The Winners: The easy win by Seven is down to one program, My Kitchen Rules. End of story for Nine and Ten. Criminal Minds from 9pm, 999,000, added to Seven’s win, as did Home and Away at 7pm with 935,000 and the News and TT which won 6pm.

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven, 7.30 – 9 pm) — 1.384 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.242 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.184 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.030 million

The Losers: A long list: Ten, Blue Bloods at 8.30pm, 467,000. The second episode at 9.30pm, 376,000. Ten just wants to be rid of this flop. Mike & Molloy on Nine at 8pm. Not funny at all, nor were the audience figures of 676,000 viewers at the peak time of 8pm. No wonder the Farmer Wants a Wife cratered to just 786,000 at 8.30pm. Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight, 674,000. The audience gave it two chances and ignored the third. It’s too busy and not good enough. City Homicide on Seven at 10pm, 488,000.

News & CA: Nine will no doubt have a boast about Today getting 4000 more viewers than Sunrise.

Last night Nine went for the hour news and ACA at 7 pm. Seven reverted to normal News/TT from 6pm to 7pm with Home and Away as normal at 7pm. Seven won.

ABC News 24 again had solid reporting and use of TVNZ stories and vision for much of the day.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.242 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.184 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.030 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 904,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (7pm) — 788,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 721,000
  7. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7pm) — 717,000
  8. The 7PM Project (Ten) (7pm) — 642,000
  9. Nine News Quake Special — 576,000
  10. 6PM With George Negus (Ten) (6pm) — 368,000
  11. Ten Evening News (6.30pm) — 342,000
  12. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 236,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 220,000
  14. SBS News (9.30pm) — 169,000
  15. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11.30pm) — 147,000
  16. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 84,000

In the morning:

  1. Today (Nine) (7am) — 392,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 388,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) with 33.6%, from Nine on 25.8% (2 channels), Ten (3), was on 20.4%, the ABC (4), was on 15.6% and SBS (2) finished with 4.7%. Seven leads the week with 32.9% from Nine on 26.2% and Ten with 20.0%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 26.4% from Nine on 20.0%, Ten on 15.0%, ABC 1 on 11.8% and SBS ONE on 4.0%. Seven leads the week with 25.8% from Nine on 20.1% and Ten with 15.7%.
  • Digital: The 10 digital channels had a prime time FTA share last night of 22.8%. 7TWO won with 4.3%, from Eleven on 3.6%, GO on 3.1%, 7Mate on 2.9%, Gem was on 2.6%, ABC 2, 1.9%, ONE, 1.8%, News 24, 1.3%, SBS TWO was on 0.7% and ABC 3 was on 0.6%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.9% from GO on 3.5% with Eleven and 7Mate on 3.2%.
  • Pay TV: Seven won (3 channels) with 27.7%, from Nine (3) on 21.3%, Ten (3) on 16.8%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 14.4%, the ABC (4 channels), 12.9% and SBS, (2), 3.8%. the 15 FTA channels had a total share of TV viewing last night of 85.6%, made up of 18.8% for the 10 digital channels and 66.8%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 33.0% from WIN/NBN (3) on 32.0%, SC Ten (3) was on 16.7%, the ABC (4), was on 14.5% and SBS (2) finished with 3.7%. prime/7Qld and WIN/NBN shared the main channels with 25/0% each. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.0% from Gem on 3.8% and Eleven on 3.4%. The 10 digital channels had a total share of FTA prime time viewing of 25.5% last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.1% from WIN/NBN on 29.1%.

Major Markets: Seven won everywhere, both overall and in the main channels, from Nine and Ten. 7TWO won everywhere bar Melbourne where Eleven got up. Seven leads the week in each of the five metro markets.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won because of My Kitchen Rules which was pushed out to 90 minutes, neatly matching the 90 minute episode of The Biggest Loser: Families, which finished with 947,000 viewers and second in the demos behind My Kitchen Rules. But that meant food, rather than dieting, triumphed.

Foxtel’s “reality program” called Park Street, on ACP Magazines, debuted on Arena channel last night and the reaction from the audience was underwhelming, to be kind. Just 6289 viewers, with 5357 of those in Brisbane, oddly enough. There were 856 viewers in Sydney, 76 in Perth and none in Melbourne and Adelaide. Even in that strange world of subscription TV, this is a flop.

And the Nine Network did the kind thing and put Ben Elton Live from Planet Earth and its viewers out of their misery yesterday by axing it:

Channel Nine and FremantleMedia Australia announced today the conclusion of Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth.

“A Nine spokesperson said: ‘Ben and his team have done a fantastic job uncovering new Australian talent and we appreciate all of their hard work and dedication. We are all very proud of the show but unfortunately it has not found the audience we had hoped for. We thank Ben and all the cast and crew for their commitment and wish them all the best.”

Michael Healy, Director of Television said: “Comedy is always risky, and live comedy is the riskiest of all. We are pleased to have taken the chance to support the local industry.”

Ian Hogg, CEO of FremantleMedia Australia, said: “We have immense respect for Ben. Through our development deal, we look forward to some exciting comedy and drama projects in the future.”

TONIGHT: Well, not much at all. The 7PM Project on Ten, The Good Wife, also on Ten. Nine has nothing really gripping. Fading Getaway at 8pm. Seven has the usual collection of greying beauties, How I Met Your Mother, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Private Practice. What a dismal line up, but it will do well in the demos, especially among female viewers. The ABC has the usual Thursday evening collection of don’t watch programs. SBS has various food related programs. Go out, find your friends.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports