The Winners: Seven’s catty kitchen program, My Kitchen Rules, is gaining viewers and momentum. Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight, 889,000 (ABC) (8.30pm), Laid on the ABC at 9.30pm, 608,000. The Farmer Wants a Wife on Nine at 8.30pm, 891,000, not inspiring either for such a hyped return.

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.399 million
  2. Seven 6pm News — 1.162 million
  3. Criminal Minds (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.137 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.116 million
  5. Nine News (6pm)– 1.039 million

The Losers: Nine, again last night. Mike & Molly on Nine at 8pm, 852,000. Blue Bloods on Ten at 8.30pm, 692,000. City Homicide on Seven at 9.30pm, 663,000. House, on Ten at 9.30 pm, 644,000. No encouragement there at all for any of the networks.

News & CA: Seven’s 6pm News in Sydney led with the Tony Abbott story last night (naturally), but also aired criticisms of its story (and support), from emails or web comments. The reaction was balanced. Seven News lost Sydney and Brisbane to Nine (both with low figures again). ACA won Brisbane, lost the rest. The win in Brisbane came with both programs under 200,000 viewers in that market. Audience levels are low for all networks at the moment.

If a quiet panic hasn’t set in at Nine over the weak ratings for A Current Affair this week by midday today, then the bosses of the Nine Entertainment Company have dropped the ball. The 867,000 for ACA last night was around 250,000 below that of TT.

6PM With George Negus (389,000) and the 6.30pm Evening News (372,000), seem to be steadying at a low base.

  1. Seven 6 pm News — 1.162 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.116 million
  3. Nine News (6pm)– 1.039 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 927,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 867,000
  6. The 7PM Project (Ten) (7pm) — 734,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 692,000
  8. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 651,000
  9. 6PM With George Negus (Ten) (6pm) — 389,000
  10. Evening News (Ten) (6.30pm) — 372,000
  11. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 348,000
  12. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 249,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 186,000
  14. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 129,000
  15. SBS News (9.30pm) — 127,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 395,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 322,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 32.4% from Nine (3) on 26.6%, ten (3), 20.2%, the ABC (4), 16.7% and SBS, (2), 4.1%. Seven leads the week with 32.4% from Nine on 28.2% and Ten on 20.3%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 24.7% from Nine on 21.1%, Ten with 15.6%, ABC 1, 13.6%, and SBS ONE on 3.5%. Seven leads the week with 25.5% from Nine on 22.2% and Ten with 16.4%.
  • Digital: The 10 digital channels had an FTA prime time share of 21.6% last night. 7TWO won with a share of 4.2%, from Eleven on 3.8%, 7Mate on 3.5%, GO with 3.4%, Gem on 2.2%, ABC 2 on 1.8%, ONE and ABC 3 on 0.8% each, SBS TWO on 0.6% and News 24 on 0.5%. The digital channels FTA shares ranged from 19.4% in Sydney to more than 24% in Adelaide and Perth.
  • Pay TV: Seven on (3 channels) with a share of 26.8% from Nine (3) on 22.1%, Ten (3) was on 16.7%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 14.0%, just in front of the ABC (4 channels) on 13.9% and SBS (2) on 3.4%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of 86.0% in prime time last night. That was made up of 17.8% for the 10 digitals and 68.2% for the five main channels. Foxtel’s share ranged from 17.1% in Sydney to a low of 10.6% in Adelaide.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 33.7% from WIN/NBN (3) on 30.6%, SC Ten (3) was on 16.5%, the ABC (4), ended with 15.0% and SBS (2), was on 4.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels from Prime/7Qld. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.5%, from Eleven on 4.2% and 7Mate on 3.7%. Prime/7Qld leads the week on 32.7% from WIN/NBN on 30.6%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA prime time share of 23.6%.

Major Markets: Seven won everywhere , both overall and in the main channels. Apart from Adelaide where the ABC finished third overall, Nine and Ten filled the minors. 7TWO won Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, 7Mate won Brisbane, Eleven won Melbourne. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten in every market.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight was OK, as was Laid straight after at 9.30pm. Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight had too much content, so the interviews with Australian of The Year Simon McKeon and Melissa George were truncated just when they were getting interesting. I thought the audience piece with Peter Rowsthorn in Perth was interesting, and should be repeated, so long as each instance is off beat.

And My Kitchen Rules with 1.399 million, 449,000 in front of The Biggest Loser on Ten with 950,000. In the demos though from 16 to 54, the ranking was My Kitchen Rules, with The Biggest Loser second. So viewers of all the relevant demos, and especially the target 16 to 39 and 18 to 49s chose food and cooking over dieting.

An observation about the week so far; there are an unusual number of weak points already appearing in each network’s schedules. More in Ten and Nine than in Seven. 2011 may not be the sort of year the networks thought it would be. Nine had dead points across what should have been a solid schedule last night, Ten had one, Seven, one.

TONIGHT: The ABC is weak. SBS has repeats and foodie programs. Nine has RBT, Getaway and then CSI. Ten is stronger with The 7pm Project, The Good Wife, The Biggest Loser and Law And Order. Seven has How I met Your Mother, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Private Practice. An uninspiring collection of fading stars. Tough to suggest anything.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports