The Winners: Another old adage was proved last night from the TV world. Put on good, interesting programs and viewers will watch. Suddenly the list of million viewer program more than doubles from a week ago, and viewers find programs after 7pm they want to stay with, instead of the weak collection of repeats that ruled for most of summer. Why, the sniff of official ratings must be in the air.

  1. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.365 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.350 million
  3. Bones (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.222 million
  4. Two and a Half Men (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.218 million
  5. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.206 million
  6. $#*! My Dad Says (Nine) (8pm) — 1.183 million
  7. Nine News (6pm) — 1.122 million
  8. ABC News (7pm) — 1.089 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.086 million
  10. Glee (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.016 million
  11. Brothers and Sisters (Seven) (9.30pm) — 1.008 million
  12. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.001 million

The Losers: Nine, surprisingly weak last night.

News & CA: Seven News and TT losing Melbourne to Nine News and ACA, and won the rest. Despite the Melbourne loss, TT still beat ACA (without Tracy Grimshaw hosting) by 364,000 viewers. And, by the way, Nine’s hour long 4.30pm news was matched by Seven from yesterday as both try to poison the waters for Ten’s two hours of news. They extended broadcasts has no impact and if anything ACA took a bigger hit from Ten’s 6PM with George Negus. But let’s withhold judgement until Ms Grimshaw returns. Sunrise was surprisingly stronger than Today in the morning. Today was awfully weak in Brisbane, beaten 116,000 to 58,000 in that market.

  1. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.365 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.350 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.122 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 1.089 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.001 million
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 901,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 893,000
  8. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 821,000
  9. 6PM with George Negus (Ten) (6pm) — 540,000
  10. Ten Evening News (6.30pm) — 487,000
  11. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.35pm) — 286,000
  12. SBS News (9.30pm) — 195,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 178,000
  14. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 145,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 77,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 426,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 306,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 34.3% from Nine (3 channels) on 27.5%, Ten (3), on 129.8%, the ABC (4), was on 12.9% and SBS (2), 5.5%. Seven leads the week with 31.5% from Nine on 29.9% and Ten on 22.0%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 24.9% from Nine on 23.0%, Ten was on 18.4%, ABC 1, 10.1% and SBS ONE, 4.97%, Seven leads the week with 24.9%, from Nine on 23.0% and Ten with 18.4%.
  • Digital: The 10 digital channels had a total share of FTA prime time share of 21.8%. 7TWO won with 5.0%, from Eleven on 4.0%, 7Mate and GO on 3.1% each, Gem on 2.5%, ABC 2 was on 1.5%, SBS TWO, 0.8%, News 24, 0.7%, ABC 3 and One with 0.6% each. The 10 channels had FTA prime time shares ranging from 19.3% in Sydney to 24.9% in Perth and 25.0% in Adelaide.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 28.6% from Nine (3) on 22.9%, Ten (3) with 16.5%, pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 13.9%, the ABC (4), 10.7% and SBS (2), 4.6%. The 15 FTA channels had an 86.1% of prime time viewing last night, made up of 18.4% for the 10 digitals and 67.7% for the five main channels. Foxtel’s shares ranged from the usual Sydney prime time high, 18.3% last night, to the usual Adelaide low of 9.8%. In Perth Foxtel’s share was 15.0.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a share of 32.7% (3 channels), from WIN/NBN (3) on 30.7%, SC Ten (3), was on 17.4%, the ABC (4) was on 13.0% and SBS (2), finished with 6.2%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels from WIN/NBN and SC Ten. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.9%, from GO on 4.8% and Eleven on 4.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 24.2% in prime time last night. WIN/NBN lead the week on 33.5% from Prime/7Qld on 30.4%.

Major Markets: Seven beat Nine and Ten overall and in the main channels in every market. 7TWO won everywhere bar Melbourne where Eleven got up. GO, Eleven, Gem and 7Mate shared the minors. Nine still leads in Brisbane, Seven leads the rest, Ten is second in Perth and Nine third after two nights.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: My Kitchen Rules on Seven is really trying hard to be a trying program for viewers. After the first episode of this series, it has the hallmarks of Big Brother when it should have the openness and feel good of MasterChef. Look tonight and check for yourself.

TONIGHT: My Kitchen Rules on Seven, plus Parenthood, back at 8.30pm. Nine has repeats of Top Gear, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Ten has a fresh NCIS and repeats the first episode of Hawaii Five-O at 9.30pm in case you missed it on Sunday night. The 7pm Project follows the two hours of news.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports