The Winners: That says it all. A very boring night. The Biggest Loser did well for Ten (967,000) and topped the demos. But Seven had more programs at the top of the demos than other networks (Nine was really squeezed), so Seven won the demos.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.206 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.051 million

The Losers: Viewers. No program after 7pm had a million viewers or more.

News & CA: Seven News and Today Tonight had a clean sweep in all five metro markets. ACA was weak despite Tracy Grimshaw having an exclusive interview with the young NZ woman rescued on Tuesday afternoon. TT had the best exclusive with vision from an Australian search team and then interviews with Anne Vos and another survivor. Gripping stuff. Sunrise moved back in front of Today yesterday morning.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.206 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.051 million
  3. Nine 6 pm News — 944,000
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 870,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 822,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 720,000
  7. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 698,000
  8. Ten News  (5pm) — 692,000
  9. 6PM With George Negus (Ten) (6pm) — 362,000
  10. Ten Evening News (6.30pm) — 341,000
  11. Lateline (ABC) (10.20pm) — 279,000
  12. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 236,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 220,000
  14. SBS News (9.30pm) — 129,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (10.55pm) — 107,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 429,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 370,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 31.6%, from Nine (3) on 26.8%, Ten (3) on 21.1%, the ABC (4) of 15.5% and SBS (2), on 5.0%. Seven leads the week on 32.7% from Nine on 26.3% and Ten on 20.2%.
  • Main Channel: Seven with 22.5%, from Nine on 19.3%, ten with 16.2%, ABC 1, 11.4% and SBS ONE on 4.2%. Seven leads the week with 25.2%, Nine was on 20.0% and Ten was on 15.8%.
  • Digital: The 10 digital channels had a total prime time share last night of 26.3%. 7Mate won with 4.6% from 7TWO on 4.5% with GO and Eleven on 4.0% each, Gem on 3.4%, ABC 2, 2.4%. News 24, 1.1%, ONE, 0.9%, SBS TWO 0.8% and ABC 3, 0.6%. 7TWO leads the week on 4.0%, from GO with 3.6% and 7Mate on 3.5%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with 25.1% from Nine (3) on 21.3%, Pay TV was on 17.5% (100 plus channels) Ten with 16.8% (3 channels), the ABC )4) was on 12.3% and SBS (2), 4.0%. Pay TV did well because of the AFL pre-season game on Fox Sports last night. The 15 FTA channels had a share of TV viewing in prime time last night of 82.5%, made up of 20.9% for the 10 digitals and 61.6% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 31.6% from WIN/NBN (3) on 30.8%, SC Ten (3) 17.8%, the ABC (4) on 15.4% and SBS (2), 4.5%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 23.9% from Prime/7Qld on 22.2%. 7Mate won the digitals with 5.4%, from GO on 4.3% and Eleven on 4.0%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA prime time share of 25.9% last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week on 32.8% from WIN/NBN on 29.4%.

Major Markets: Seven won overall and the main channels in every market, with Nine and Ten second and third. 7TWO won Sydney and Adelaide, GO won Perth and Brisbane, 7Mate won Melbourne. Seven still leads in every market from Nine and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nearly 40% of the audience weren’t watching the average fare on the main channels last night, but were watching either the FTA digitals or Pay TV. That explains the night.

TONIGHT: Guess what? The Nine Network is showing the Australia vs.NZ ICC World Cup cricket match from 3pm to 6pm, then 7.10pm to around 10pm. Commonsense at last. Seven had Better Homes and Gardens, the ABC has New Tricks and the last Kidnap and Ransom. Ten has The 7pm Project and The Biggest Loser.

Saturday: When the repeat of Midsomer Murders at 8.30pm on the ABC is a highlight, followed by a repeat of a repeat of a repeat of Inspector Morse on 7TWO, you know it’s a rotten night. Ten has a repeat (to the Nth degree) of Home Alone 2, god help us. Seven and Nine are deserts in comparison.

Sunday: The morning chat shows to start with more on the carbon tax and anything else. The big question is for Sunday Night and 60 Minutes, will they tackle the NZ quake and will they do it in a way that informs us, instead of being the usual exploitation of our emotions with yet another tear tickler?

Seven also has Bones, Nine also had The Mentalist. Ten has Hawaii Five O in a quaint battle of US cop shops all at 8.30pm. Ms Marple takes on the yank cops in another mystery from Ms Christie on the ABC at 8.30pm. I feel a crime wave developing.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports