The Winners: A poor night of TV. Bondi Vet and Getaway were the only programs to be watched by more than a million people from 7pm onwards. A wasteland. Seven’s stalwart Home and Away hit 877,000 at 7pm and finished behind the repeat of Two and a Half Men on Nine with 886,000 and The 7pm Project on Ten (which is Home and Away‘s real rival in this slot) was watched by 898,000 people, which is a solid audience on a Thursday night for this program (and on any night).

You know how bad last night was? The 9.30pm Melbourne screening of the AFL Footy Show on Nine was the most watched program in any market last night with 474,000 viewers.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.360 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.235 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.106 million
  4. Bondi Vet (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.084 million
  5. ABC News (7pm)– 1.030 million
  6. Getaway (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.020 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.014 million

The Losers: Nine and Ten at 8.30pm (see below). Seven from 7pm onwards. Viewers of the ABC and SBS. A poor night was offered.

News & CA: Today beat Sunrise, adding thousands of viewers, while Sunrise lost thousands. Seven News won all metro markets and nationally, TT won nationally, but lost Melbourne to ACA.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.360 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.235 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.106 million
  4. ABC News (7pm)– 1.030 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.014 million
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten, 7 – 7.30 pm) — 898,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 827,000
  8. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 756,000
  9. SBS News (6.30pm) — 194,000
  10. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 184,000
  11. SBS News (9.30 pm) — 177,000
  12. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 172,000
  13. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 94,000

In the morning:

  1. Today (Nine) (7am) — 365,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 356,000

The Stats: No wonder the digital channels did well last night, even though much that was on were repeats of main channel material, especially on GO. The five main channels, which is where the money is made for the networks, ended up with a total share of 70.8% last night in prime time, which is low compared to most nights and recent weeks. Pay TV did well, which is also understandable.

  • FTA: Nine won with a share of 31.5%, from Seven on 25.3%, Ten with 19.7%, the ABC with 16.5% and SBS with 6.9%. Nine leads the week with 28.7% from Seven with 26.8% and Ten on 21.2%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 25.3%, from Seven on 21.5%, Ten with 18.7%, ABC 1 on 12.8% and SBS ONE on 6.0%. Nine leads the week with 24.4%, from Seven on 23.6% and Ten with 19.6%.
  • Digital: The seven channels had a total share of a high 15.6% last night. GO won with a share of 6.2%, from 7TWO with 3.8%, ABC 2 on 2.6%, ONE with 1.0%, SBS TWO on 0.9%, ABC 3 on 0.6% and News 24 on 0.5%. Adelaide was the best market where the digitals had a total share of 17.3%, but they had shares of 16.8%, 16.1% and 15.0% in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth respectively. GO leads the week with 4.3% from 7TWO on 3.1% and ABC 2 with 1.7%.
  • Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 25.8%, from Seven on 20.7%, Ten on 16.1%, Pay TV and its 100 plus channels on 15.7%, the ABC with 13.5% and SBS with 5.7%. The 12 FTA channels shared a total of 84.6%. The seven digitals shared 13.8% and the five main channels a low 70.8%.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN won with a share of 32.2% from Prime/7Qld on 22.9%, with SC Ten on 20.5%, the ABC with 14.4% and SBS on 6.7%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN with 25.6% from Prime/7Qld with 20.7%. GO won the digitals with 6.5%, from 7TWO on 2.2% and ABC 2 on 2.0%. WIN/NBN lead the week with 30.1% from Prime/7Qld with 25.1%. WIN/NBN will win the week with the NRL finals tonight and tomorrow night.

Major Markets: It was Nine winning from Seven and Ten in Sydney and Melbourne in the main channels and overall. In Brisbane, the ABC finished third overall behind Nine and Seven, while in the channels, Ten was third behind Nine and Seven. In Adelaide, Nine won overall from Seven and Ten, but in the main channels, Ten was second behind Nine and Seven slipped to third. In Perth, Seven won overall and in the main channels from Nine and Seven. GO won the digitals in all markets from 7TWO and ABC 2. Nine leads the week from Seven and Ten in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. In Perth it’s Seven from Nine and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Well, as fearlessly forecast yesterday, Cops L.A.C on Nine and Ten’s Rush are racing for the bottom at 8.30pm Thursdays. Rush is marking time around its recent figures with 776,000 viewers last night. Cops L.A.C fell to 787,000. That’s death territory.

The same criticisms can’t be applied to Rush because it is at least in its second year and Ten says will be back in 2011. That’s because Ten needs the drama points, so it is willing to cop a substandard rating (which was good in the early episodes of the first series).

With Seven’s City Homicide dying, Australian commercial TV seems to have lost the ability to make long running police dramas, which used to be a programming staple.

Nine made the error of building a show around Kate Ritchie, rather than building a show and then putting her in the role.

TONIGHT: AFL on Seven (9.30pm in Sydney and Brisbane). Nine has the NRL Wests Tigers vs. The Canberra Raiders at 7.30pm in Brisbane and Sydney, but not at all in Melbourne until very late (try 11.45pm). Even more gutless than Seven.

The ABC has Waking the Dead. Ten has The 7pm Project and Jamie Oliver doing Venice in Jamie Does. SBS has the first of a two part series on why the Big Depression happened. It’s a French production, so will it highlight’s France’s perfidious role in refusing to help the globe, Britain and other countries crippled by the Gold Standard?

SATURDAY NIGHT: Another AFL Final, this time on Ten and said to be on from 8.30pm. Nine has the second NRL final at 7.30pm and in Melbourne this one starts on Sunday morning at 12.15am on Nine. Nice going Nine.

And, believe it or not, those football finals are the highlight for tomorrow night. The rest is tedious stuff (The Bill on the ABC), or boring, Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs on Seven, or movies forgotten by everyone bar TV programming staff.

SUNDAY: The morning chats for the hissy fits that now masquerade as political debate and discussion in this country. In the evening there’s Sunday Night on Seven, 60 Minutes on Nine, Modern Family and Junior MasterChef on Ten and Midsomer Murders on the ABC. Dateline on SBS.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports