The Winners: The Block returned and didn’t star for Nine. It was barely there. And while it did well in the demos, it’s supposed to be a program of broad appeal. The Block was beaten by Border Security/The Force on Seven and Ten’s Glee which returned in fine style last night.

Spicks and Specks finished its regular season last night, which seems a bit shorter than previous years. But then I’m getting older and the years are getting shorter (or is that longer?). City Homicide had its best figures for this series so far last night.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.521 million
  2. Border Security (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.464 million
  3. The Gruen Transfer (ABC) (9pm) — 1.448 million
  4. Spicks and Specks (ABC) (8.30pm) — 1.421 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.412 million
  6. The Force (Seven) (8pm) — 1.369 million
  7. Glee (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.230 million
  8. Nine News (6pm) — 1.192 million
  9. The Block (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.134 million
  10. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.126 million
  11. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.092 million
  12. City Homicide (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.014 million
  13. ABC News (7pm) — 1.013 million

The Losers: Nine’s The Boss is Coming to Dinner, 788,000 at 8.30pm. Dodgy premise, badly made and badly thought out. Another example of poor TV making from Nine. It is just not believable.

News & CA: Seven News and Today Tonight won nationally and in all centres. Oddly ACA‘s audience fell to just 323,000 in Melbourne, which is well below normal. Someone forget to activate the people meter last night? Sunrise‘s big margin over Today has reappeared, 133,000 yesterday morning. Does that mean Today will beat Sunrise in a week’s time, as happened earlier this month and then last week?

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.521 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.412 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.192 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.126 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 1.013 million
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 880,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 790,000
  8. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 719,000
  9. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 358,000
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 248,000
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 218,000
  12. SBS News (9.30pm) — 124,000
  13. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 119,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 432,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 299,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven won with an overall share of 27.9%, from Nine on 26.3%, Ten on 21.2%, the ABC was on 20.2% and SBS, 4.4%. Seven leads the week with 27.0% from Nine on 26.0% and Ten on 23.9%. Ten won 16 to 39s and 18 to 49s, thanks mostly to 7PM Project and Glee. Nine won 25s to 54s.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 25.3%, from Nine on 23.0%, Ten with 20.3%, ABC 1, 17.3% and SBS ONE, 3.7%. Seven leads the week with 24.6%, from Nine on 22.4% and Ten on 22.2%.
  • Digital: GO won with 3.3%, from 7TWO on 2.6%, ABC 2 on 1.9%, ONE with 1.0%, SBS TWO, 0.7%, ABC 3, 0.5% and News 24, 0.4%. That’s a total share of 10.4% for the FTA seven digital channels. Perth was the best market with a total share of 13.5%, followed by Adelaide with 12.7% and Brisbane on 11.8%. GO leads the week with 3.6%, from 7TWO on 2.4% and ABC 2 and ONE on 1.7% each.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with 23.2%, from Nine on 21.9%, Ten on 17.7%, the ABC, 16.8%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels, 14.6% and SBS, 3.6%. The 12 FTA channels had a total share of 85.4%, made up of 8.5% for the digital channels and 79.9% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN won with a share of 27.8% overall, from Prime/7Qld on 26.7%, the ABC on 19.3%, SC Ten with 18.4% and SBS with 4.8%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 24.6%, from WIN/NBN with 24.0%. GO won the digitals with 3.8% from 7TWO on 2.1% and ABC 2 on 1.9%. WIN/NBN lead the week on 27.5%, from Prime/7Qld on 26.4%.

Major Markets: It was Seven from Nine and Ten everywhere overall and in the main channels except Adelaide where the ABC snuck into third overall instead of Ten. In the digitals it was GO from 7TWO and ABC 2 everywhere bar Perth where 7TWO won from GO and ABC 2. Seven leads from Nine and Ten in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Nine leads Melbourne from Ten and Seven. Seven leads in Perth from Ten and Seven.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine will be disappointed in last night, two new programs, one scraped home, the other flopped. The Block was OK in Sydney (364,000), less so elsewhere. Next week is the test. If the audience dips closer to or under a million, then it’s just not convincing enough for the viewers. If it steadies around last night’s figure, then it should hold on.

TONIGHT: The grand final of The New Inventors on the ABC is on tonight. Football shows on Seven at 7.30pm and Nine at 9.30pm. Ten has The 7pm Project and then Rush. Compared to last night, a wasteland tonight.

Comment: How concerned are Ten and Foxtel executives as they watch their planned expensive coverage of the Commonwealth Games turn to mush, before they have even started? They will all deny it, and express confidence.  To their credit Ten News and The 7pm Project have covered the problems well and impartially.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports