The Winners: Sherlock was good TV, but not as well received here as in the UK, where the books are part of the national culture. But it was an interesting re-purposing of an old icon. It certainly put a dent in Poirot: Lord Edgware Dies on the ABC, which averaged more than a million viewers for 100 minutes of TV last Sunday night and 835,000 last night, a loss of around 200,000. Junior MasterChef has now dropped 810,000 viewers, or 36% of its opening audience of 2.2 million. Tonight’s episode is a big test of the audience’s loyalty.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.392 million
  2. Junior MasterChef (Ten, 7.30 – 8.30 pm) — 1.389 million
  3. Bones (Seven) (9pm) — 1.139 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.111 million
  5. Sherlock (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.097 million
  6. The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.081 million
  7. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.043 million
  8. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.036 million
  9. Modern Family (Ten) (7pm) — 1.034 million

The Losers: Medium returned to Ten at 9.30pm, 306,000. Ten is kidding itself if this is acceptable. Nine’s 10.30pm movie after Sherlock was Glass House, which averaged just 265,000. Seven’s Castle went from 10pm to 11pm and averaged 747,000 for a repeat. The repeat of Air Crash Investigations from 11pm averaged 276,000. Seven won, simply by exhausting viewers slower than Ten or Nine.

News & CA: Seven News “out Maryed” Nine News last night. But Seven News beat Nine News in Brisbane by 128,000 viewers, which is a hiding in anyone’s ratings report. Nine News won Adelaide very easily. Sunday Night and 60 Minutes were neck and neck.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.392 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.111 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.043 million
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.036 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 920,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 678,000
  7. Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 237,000
  8. SBS News (6.30pm) — 164,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 312,000
  2. Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 237,000
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 236,000
  4. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 207,000
  5. Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 153,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 124,000
  7. Meet The Press (Ten) (8am) — 40,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Ten won all the demos last night. Seven won with a share of 29.0% from Nine on 28.8%, Ten was third with 18.8%, the ABC was on 17.9% and SBS, 5.5%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won more easily with a share of 24.3%, from Nine on 21.7%, Ten with 17.3% and ABC 1, 15.6. SBS ONE ended with a share of 4.0%.
  • Digital: The nine FTA digital channels had a very solid night in all markets, especially given the newer programming on the main channels. It was boosted by a strong showing by Nine’s GO which resembled Nine’s main channel again last night, but on a repeats basis. GO won with a share of 6.0%, from, 7TWO on 2.5%, 7Mate with 2.2%, ONE and SBS TWO on 1.5% each, Gem with 1.0%, as was News 24; ABC 2 finished with 0.9% and ABC 3, 0.4. That’s a total FTA share of 17% for prime time.
  • Pay TV: The impact of the ending of the Commonwealth Games can be seen in the lower share for Pay TV (Foxtel) and the digital channels and the higher share for the five main channels last night. Seven won narrowly with 23.8% for its three channels, from Nine with 23.7% for its trio, Ten was on 15.5% for its two, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels finished with 15.1%, the ABC, 14.7% (four channels) and SBS and its two channels ended with a share of 4.6%. That left a FTA share of 84.9%, made up of 13.9% for the nine digital channels and 71% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a share of 30.2% for their three channels, from WIN/NBN with 28.6% for their trio, the ABC’s four totalled 18.7%, Ten was on 17.4% for two and SBS and its two, 5.1%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels from WIN/NBN. GO won the digitals with 6.2%, with 7TWO on 3.3% and 7Mate on 3.0%. The nine FTA digital channels had a total FTA share of 19.1%. That was due to the high figure for GO and the impact of the Mary MacKillop broadcasts on News 24 (1.3%) and 7TWO).

Major Markets: Without the Commonwealth Games, ONE’s audience fell sharply, but GO was very strong as it had another night of Mini Nine main channel. The Mary MacKillop Rome show did OK for 7TWO and ABC News 24. Seven won from Nine and Ten overall and in the main channels in Sydney and Perth. In Adelaide it was Seven from Nine and the ABC, overall and in the main channels. Nine won Melbourne overall and in the main channels. Nine won Brisbane overall from Seven and Nine. Seven won the main channels from Nine and Ten. GO won everywhere with 7Mate, 7TWO and SBS TWO sharing the minor places.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won the overall and main channels, GO won the digitals (all in metro areas). In regional areas, Seven won through Prime/7Qld and GO won the digitals.

Saturday night saw Hey Hey it’s Saturday return to the 7.30pm to 9.30pm slot with an average of 979,000 (399,000 in Melbourne, the highest audience on the night). It was beaten into second by a new New Tricks episode on the ABC at 7.30pm with 1.234 million and then the last Bill at 8.30pm with 993,000. Hey Hey was the same old, same old.

And, a note to News 24, update your news crawls. On Saturday afternoon, well after the Caulfield Cup had been run, the crawl was still telling us the Cup would be run despite the rain in Melbourne.

LAST NIGHT: Sherlock on Nine was OK, but the “Moriarty” conclusion was a bit predictable.

What was also annoying was the way Nine kept breaking into its programming to bring us an update from Rome. Seven also went overboard on Rome as well.

Offspring held up OK on Ten at 8.30pm with 831,000, and it did well in the demos, especially among the target female viewing audience of 18 to 49.

Why Nine didn’t follow Seven and News 24 and broadcast the MacKillop thing live on GEM is a bit odd. There was definitely an audience for it as the figures for News 24 (1.0%) and TWO (2.5%) showed. Gem only hit 1.0% and it’s supposed to be a female skewing channel.

TONIGHT: Where to start, especially on Nine, sort of. One fresh episode of Two and a Half Men, at 7.30 pm, bookended by repeats at 7pm and 8pm. Watch Sherlock at 8.30pm for two hours, it’s good TV, certainly the best tonight.

Ten backs up Junior MasterChef tonight at 7.30pm then a local version of Undercover Boss, with Good News Week pushed back to 9.30pm (where the audience won’t be as solid as at 8.30pm).

Seven has The X factor, The Event and Covert Affairs. Ten also returns The 7PM Project. The ABC has four and a half hours of back to back news and current affairs.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports