The Winners: The below tells the story. Nothing after 7pm grabbed the attention of viewers. Dull.

  1. Seven News (6pm)– 1.094 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.070 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.046 million

The Losers: TV viewers. It turned out to be a rather grey night of TV.

News & CA: Nine News had a good night winning Sydney. Melbourne and Brisbane, its best result since late last year (and ignoring the help of the cricket). ACA won Brisbane, lost the rest and had another sub-900,000 audience. Not good and the late summer weather can’t be blamed because 6pm to 7pm figures are low for everyone. It’s just that ACA seems to be the one being squeezed this week, at least; is it the impact of Ten’s 6.30pm News?

  1. Seven News (6pm)– 1.094 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.070 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.046 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 907,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 889,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 761,000
  7. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 755,000
  8. The 7PM Project (Ten) (7pm) — 605,000
  9. Ten Evening News (6.30pm) — 354,000
  10. 6PM With George Negus (Ten) (6pm) — 354,000
  11. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 295,000
  12. Lateline (ABC) (10.20pm) — 218,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 166,000
  14. SBS News (9.30pm) — 123,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (10.55pm ) — 112,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 360,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 308,000

The Stats:

  • Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 29.1% from Nine on 28.9% (3), with Ten (3) on 21.8%, the ABC (4), was on 15.1% and SBS, (2), 5.1%. Seven leads the week with 31.8% from Nine on 28.3% and Ten with 20.6%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 22.3%, from Nine on 21.7%, Ten on 16.9%, ABC 1, 11.6% and SBS ONE, 4.6%. Seven leads the week with 24.9% from Nine on 22.1% and Ten on 16.5%.
  • Digital: The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 22.9% last night in prime time. GO won with 4.2%, from Eleven on 3.8%, 7Mate on 3.6%, 7TWO on 3.2%, Gem on 3.0%, ABC 2, 2.1%, ONE on 1.0%, ABC 3, 0.8%, News 24, 0.7% and SBS TWO on 0.5%. The digital channels had FTA shares last night ranging from 20.5% in Sydney to more than 24% in Adelaide and Perth and more than 23% in Melbourne and Brisbane. 7TWO leads the week on 3.6%, from GO on 3.5% and Eleven and 7Mate on 3.3% each.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with 23.6% (3 channels), from Nine (3) on 23.5%, Ten (3) on 17.7%, Pay TV (100 plus), 15.6%, the ABC (4), 12.3% and SBS, (2), on 4.1%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of 84.4% in prime time last night. That was made up of 18.4% for the 10digitals and 66.0% for the five main channels. Foxtel had 19.9% in Sydney and apart from the 10.4% usual low in Adelaide, had shares of 14% or better in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN won (3 channels) with a share of 30.7%, from Prime/7Qld (3) on 30.1%, SC Ten (3) was on 19.4%, the ABC (4), was on 14.5% and SBS (2), was on 5.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels from Prime/7Qld. 7Mate won the digitals with 4.7% from GO on 4.4% and Eleven with 4.3%. the 10 digital channels had an FTA prime time share total last night of 25.9%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.2% from WIN/NBN on 30.6%.

Major Markets: Seven won overall and in the main channels in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. In Melbourne and Brisbane Nine won overall, but Seven won the main channels. 7TWO won Sydney, 7Mate won Perth, GO scored with wins in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Seven leads the week everywhere.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The first Thursday of real ratings and it’s no better in many respects than the depths of summer. The programs were tragic hand me downs from other nights, such as CSI or faded spinsters like a half an hour version of Getaway. You get a feeling that Nine and Seven are marking time until the football season start (and so for that matter is Ten).

TONIGHT: Not much at all, except on the ABC which has a new New Tricks and a new program called Kidnap and Ransom, the first of three parts. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven (because it is at least fresh and new, of sorts). The Biggest Loser: Families on Ten.

Saturday: Ignore. Go out. The Midsomer Murders repeat on the ABC at 8.30pm is a golden oldie. Seven, Nine and Ten have repeats, or a one-off NRL game on Nine.

Sunday: The morning chats for those in need of a political or sports fix. Back to the good stuff. But ignore 60 Minutes which returns. It has two local stories and a buy in interview with Mr WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. Now why couldn’t 60 Minutes get an interview with the Australian with the highest profile around the world in the past year? No clout, or no money?

Nine also has a new Mentalist at 8.30pm. The ABC has a new Poirot at 8.30pm. Ten has Bondi Rescue, Hawaii Five-O and Modern Family. Seven has Sunday Night, Bones and Castle. Dateline returns on SBS at 8.30pm. By the way Four Corners looks at the WikiLeaker, Bradley Manning on Monday night.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports