ARIA Awards Enjoy Ratings Surge But Miss Out On Top 20

Last night’s ARIA Awards attracted its biggest television audience in years as the red carpet more than doubled its viewership from 2013.

Returning to TEN and a primary free-to-air channel, the red carpet broadcast – boosted by the star appeal of One Direction, 5 Seconds Of Summer and Katy Perry – attracted 602,000 viewers in the metro markets (19th on the night) while the awards themselves attracted 574,000 viewers and was just outside the top 20.

The numbers are a significant increase on last year’s, when the awards were broadcast on Channel Nine’s digital channel Go! and the red carpet attracted 248,000, the awards 337,000.

In 2012 the awards were watched by 304,000 people.

The red carpet broadcast – up 354,000 viewers this year – was close to being TEN’s top show of the night, only slightly pipped by the 615,000 who tuned into Ten Eyewitness News.

The top rating show of the night was Nine News, which attracted 1,039,000, while Channel Nine’s Big Brother finale appeared to lose numbers to the ARIA Awards broadcast. Split into three segments, the best attracted just 737,000 – a far cry from the once all-conquering reality TV phenomenon, which enjoyed 1,470,000 viewers for the finale last year.

Home & Away, on Seven, had 817,000 viewers, while Criminal Minds, also on Seven, had 800,000.

ABC's Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell had 733,000 and The Chaser's Media Circus 717,000.