The Winners

  1. Junior MasterChef (Ten, 7.30pm) — 1.504 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.458 million.
  3. The X Factor (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.206 million.
  4. Bones (Seven, 8.45pm, repeat) –1.136 million.
  5. Modern Family (Ten, 7pm) — 1.103 million.
  6. Nine News (6pm) — 1.079 million.
  7. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm, but not aired in Perth) — 1.014 million.

The cooking skills of the kids went well last night. Anna Gare holds the show together. The blokes struggle at times with the budding chefs and chefettes. Sunday Night was pre-empted in Perth and other programs were shifted because of Seven’s annual telethon.

The Losers

A soft night. During the day Nine’s golf, the Australian Masters with Tiger Woods, averaged 330,000, which probably meant it cost Nine money. Thrilling finish. Contrast that (which was most of the afternoon) to the 314,000 who watched the F1 race on ONE from around Midnight because Mark Webber was in contention, but lost. If Mark Webber is not in contention next year, ratings will be lower. Ditto for next year’s golf and Tiger Woods for Nine.

News & CA

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.458 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.079 million.
  3. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm, but not aired in Perth) — 1.014 million.
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 979,000.
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 848,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 621,000.
  7. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 346,000.
  8. Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 235,000.
  9. Landline (ABC, 12pm) — 232,000.
  10. Dateline (SBS, 8.30pm) — 207,000.
  11. Insiders (ABC, 9am) — 185,000.
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 184,000.
  13. Inside Business (ABC, 10am) — 130,000.
  14. Offsiders (ABC, 10.30am) — 110,000.

Summer is approaching, programs are starting to go on holidays, such as Meet the Press on Ten which has gone despite there being two more weeks of Federal Parliament. Seven News won all five metro markets. 60 Minutes had a solid line up for once, but it wasn’t supported by viewers and Sunday Night on Seven at 6.30pm had more viewers in four markets (it was pre-empted in Perth) than 60 Minutes had in five. That is a real sign the program has lost most of the clout it once had and is now a Sunday edition of A Current Affair. The Egyptology story on Sunday Night had a good, old 60 Minutes “Didn’t know that” zing to it.

The Stats

  • FTA: Seven won All People (3 channels) with a share of 29.3%, from Nine on 25.2% (3), Ten with 23.9% (2), the ABC was on 15.5% (4) and SBS, 6.0% (2). Ten won the main demos.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 25.8% from Ten with 21.2%, Nine on 19.2%, ABC1, 14.0% and SBS ONE, 4.7%.
  • Digital: GO won with a share of 3.7%, from GO on 2.7%, Gem with 2.3%, 7Mate, 1.6%, 7TWO, 1.6%, SBS TWO, 1.3%, ABC 2, 1.0% and SBC 3 and News 24 both with 0.3%. That’s a total FTA share of 16.2%. The FTA shares for the digital channels ranged from the low of of 12.9% in Sydney to a 19.2% high in Brisbane.
  • Pay TV: Seven with three channels won with 24.4%, from Nine (3) with 21.0%, Ten (two) was on 19.9%, Pay TV (100 plus channels), 13.9%, the ABC, 12.9% (4), and SBS, (2), 5.0%. The 14 FTA channels had a share of 86.1%, made up of 12.7% for the nine digitals and 74.4% for the five main channels. Foxtel’s share ranged from lows of 12.1% in Melbourne and Adelaide to the usual Sydney high of 16.7%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a share of 29.3%, from WIN/NBN with 27.3%, SC Ten on 20.1%, the ABC, 16.7% and SBS, 6.0%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels from WIN/NBN. GO won the digitals with 4.6%. The nine digital channels had an FTA share of 15.2% in prime time last night.
  • Major Markets: Seven won overall everywhere but Melbourne, where it shared top spot with Nine. Ten was third everywhere. Seven won the main channels everywhere. GO won the digitals everywhere bar Perth where ONE won because the three hour time difference brought the Grand Prix into prime time at 9pm instead of midnight on the East Coast.).

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week Seven won, with Nine second and Ten third. Seven won the main channels and GO won the digitals. Seven won everywhere bar Melbourne where Nine got up. Seven won Friday night, Nine won Saturday night with the heady mixture of Hey Hey It’s Saturday doing very well in Melbourne and the rugby league test doing well in Sydney and Brisbane.

After last night and this week (and next), we know why God invented summer and test cricket. They come to relieve us of the tedium of watching a ratings year fade. The test cricket won’t be starting until next week (and before then we will have to endure the perfect teeth and well planted hair of Shane Warne in his new chat program, Warnie. First interview, a mate in James Packer). Sisters of War was OK at 8.30pm on the ABC. But like period pieces, WWII stories are getting a bit tedious.

And there is a lot of interest in one of Seven’s new buys for 2011, Downton Abbey from ITV in London. It’s the most expensive and the most successful new UK drama for years. But will it play here? It is a pre-WWI upstairs/downstairs, Forsyte Saga type of program. Poms love the gentry and the middle and lower classes bowing and scrapping etc, but will Australians? Seven episodes started the series, which finished on November 7 and averaged close to 11 million people. A second series of 8 episodes will start in production next March. So Seven could have 15 episodes for say, Sunday nights at 7.30pm? But on which channel, Seven 1, or TWO (it is too female skewing for 7Mate)?

And Ten killed off Don’t Stop Believing, a GroupM/Shine effort that flopped in the UK because it was too much like The X Factor. It was dead before it started and Ten was in denial when it was included in its 2011 launch two months ago.

TONIGHT: A more limited offering from the ABC tonight with Four Corners, Media Watch and Q&A all resting now until 2011. Nine has The Mentalist (a repeat, has the satellite been turned off?), Ten has The 7PM Project and the final of Junior MasterChef. Seven has Criminal Minds. The ABC has Family Confidential starting at 8pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports.