The Winners

  1. Packed to the Rafters (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.739 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.506 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.389 million.
  4. Top Gear (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.295 million.
  5. Nine News (6pm) — 1.260 million.
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.238 million.
  7. Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.210 million.
  8. ABC News (7pm) — 1.127 million.
  9. Two and a Half Men (Nine) (7pm, repeat) — 1.042 million.
  10. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 1.021 million.

Packed to the Rafters did it for Seven, but the network probably fell well short of what it thought it would do, and what the schedule would rate. Seven’s new games program, Beat The Star flopped at 7.30pm to 8.30pm: 955,000 wasn’t a solid start and Minute To Win It was a far better performer in the 7.30pm slot. An extra The X Factor would have done better. Ten’s two hours of NCIS repeats from 8.30pm to 10.30pm were repeats and averaged just over 800,000 each.

The Losers

Nine’s September 11 two hour special 9/11 State of Emergency from 9pm averaged 734,000. Not a flop, because it did well across the two hours. No, it was a case of ‘do we have to watch something about 9/11, again’? Annoyance more than anything else. And normally Seven’s Beat The Star would be considered a flop (See above). But seeing it was debuting last night, we’ll see what happens next week when it’s up against Junior MasterChef on Ten. Not a good start though. Perhaps that’s why Packed to the Rafters fell under 1.8 million last night. A dud lead-in?

News & CA

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.506 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.389 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.260 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.238 million.
  5. ABC News  (7pm)– 1.127 million.
  6. The 7.30 Report (ABC, 7.30 – 8 pm) — 1.021 million.
  7. The 7PM Project (Ten, 7 – 7.30 pm) — 944,000.
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 772,000.
  9. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 646,000.
  10. Ten late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 357,000.
  11. Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 274,000.
  12. Insight (SBS) (7.30pm) — 234,000.
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 197,000.
  14. SBS late News (9.30pm) — 138,000.
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 130,000.

Mornings:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 416,000.
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 331,000.

Seven News won nationally and in every market. Today Tonight lost Sydney by 1,000 (324,000 to 325,000 for A Current Affair) but won elsewhere, including Melbourne where ACA does best. TT did a wrap up of the election and the horse trading from the start, ACA didn’t. That’s because previous election items did badly. The 7.30 Report did well, again, because it’s where the political junkies go for their fix. Will they still be there in a week’s time when all this minority government novelty has worn off and the football finals intrude and Ten starts Junior MasterChef?

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven won with a share of 28.8% from Nine on 28.1%, Ten with 20.8%, the ABC, 17.3% and SBS, 5.0%. Seven leads the week with 28.9% from Nine on 27.6% and Ten with 20.0%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 27.0%, from Nine on 24.4%, Ten on 20.3%, ABC1 on 14.8% and SBS ONE on 4.1%. Seven leads the week with 25.9%, from Nine on 22.9% and Ten on 18.9%.
  • Digital: GO won with a share of 3.7% from 7TWO on 1.8%, ABC2 on 1.4%, SBS TWO on 0.9%, News 24 on 0.7%, and ABC3 and ONE on 0.5% each. That’s a total 9.9% for the seven digital channels. Adelaide had the peak of 12.6% for prime time last night. GO leads the week with 4.7% from 7TWO on 3.0%.
  • Pay TV: A win to Seven with 23.9%, from Nine on 23.4%, Ten on 17.3%, the ABC and Pay TV (and its 100 plus channels) on 14.4% each and SBS on 4.2%. The 12 FTA channels had a total share of 85.6%, made up of 7.8% for the digital channels and 77.8% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with 29.9%, from WIN/NBN with 26.5%, SC Ten was on 19.5%, the ABC, 15.7% and SBS, 5.9%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 27.8% from WIN/NBN on 23.4%. GO won the digitals with 3.2%, from 7TWO on 2.1% and ABC2 on 1.3%. WIN/NBN leads the week with 28.6% from Prime/7Qld on 27.6%.
  • Major Markets: It was Seven, Nine and Ten in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth both overall and in the main channels. In Melbourne it was Nine from Seven and Ten overall, but Seven won the main channels from Nine and Ten. In Brisbane it was Nine from Seven and Ten both overall and in the main channels. In the digitals it was GO from 7TWO and ABC2 everywhere bar Perth where ABC2 was second and 7TWO third. For the week so far: in Sydney it’s Seven from Nine with Ten and the ABC tied for third. In Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth Seven leads from Nine and Ten, while in Brisbane it’s Nine from Seven and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Packed to the Rafters again did well last night and especially in the key demos, but signs of audience drift continue. The 1.739 million was down around 200,000 on a couple of weeks ago and nearly 300,000 on six weeks ago. That was the night, but Star To Beat might not last if it does as badly next week as it did last night.

TONIGHT: Spicks and Specks and the Gruen Transfer on the ABC, Farmer Wants a Wife on Nine. The 7PM Project on Ten and The Simpsons. Inspector Rex on SBS is a repeat (can’t say how many times). Seven starts a new program called Four Weddings at 7.30pm. Two wedding related programs an hour apart on the same night. How tantalisingly boring. Sad City Homicide at 8.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports.