The Winners: Cops L.A.C started for Nine and the network couldn’t even get the length of the program right. It was down as an hour long episode, but turned out to be 90 minutes. It was unsatisfactory, as was The X Factor.

  1. The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.366 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.322 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.278 million
  4. Cops L.A.C (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.168 million
  5. Nine News (6pm) — 1.129 million
  6. ABC News (7pm)  — 1.099 million
  7. Bondi Vet (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.049 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.017 million

The Losers: Seven’s The X Factor cut Getaway‘s audience quite sharply last night from 7.30pm. The veteran Nine travel program shed around 250,000 viewers last night from the week before to finish with 873,000.

News & CA: A strange night between 6pm and 7pm. Seven News won Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Nine won Brisbane and Adelaide. Nine’s audience in Sydney slipped to just 301,000, Seven news averaged 377,000. The 7pm ABC news averaged 336,000 in Sydney and finished second.

At 6.30pm, TT won nationally , but ACA won Melbourne. But ACA’s Sydney audience slipped to just 259,000, allowing The 7.30 Report on 276,000 to finish ahead of it on the news rankings, TT averaged 349,000 in Sydney.

Seven’s Sunrise seems to have re-opened the gap with Today to more than 50,000 a morning.

Nine starts offering $10,000 a night on Monday night to “lucky viewers” who watch the news. It lasts for $100,000. Dumb desperation to be trying to bribe people to watch the news. Shouldn’t it be the quality of the reporters, the news reader and the stories?

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.322 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.278 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.129 million
  4. ABC News (7pm)  — 1.099 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.017 million
  6. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 900,000
  7. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 870,000
  8. Ten News (Ten) (5pm) — 812,000
  9. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 263,000
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 252,000
  11. SBS News (9.30pm) — 187,000
  12. World News Australia (SBS, 6.30 – 7.30 pm) — 151,000
  13. Lateline Business (ABC, 11.05 – 11.35 pm) — 125,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7 am) — 408,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 324,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine won with a share of 30.9% from Seven with 27.9%, Ten on 18.0%, the ABC was on 17.2% and SBS was on 5.9%. Seven leads the week with 29.5% from Nine on 28.3% and Ten on 20.2%.
  • Main Channel: A draw between Seven and Nine on 24.9% each., with Ten on 17.1%, ABC 1 on 14.2% and SBS with 5.4%. Seven leads the week with 26.5% from Nine on 24.5% and Ten with 18.5%.
  • Digital: GO won with 6.0% from 7TWO on 3.0%, ABC 2 was on 2.1%, ONE was on 0.9%, SBS TWO and News 24 were on 0.5% each and ABC 3 was on 0.4%. That’s a total share of 13.4% for the seven digital channels. GO leads the week with 3.8% from 7TWO on 3.1% and ONE on 1.7%. Adelaide has the peak audience of 1`6.5%, Melbourne had a total of 15.4% for the seven channels.
  • Pay TV: Nine won with 25.4%, from Seven on 23.0%, Pay TV had a total of 15.5% for its 100 plus channels, Ten was on 14.8%, the ABC, 14.1% and SBS had 4.9%. The 12 FTA channels shared 84.5%, made up from 11.1% for the digital channels and 74.4% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: A win to WIN/NBN with a share of 31.9%, from Prime/7Qld on 27.7%, SC Ten on 19.4%, the ABC, 14.6% and SBS, 6.3%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with a share of 25.7% from Prime/7Qld on 25.3%. GO won the digitals with 6.1%, from Prime/7Qld on 2.4% and ABC 2 on 1.6%. Win/NBN leads the week with 30.3% from on Prime/7Qld 29.3%.

Major Markets: Because Cops L.A.C ran until 10pm, it meant the Footy Show on Nine started half an hour late. In Sydney (138,000) and Brisbane (94,000), it meant a weak end to the night. In Melbourne with the AFL show averaging 387,000, it meant Nine had a very big win on the night, which allowed it to draw level on the national main channels with Seven. Otherwise it might have finished second.

Nine’s use of GO as a repeats venue saw it win the night. The Matty Johns Show shifted to 8.30pm in Sydney (298,000) and Brisbane (132,000) on Seven and had more viewers than Nine’s version an hour and a half later. The AFL final tonight in Melbourne will push Seven close to a win in Melbourne for the week, see it overtake Nine in Adelaide and confirm its dominance in Perth.

  • Sydney: Seven won from Nine and Ten in the overall and the main channels. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC 2. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten. Strangely Nine’s Cops L.A.C averaged 395,000 for 90 minutes in Sydney, the second biggest audience on the night and Seven still won easily!
  • Melbourne: The AFL Footy Show pushed Nine to a big won on the night overall and the main channels. Seven was second and Ten third. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC 2. Nine leads the week from Seven and Ten.
  • Brisbane: Nine won both the overall and the main channels from Seven and Ten, while GO won the digitals from ABC 2 and 7TWO. Nine leads the week from Seven and Ten.
  • Adelaide: Nine won overall from Seven and Ten, but in the main channels, Seven won from Nine and Ten. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC 2. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.
  • Perth: Nine won overall from Seven and Ten, but Seven won the main channels from Nine and Ten. GO won the digitals from ABC 2 and 7TWO. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Cops L.A.C debuted on Nine and won the 7.30pm timeslot with 1.1 million. Nine will be cheered. It crushed Ten’s Rush which finished with 688,000, so in the minds of viewers there’s only room for one cop show in that slot. Cops L.A.C ran until 10pm in a special intro episode. It was down as an hour in all guides, even those in Thursday morning’s papers, so did Nine just simply not know how long it was? Cops L.A.C did well in 25 to 54s, OK in 18 to 49’s, while the 16 to 39’s didn’t want to know it.

Comment: What a sorry missed chance Cops L.A.C was. A rushed attempt to build a TV vehicle around Kate Ritchie. There were two small problems, poor acting and dodgy script.

The program seemed to be an amalgam of Recruits and Rush, both on Ten with Rush opposite in the 8.30pm slot. There was a touch of Inspector Rex in some of the wooden exchanges and facial expressions. Nine was just too impatient to work on it to make it work. But apparently it does improve about four episodes in.

TONIGHT: AFL final on Seven in all markets. NRL’s last round starts on Nine in northern markets. Ten has The 7pm Project and then Jamie Oliver in Jamie Does. The ABC has Waking The Dead at 8.30pm.

SATURDAY: AFL finals on Ten afternoon and night, the ABC has a repeat of New Tricks at 7.30pm. Foxtel has its last NRL games of the season.

SUNDAY: An AFL final on Seven (Swans vs. Carlton), last NRL game on Nine for the season proper. Seven has Sunday Night and a certain talent program. Nine has 60 Minutes. Ten has Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation, Offspring and Modern Family. The ABC returns Midsomer Murders to our screens, making Sundays at 8.30pm safe again for a short while.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports