Ratings | 7NEWS Spotlight on Channel 7 season return “The Green Dream” a winner with viewers – Sunday night’s 7NEWS Spotlight return, “The Green Dream”, has delivered a commanding win as the most-watched current affairs program of the night, pulling a national total TV audience of 723,000 and reaching 1.48 million viewers.
Last night’s episode marks 7NEWS Spotlight’sbiggest season opener since 2022, beating its closest rival by 26,000 viewers.
It surged 46% on the 2025 launch, with a massive 139% spike on 7plus.
The explosive investigation, exposing the dark reality behind Australia’s clean energy push, reinforces 7NEWS Spotlight as the home of premium investigative journalism.
Reporter Liam Bartlett travelled to Africa to uncover Chinese-linked operators exploiting slave labour to secure control of the critical minerals powering the renewable boom.
Bartlett also went head-to-head with Energy Minister Chris Bowen, challenging the government’s “clean, green dream” and probing its links to controversial Chinese-backed infrastructure.
7NEWS Spotlight Executive Producer, Rahni Sadler, said:
“Liam Bartlett’s exposé is confronting in the extreme. It clearly struck a nerve at a time when Australians are increasingly anxious about our energy future and it laid bare the dark side of the renewable boom.
“In Australia, serious environmental damage is already underway, with more to come. But the bigger shock is overseas: in trying to go green, we may be fuelling slave and child labour and helping drive devastating environmental harm.
“This is the first of many unmissable stories in the 7NEWS Spotlight 2026 line up,”
– she said.
Earlier last night, 7NEWS Sunday dominated the 6.00pm news timeslot, reaching 2.46 million people and scoring a national total TV audience of 1.53 million, 90,000 ahead of its closest rival.
7NEWS was also up 25% year-on-year in total TV, including a 54% surge on 7plus. Week-on-week it was up 5% in total TV and up 4% on 7plus.
7NEWS Spotlight: “The Green Dream”, watch on 7plus here
Media Release – Seven
TV Central Seven content HERE
Ratings | 7NEWS Spotlight on Channel 7 season return “The Green Dream” a winner with viewers
