in force on social media and elsewhere to pan last year's four-hour show, anchored by Lawrence Mooney and Stephanie Brantz, as amateurish, cringeworthy and, at times offensive.
The national broadcaster will be more than pleased with the ratings this morning: almost 1.9 million viewers were tuned in to the telecast of the midnight fireworks.
Around 730,000 of those were in Sydney, with the five mainland capital city markets – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth – totalling 1.37 million viewers.
The balance – a little more than half a million viewers – tuned in from regional areas.
The earlier broadcast, the 9pm family fireworks, drew a total national audience of 1.34 million viewers.
That was roughly broken into one million viewers in the five mainland capitals and 339,000 viewers in regional areas.
The ABC's non-fireworks programming, which included packaged segments and live crosses to the ABC's reporters around the nation, drew a total national audience of 1.04 million – 768,000 in the mainland capitals and 279,000 regional viewers.
This was the second year the ABC has covered the New Year's Eve fireworks from Sydney, after many years on commercial television.
The ratings results were slightly up on last year's telecast, which drew 1.27 million capital city viewers; by way of comparison, this year's capital city result was 1.37 million viewers.
Well I think my fav moment of the
#abcnye thing was hearing Julia Zemiro say "oh thank god" at the end, assuming her mic was off. Ace. — Steph Puls (@StephPuls)
December 31, 2014
@HawthorneMark Did you catch Julia Zemiro saying "oh thank god" right at the end, presumably thinking her mic was off?! Gold. — Steph Puls (@StephPuls)
December 31, 2014
#ABCNYE party is a predictable fail, even lovely Julia Zemiro can't save. — NoDisclaimer ✌ (@disloik)
December 31, 2014
Even
@JuliaZemiro looks embarrassed
#ABCNYE — Mick Carroll (@sundayteleed)
December 31, 2014
Well I think my fav moment of the
#abcnye thing was hearing Julia Zemiro say "oh thank god" at the end, assuming her mic was off. Ace. — Steph Puls (@StephPuls)
December 31, 2014
They didn't cut the mics quick enough and we got to hear Julia Zemiro say 'oh thank god' after the broadcast ended. Gold!
#SYDNYE
#ABCNYE — Brett Bowman (@ImBrettBowman)
December 31, 2014
The broadcast was hosted by Zemiro and actor Toby Truslove, with segments presented by Charlie Pickering, Lawrence Mooney, Adam Zwar, Fran Kelly, Stephanie Brantz and Zan Rowe.
A photo posted by Zan Rowe (@zanrowe) on Dec 12, 2014 at 6:18am PST
These are the Aussie New Year's Eve hosts. Not quite Ryan Seacrest or Kathy Griffin.
#hellofromthefuture
pic.twitter.com/zQ2UU6TwLK — Christina Bellantoni (@cbellantoni)
December 31, 2014
The ABC also stationed "roving reporters" around the country, including Dave O'Neil in Melbourne, Lawrence Leung in Brisbane, Anne Edmonds in Darwin and Tegan Higginbotham in Perth.
MIDNIGHT FIREWORKS: BY THE NUMBERS
Total national audience: 1.88 million viewers
Mainland capital city audience: 1.37 million viewers
Regional audience: 515,000 viewers
Sydney audience: 730,000 viewers
Melbourne audience: 200,000 viewers
Brisbane audience: 209,000 viewers
Adelaide audience: 145,000 viewers
Perth audience: 88,000 viewers
- with Nick Galvin
