Samantha Armytage’s departure from Channel Seven’s Sunrise sends ratings skyrocketing

Samantha Armytage’s departure from Channel Seven’s Sunrise sent ratings skyrocketing on Thursday. 

The breakfast show topped the charts, with 100,000 more viewers tuning into see the 44-year-old’s farewell than Channel Nine’s Today at 209,000.

The program had 308,000 metro viewers for the occasion, which was three times the amount of those tuning into News Breakfast at 99,000 and 82,000 across two channels.

Gogglebox, however, was the top rating entertainment show in prime time, TV Tonight reported. 

It topped the demos with 554,000 viewers, and was followed by an extended episode of Home and Away at 494,000.

ABC’s 7.30 was the top performing program in its slot, with 513,000 viewers.

It was followed by Back Roads at 469,00, Territory Cops at 397,000, Bondi Rescue at 351,000 and The World’s Greatest Places at 148,000.

Despite Channel Seven’s success with Sunrise, the network came in second place across all channels with 26.3 per cent of viewership.

Channel Nine came in at first on Thursday with 27.1 per cent, followed by Channel 10 in third at 21.4 per cent, ABC at 16.7 per cent and SBS at 8.5 per cent. 

Nine News pulled in 822,000 viewers on the day, followed by 810,000 for Nine, 525,000 for A Current Affair across four cities and 386,000 and 245,000 for Hot Seat, the publication reported.

Seven News brought in 904,000 viewers, followed by 893,000 for Seven.

The Chase then came in at 453,000 and 285,000, followed by 262,000 for Wife Swap Australia and 172,000 for Ant Middleton and Rebel Wilson: Straight Talking.

Samantha marked her last day on Sunrise on Thursday, and broke down in tears during an emotional farewell.