The Winners

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.758 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.556 million.
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.312 million.
  4. Midsomer Murders (ABC) (8.30pm) 1.307 million.
  5. The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.287 million.
  6. Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.250 million.
  7. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.225 million.
  8. RBT (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.201 million.
  9. Modern Family (Ten) (6.30pm) — 1.014 million.
  10. Offspring (Ten) (8.30pm) – 1 million.

For some reason Australian TV viewers prefer Pom play murders to be solved by Pom play police people. In fact if you compare the production values, acting and storylines on the current Australian cop shows, Rescue Special Ops, Cops LAC, City Homicide and Rush, there’s not much difference, except the viewing levels. Even repeats of Midsomer Murders on Friday or Saturday nights usually get more viewers than the first run Australian programs. Seven’s City Homicide is the best of the three locals. Midsomer Murders also flattened Nine’s import, the venerable CSI. No comparison in audiences.

The Losers

CSI, Nine’s doubling of the episodes last night from 8.30pm to 10.30pm did nothing, the program sank, beaten by Midsomer Murders on the ABC and by Offspring on Ten and the back end of The X Factor and then a repeat of Bones on Seven. Episode one of CSI averaged 729,000, episode two at 9.3 pm, 753,000.

News & CA

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.758 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.556 million.
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.307 million.
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.225 million.
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 953,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 631,000.
  7. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8 am) — 461,000.
  8. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 309,000.
  9. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 308,000.
  10. Landline (ABC, 12pm) — 220,000.
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 182,000.
  12. Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 174,000.
  13. Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 165,000.
  14. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 152,000.
  15. Meet The Press (Ten) (8am) — 39,000.

Seven’s Sunday Night had an old fashioned exclusive last night. A bit of digging, the sort that Four Corners and 60 Minutes used to do. Two Australian men murdered by the IRA in Holland decades ago, finally explained. And viewers responded. Far better TV for local audiences than the derivative RBT on Nine or Modern Family, for all its strengths on Ten. That was the highlight last night. In the morning, Insiders on the ABC must be hoping that the Canberra barn dance doesn’t quite stop yet, another 300,000 plus audience.

The Stats:

  • Main Channel: Seven won here with a share of 26.1%, from Nine on 23.0%, Ten with 18.2%, ABC1 was on 16.9% and SBS ONE finished with 3.2%
  • Digital: GO won with 6.2%, from 7TWO on 2.6%, ONE with 1.7%, ABC2, 0.8%, SBS ONE, 0.6%, News 24, 0.4% and ABC3, 0.3%. That’s a total share of 12.6% for the seven digital channels. Adelaide had 15.7%, Perth, 13.8% shares for the channels.
  • Pay TV: Nine won with 24.1%, from Seven on 23.7%, Ten was on 16.4%, the ABC, 15.2%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels finished with 14.9% and SBS ended with 3.2%. Last night was the last NRL game of the year for Pay TV. The seven FTA digitals shared 10.5%, the five main channels 74.6%, for a total share of 85.1% in prime time.
  • Regional: A win to WIN/NBN with a share of 32.7%, from Prime/7Qld on 26.6%, SC Ten on 20.0%, the ABC with 16.9% and SBS with 3.8%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 26.9% from prime/7Qld with 26.6%. GO won the digitals with 5.7%, from 7TWO on 3.1% and ONE third with 1.9%.
  • Major Markets: It was Nine from Seven and Ten in Sydney and Brisbane, Seven from Nine and Ten in Melbourne, Seven from Nine and the ABC in Adelaide and Seven from Ten and Nine in Perth. That was overall and in the main channels. GO won the digitals everywhere from 7TWO and ONE with the Moto GP broadcast. GO was full of main channel repeats, which kept Nine in touch overall, but it was off the pace in the main channels while Ten did very well in the demos.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week Seven won All People, the main channels and the digitals (for the first time since the new digital channels kicked off just over a year ago). Nine won the demos. So how did the first round of the AFL finals go in terms of audiences.

Take Melbourne, heart of the game. Right thinking fans would have assumed that the Collingwood-Bulldogs game would have topped the list, given the Wobbles’ big fan base. But no it didn’t. The 635,000 who watched the Cats get stiffed by the Saints on Seven on Friday night, was the best of the four (the two day finals sort of don’t count). The Wobbles-Dogs final averaged 449,000 on Ten on Saturday night. The Freo-Hawks final earlier that day from Perth averaged 377,000, and yesterday’s Swans-Blues game from Sydney averaged 495,000 in Melbourne. In the tough Sydney market the Cats game averaged 30,000, but it wasn’t broadcast at 8.30pm as some guides suggested (Seven is just as gutless as Nine is when it comes to promoting major games into hostile markets. This week’s guide in the Sydney Morning Herald has the semi final on Friday night down to be shown in Sydney at 8.30pm, just like last week. The online guide at Citysearch has AFL down at 8.30 in Sydney. Will Seven take the chance?).

The Freo final averaged 66,000 in Sydney and the Wobbles win was watched by 38,000 in the Emerald City. The Swans game averaged 127,000 in Sydney yesterday afternoon.

LAST NIGHT: Seven won, Nine won, Ten won, so honours shared among the networks. The ABC did its usual spoiler bit with a high rating UK cops show.

TONIGHT: Well, if you are into the Canberra quick step, then it’s the ABC tonight from The 7.30 Report through to the end of Lateline Business around 11.30pm. Wall to wall current affairs. So why does the ABC need a news channel on nights like this? Q&A has an independent and some more aligned chaps. Standby for more claptrap from Senator Nick Minchin. Nine has Rescue Special Ops, Seven has The X Factor if you are desperate and Criminal Minds, if you are into cop dramas from the US. Ten has The 7PM Project and Good News Week. SBS has another Man vs. Wild, tonight, how to survive a night of watching the ABC and not be forced to eat yourself to get through the four hours.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports.