The Winners

  1. Seven News (6pm)– 1.247 million.
  2. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.178 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.118 million.
  4. The Biggest Loser (Ten, 6.30pm) — 1.076 million.
  5. Border Security (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.060 million.
  6. The Force (Seven, 8pm) — 1.034 million.
  7. Modern Family (Ten, 7.30pm) — 1.033 million.
  8. Bondi Rescue (Ten, 8pm) — 1.010 million.
  9. Miss Marple (ABC, 8.30pm) — 1.006 million.

Miss Marple won the battle of the detective shows last night: Seven’s Bones averaged 971,000, The Mentalist episode one on Nine at 8.30pm, 841,000 and episode two at 9.30pm, 726,000. Hawaii Five 0, episode one on Ten at 8.30pm, 723,000 and episode two, at 9.30pm, 531,000.

Good to see that an old fashioned bit of Brit crime sleuthing with only two average murders so comprehensively whipped American glitzy, shoot ’em dead, car chase (and in the case of Bones, a bit of URST). Hawaii Five 0 is dying for Ten. It is not a patch on the original.

The Losers

Nine in Sydney, Ten in Adelaide. Seven’s 6pm News last night.

News & CA

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.247 million.
  2. 60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.178 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.118 million.
  4. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 926,000.
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 895,000.
  6. Nine News At Five (Nine, 5pm) — 654,000.
  7. Ten News (Ten, 6pm) — 335,000.
  8. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 326,000.
  9. Landline (ABC, 12pm) — 254,000.
  10. Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 246,000.
  11. Insiders (ABC, 9am) — 203,000.
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 173,000.
  13. Dateline (SBS, 8.30pm) — 168,000.
  14. Offsiders (ABC, 10.30am) — 128,000.
  15. Inside Business (ABC, 10pm) — 125,000.

Nine News won last night, even though Seven had more viewers. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Only massive wins in Brisbane and Perth allowed Seven to finish ahead.

Ten News at 6pm averaged 335,000, which is tragic. Nine’s temporary News at 5pm averaged 654,000. Ten has let that market go. Odd. Returning the news to 5pm should be an immediate change.

60 Minutes was solid last night, even for allowing for the unusually nervy intro from Liz Hayes to one segment where she was wringing her thumb and a finger, which is unlike her. The morning chats were full of political chattery that went nowhere.

The Stats

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won by the barest of margins with 28.4% from Nine (3) on 28.3%), Ten (3) on 20.9%, the ABC (4) on 17.5% and SBS (2) on 4.9%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with 21.2%, from Seven on 21.2%, Ten was on 17.7%, ABC1, 15.3% and SBS ONE was on 4.0%.
  • Digital: GO won with 4.8% from 7Mate on 4.0%, 7TWO on 2.6%, Eleven on 2.6%, Gem was on 2.3%, ABC2 was on 1.2%, SBS TWO, 0.9%, ONE and News 24 were on 0.6% each and ABC 3 finished with 0.3%. That’s a total of 21.6% for the 10 FTA digital channels in prime time last night.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with 22.9%, from Nine (3) on 22.8%, Ten (3) was on 16.9%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) finished with 16.4%, the ABC (4) was on 14.2% and SBS (2) finished with 3.9%. The 15 main channels had an 83.6% share of prime time viewing last night, made up of 16.8% for the 10 digitals and 66.8% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 29.8% from WIN/NBN (3) on 29.0%, SC Ten (3) was on 19.8%, the ABC (4 channels) finished with 16.4% and SBS, (2) was on 5.0%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 22.3% from WIN/NBN on 21.5%. GO won the digitals with 4.6% from 7TWO on 4.5% and Eleven on 3.3%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA prime time share of 22.9% last night.
  • Major Markets: Even though the ratings looked close and Ten did well in the demos, the five metro markets showed a slightly different picture. Nine was very weak in Sydney, Seven won overall and the main channels, but Ten snuck into third on the main channels. Nine won both in Melbourne and won overall in Brisbane, but Seven won the main channels. In Adelaide Seven won overall and the main channels, but the ABC tipped Ten out of third spot. And Seven won Perth from Nine and Ten, but Ten and Nine swapped for second on the main channels. 7TWO won the digitals in Sydney and GO won the rest.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week Seven won easily overall, the main channels and the digital channels. Nine’s A Current Affair saw its average audience tumble last week to 877,000 from 901,000 the week before. Today Tonight’s audience fell to 1.1200 million from 1.162 million. Nine News’ audience rose to 1.052 million from 1.039 million. Seven News saw its audience rise to 1.248 million from 1.167 million.

But on Ten, 6PM With George Negus fell to 369,000 from 374,000 and the 6.30pm News saw its audience fall to 319,000 from 334,000. Friday night saw 6PM with Negus average 321,000 and the 6.30pm news, 321,000. ACA’s audience fell to 777,000 on Friday, TT’s dropped to 955,000. That Friday night weakness dragged the averages down for a few regular programs.

Last night: A better night for Ten, Seven came back to the field because of the weak performance of Sunday Night at 6.30pm bled the rest of the evening. That was due to The Biggest Loser at 6.30pm which chewed up many of the 16 to 49 viewers, especially females. Hawaii Five 0 did moderately well in a couple of demos, but it’s floundering. It is another example of what works on US TV doesn’t necessarily mean success in Australia.

TONIGHT: The ABC has its news and current affairs line up tonight. Australian Story and Q&A look like the best. Four Corners is a buy in. And no report of any sort on the Christchurch earthquake. Seven had planned to push Conviction Kitchen into tonight at 8.30pm, especially after it did well in the demos last Tuesday night at 9.30pm. The Sunday programs had it at 8.30pm, the Monday guides, tomorrow night. But Seven is leaving it at 9.30PM on Tuesdays because it’s not confident it can do well enough tonight.

Ten has not very much at all. Nine has a weak night now the Underbelly telemovies are gone. Nine of course brings us Two And A half Men in its newness at 7.30pm, right after a tired repeat at 7pm. My Kitchen Rules will rule tonight. Why does this program remind me of Big Brother and all its negativity? Of course the Oscars are on as you read this, or later tonight if you are desperate, after the return of This Is Your Life on Nine. Why bring back that tired old format? Another fake Hot Seat for Eddie McGuire and the Nine Entertainment Company’s Melbourne push.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports.