The Winners: From the point of viewer of the audience it was a dull night. Nothing after the 6pm News really grabbed the audience’s attention (perhaps The Force on Seven and Ten’s Modern Family). Nine’s audience peaked at 6pm with the news and spent the rest of the night on other networks or channels. Ten stayed in touch.

  1. Seven News (6pm)– 1.326 million
  2. The Force (Seven) (8pm) — 1.205 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.103 million
  4. Modern Family (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.084 million
  5. Border Security (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.072 million
  6. The Biggest Loser: Families (Ten) (6.30pm) — 1.042 million
  7. Bones (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.009 million

The Losers: Nine, again weaker than the schedule appeared to promise. The fresh episode of The Mentalist (809,000) died at 8.30pm. Ten’s Hawaii Five-O has left its million viewer audience behind, but did OK in the key demos. But the loss of viewers in the first three weeks means it faces an uncertain future.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne, but lost Brisbane by a mile. 60 Minutes had the CBS buy in interview with Julian Assange last night. Dateline had its own interview, and the first solid report on the changes in Egypt on Friday (Foreign Correspondent has a report tomorrow night). Four Corners has a WikiLeaks story tonight. 60 Minutes must have used the CBS interview with Assange as a cost cutting measure.

  1. Seven News (6pm)– 1.326 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.103 million
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 950,000
  4. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 941,000
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 840,000
  6. Ten Evening News (Ten) (6pm) — 308,000
  7. SBS News (6.30pm) — 183,000
  8. Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 149,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 292,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 224,000
  3. Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 275,000
  4. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 180,000
  5. Insider Business (ABC) (10am) — 155,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) 120,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 31.8%, from Nine (3) on 26.7%, Ten (3) on 20.6%, the ABC (4), 15.6% and SBS (2), 5.3%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 23.7% from Nine on 19.1%, Ten was on 17.5%, ABC 1, 13.3% and SBS ONE, 5.3%.
  • Digital: Nine’s GO won with a share of 5.2%, from 7Mate on 4.5%, 7TWO on 3.5%, Gem was on 2.5%; Eleven was on 2.3%, ABC Two and SBS TWO were on 1.2% each, ONE and News 24 on 0.7% each and ABC 3 on 0.4%. That’s a total FTA prime time share for the 10 channels of 22.2%. The digital channel had total FTA shares ranging from 19.9% in Sydney to more than 24% in Adelaide and Perth.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with a share (3 channels) of 25.1%, from Nine (3), 21.1%), Pay TV (100 plus channels), 18.1%, Ten (3) was on 16.2%, the ABC (4) was on 12.3% and SBS (2), was on 4.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of viewing in prime time last night of 81.9%. Foxtel’s shares ranged from a second place 11.2% in Sydney to a low of 12% last night.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won (3 channels) with a share of 32.6%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 28.5%, SC Ten (3) 19.3%, the ABC (4), on 14.4% and SBS (2) on 5.3%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels from WIN/NBN and SC Ten. GO won the digitals with a FTA prime time share of 6.1%, from 7TWO on 5.0% and 7Mate on 4.2%. The 10 digital channels had a prime time share last night of 26.5%.

Major Markets: Seven won Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine won overall in Melbourne, Seven won the main channels. In Perth Ten beat Nine into second overall and in the main channels. It was another weak performance by the WIN-owned station. In Adelaide the ABC beat Ten into third on both measures as viewers there ignored Ten’s offerings last night. GO won Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. 7TWO won Sydney, 7Mate won Adelaide.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won Friday night, Nine won Saturday night, Seven won the week overall and the main channels and the digital channels as well. Thanks to Packed to the Rafters and My Kitchen Rules, Seven dominates the demographics as well in what was a strong start to the 2011 ratings year. A Current Affair had its 4th program in a row on Friday with an audience under a million viewers. That four night stretch has to be a record. Today Tonight was over a million for the fifth night in a row.

60 Minutes returned with a solid report on the Qantas A380 incident in Singapore. Qantas played along with the program as well. But 950,000 people watched, 9000 more that the number who watched Seven’s Sunday Night at 6.30pm.

That the 10 FTA digital channels and Foxtel had a combined share of just over 35% in prime time viewing last night tells us how boring the audience thought the offerings on the main channels which are the main breadwinners for the networks.

TONIGHT: Seven has My Kitchen Rules and Bones; Nine has another underbelly telemovie. Ten and is running a fresh NCIS at 8.30pm to fill a hole. But Glee is on at 7.30pm. The ABC has back to back current affairs. Ten repeats 6PM With George Negus at 10.30pm and shifts the 10.30pm Late News back to 11pm. Is the repeat an attempt to get a greater exposure for the program with Ten viewers (it’s after Good News Week), or is it a trial to see if 10.30PM With George Negus fits the bill?

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports