The Winners: And that was it. Viewers voted with their remotes. Simply a boring night. Kerry O’Brien stood out with his classy goodbye from The 7.30 Report. The best way to go and be remembered.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.172 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.025 million

The Losers: Don’t let me write it … arggghhh … again. TV viewers everywhere.

News & CA: What a sad night. Thankfully the floods in NSW and the WikiLeaks stories are around otherwise it would be Tasman Tigers, Penrith Panthers and Nullarbor Nymphs for the nation’s newsrooms.

Seven News won nationally (56,000 in Sydney) and every market. ACA won Sydney (TT dropped 52,000 viewers from Seven News) and Melbourne where TT shed 70,000 viewers from Seven News. TT won the rest.

Sunrise again had a clear margin in the morning, but Today won Sydney fairly well. Today is not well supported in Adelaide and Perth.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.172 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.025 million
  3. Nine News (6pm)– 997,000
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 962,000
  5. ABC News (7 pm)  — 936,000
  6. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 828,000
  7. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 802,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 724,000
  9. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 325,000
  10. SBS News (6.30pm) — 174,000
  11. Late News Update (ABC) (10.15pm) — 170,000
  12. SBS News (9.30pm) — 144,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 416,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 336,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 31.7% from Nine (3), on 24.5%, Ten with (2 channels) 20.6%, the ABC (4) on 17.4% and SBS (2), 5.7%. Seven leads the week with 31.4% from Nine on 27.1% and Ten with 18.7%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won easily with a share of 24.3%, from Ten on 19.2%, Nine with 17.4%, ABC 1 was on 13.7% and SBS ONE, 5.2%. Seven leads the week with 22.8% from Nine on 20.1% and Ten with 17.8%.
  • Digital: The nine FTA digital channels had a total share of 19.5%, down on the 23.5% of the night before. 7TWO won with 4.4%, from GO on 4.1%, Gem and 7Mate on 3.0% each, ABC 2 on 2.4%, ONE on 1.4%, News 24 on 0.7%, ABC 3 on 0.6% and SBS TWO with 0.5%. The nine channels had FTA shares ranging from a high of 25.8% in Adelaide, to the usual Sydney low, this time 16.8%. Melbourne saw a high share of 22.8%. 7TWO leads the week with 5.1% from GO on 4.4% and 7TWO on 3.4%.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with a share of 25.3% (3 channels), from Nine (3) with 19.5%, Pay TV (100 plus channels), 17.3%, Ten (2), 16.5%, the ABC, (4), 13.9% and SBS (2) on 4.6%. That’s a total of 82.7% for the 14 FTA channels, made up of 16.1% for the nine digital channels and 66.6% for the five main channels. Foxtel had its usual high in Sydney, this time it was 19.6% and second in market. Readings of more than 18% were recorded for Brisbane and Perth.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a share of 30.3% from WIN/NBN on 28.6%, SC Ten was on 20.3%, the ABC, 15.4% and SBS, 5.4%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels from WIN/NBN. GO won the digitals with 5.1% from 7TWO on 4.5% and 7Mate on 3.6%. The nine digital channels had an FTA share of 21.4% in prime time last night. Prime/7Qld lead the week with 31.8% from WIN/NBN on 29.7%.

Major Markets: Seven won overall and in the main channels in every market. Ten was second in the main channels in every market bar Brisbane. In the digitals, GO won Sydney, Gem won Perth, 7TWO won the rest. Seven leads the week in every market, from Nine and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: What would happen if they had an awards night and no one watched? Well, it was almost like that for the Walkley Awards for journalism from 10pm on SBS ONE. Just 83,000 watched the broadcast from go to woe which was at 11.55 pm. It started with 109,000 viewers in the first quarter hour, leapt to 116,000 from 10.15 to 10.30 pm, then sagged to 83,000 in the next quarter hour, and finished the last quarter hour of the broadcast with 62,000 people watching. Its FTA share rose from 4% at the start to 7.9% by the end.

It will battle for the 2010 AFI Awards on Nine tomorrow night at 9.30pm as the awards night that time forgot, sorry, viewers. The Walkley’s actually had the better night in being screened on a Thursday night. 9.30pm on a Saturday night, the second Saturday night of summer ratings and two weeks before Christmas Day, is peak party time for many people. Viewers don’t much care for journalism awards, nor film awards, nor would they watch legal awards or real estate back pats.

TONIGHT: The final Identity on the ABC at 9.30pm. Kerry O’Brien’s goodbye at 7.30pm (and I know he said goodbye in a classically understated and classy fashion last night). The 7pm Project on Ten plus the various news broadcasts for live, moving TV. The rest is pap.

SATURDAY: More pap. Iron Chef on SBS at 8.30pm is new but old. Spooks on the ABC at 8.30pm. The rest, ignore and go snore. More fun and better for you.

SUNDAY: Nothing to interest the brain in the morning. Sunrise and Today will not tax the thinking bits. Nothing will. 60 Minutes has the hide to air a story done in 1990. The Schools Spectacular on the ABC at 7.30pm to 9pm is worth a watch for genuine, enthusiastic performances and talent. Ignore the rest, again.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports