The Winners: Apart from The Block nothing after 7pm was of real interest for viewers. And nothing after The Block ended at 9.10pm held their interest either. Still the final audience was half that of the first series, so although property remains a major area of interest for Australians, it’s no longer the chief interest (cost, affordability?). It’s food, or rather food, MasterChef style.

  1. The Block, winner announced (Nine) (9pm) — 1.712 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.348 million
  3. The Block (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.305 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.198 million
  5. Nine News (6pm) — 1.107 million

The Losers: 854,000 from 9.10pm to 10.10pm for Warnie wasn’t a loser, but I think viewers might have wanted a bit more. He won his timeslot. The Librarians, ABC, 8.30pm, 489,000. Raising Hope at 8pm on Ten, 761,000.

News & CA: It might be time for Nine to start look seriously at the hosting of A Current Affair, or the content or both for 2011. The program is fading and has been weakening for much of the past couple of months, with sub one million audiences starting to re-appear more often than midyear. While it won Brisbane last night (by 1000 viewers), it has gone off the boil in Melbourne and lost its way with viewers in Sydney, which is not being helped by some weak numbers of Nine News.

But Seven News isn’t doing brilliantly in Sydney either and nor is Today Tonight, but TT is still a lot stronger than ACA. Last night ACA averaged 282,000 in Sydney (TT,  317,000) and 279,000 (TT, 331,000) in Melbourne, which is supposed to be (and has been) its strongest market.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.348 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.198 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.107 million
  4. ABC News (7pm)  — 992,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 958,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 772,000
  7. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 754,000
  8. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 728,000
  9. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 267,000
  10. SBS News (9.30pm) — 210,000
  11. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 193,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 156,000
  13. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 64,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 404,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 343,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 32.5%, from Nine (3) with 32.0%, Ten back on 16.7% (2), the ABC, (4), 14.2% and SBS (2), 4.6%. Seven leads the week with 32.4% from Nine on 27.3% and Ten on 20.6%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won easily with a share of 26.8%, from Seven on 24.3%, Ten, 16.25, ABC 1, 11.2% and SBS ONE, 4.2%. Seven leads the week with 25.6%, from Nine on 21.5% and Ten on 20.0%.
  • Digital: It was probably the strongest night so far for Seven’s two digital channels, and probably the worst week so far this year for GO, Nine’s digital spearhead. The Nine channels had an FTA share of 17.3% in prime time last night. 7Mate won with 4.5%, from 7TWO on 3.6%, GO on 3.1%, Gem with 2.1%, ABC 2, 1.9%,, ABC 3 and News 24 on 0.6% each, ONE on 0.5% and SBS TWO on 0.4%. GO still leads the week with 3.8%, from 7TWO on 3.5% and 7Mate on 3.3%. The FTA shares for the nine channels ranged from 12.3% in Sydney, to highs of 20.4% in Adelaide and 21% in Perth.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with 26.5% (3 channels) from Nine on 26.1%, Pay TV was third with 15.6% (100 plus channels), Ten was on 13.6% (2 channels), the ABC (4), 11.6% and SBS (2), 3.8%. That left the 14 FTA channels with a total share of 84.4%, made up of 14.0% for the nine digital channels and 70.4% for the five main channels. Foxtel’s shares ranged from the usual high of 17.5% in Sydney (which put it third after Seven and Nine), to 12.4% in Adelaide and 13.7% in Brisbane.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won overall with a share of 33.7%, from WIN/NBN with a share of 31.7%, SC Ten was on 16.5%, the ABC, 13.1% and SBS, 5.1%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with a share of 27.3%, from Prime/Qld on 26.4%. 7Mate won the digitals with 4.0%, from 7TWO on 3.2% and GO on 2.5%. The nine digital channels had an FTA share of 17.4% in prime time in regional areas last night. Prime/7Qld lead with week with 33.3% from WIN/NBN on 28.6%.

Major Markets: Nine won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. But The Block just didn’t work in Adelaide and Perth where Seven won overall and in the main channels. It looks as though The Block is an East Coast attraction and nothing more, a bit like Underbelly. 7Mate won Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. 7TWO won Adelaide. Seven leads the week everywhere from Nine and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The Block did OK for Nine, Warnie not so OK. The audience halved for Warnie from the peak audience for the The Block‘s high point, the winner’s announcement, which was minutes before our Shane’s pearly whites and restored locks greeted us. It could have been better.

TONIGHT: A bad night. Beauty and The Geek Australia on Seven. Bondi Vet on Ten. Rake on the ABC, perhaps. Nine has CSI. Only three nights to go for ratings to end. Oh, and the first Test is on Nine during the day, if you hadn’t noticed.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports