The Winners: With Packed to the Rafters and My Kitchen Rules in Seven’s line up it was always going to be Seven’s night, and week.

  1. Packed to the Rafters (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.709 million
  2. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.424 million
  3. Seven News (6pm)– 1.272 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.227 million
  5. Nine News (6pm) — 1.173 million
  6. NCIS (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.067 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.024 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.006 million

The Losers: Nine. Still running relatively dead on Tuesday nights. Could that change next week with Packed to the Rafters gone and Seven trying a new female skewing drama? Top Gear, 762,000 from 8.30pm. Faded glory for Nine.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney, Seven won the rest. Today Tonight won everywhere bar Melbourne where ACA got up. Ten’s 6PM With George Negus and the 6.30pm News had another good night. They are getting noticed, even if they slip back for the rest of the week.

  1. Seven News (6pm)– 1.272 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.227 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.173 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.024 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 977,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 775,000
  7. 7.30/Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (7.30pm) — 741,000
  8. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 736,000
  9. 6PM With George Negus (Ten) (6pm) — 423,000
  10. 6PM With George Negus (Ten) (10.40pm) — 388,000
  11. Ten Evening News (6.30pm) — 370,000
  12. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11.10pm) — 218,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 213,000
  14. Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 197,000
  15. SBS News (9.30pm) — 192,000
  16. Insight (SBS) (7.30pm) — 148,000
  17. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.10pm) –102,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 395,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 333,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with 32.9% from Nine (3) on 24.3%, Ten (3) was on 22.8%, the ABC (4) was on 14.9% and SBS (2) ended with 5.1%. Seven leads the week on 31.4% from Nine on 26.1% and Ten on 21.1%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 27.0% from Nine on 18.7%, just in front of Ten on 18.3%, ABC 1 was on 11.6% and SBS ONE finished with 4.4%. Seven leads the week with 24.1% from Nine on 19.6% and Ten on 16.55%.
  • Digital: Gem won with 3.3%, from Eleven on 3.2%, 7TWO and 7Mate were on 2.9% each, GO was on 2.3%, ABC 2, 1.8%, ONE was on 1.3%, News 24, 1.1%, SBS Two finished with 0.6% and ABC 3 was on 0.4%. The 10 channels had an FTA prime time viewing share of 19.8% last night. 7TWO leads the week on 3.8% from GO on 3.6% and Eleven and 7Mate on 3.5%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 27.4% from Nine (3) on 20.2%, Ten (3) was on 19.0%, Pay TV (100 plus channels, 13.7%), the ABC (4) was on 12.4% and SBS (2) finished with 4.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a prime time viewing share last night of 86.3%, made up on the 10 digitals with 14.6% and the five main channels with 71.7%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with 34.6%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 24.7%, (SC Ten (3) was on 22.1%, the ABC (4) was on 13.8% and SBS (2), ended with 4.6%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels by a regional kilometre. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.1%, from 7Mate and GO on 3.0% and Eleven with 2.7%. The 10 digital channels had a prime time viewing share in regional Australia of 21.5%. Prime/7Qld lead the week with 32.4% from WIN/NBN on 27.4%.

Major Markets: Seven won everywhere overall and in the main channels. In Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, Ten pushed Nine into a weak third place in both. Nine was second and Ten third in Melbourne and Brisbane. Eleven won Melbourne (with gem) and Adelaide. 7TWO won Sydney, Gem also won Brisbane. 7Mate won Perth. Seven leads the week everywhere from Nine and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The last Packed to the Rafters for now had the lowest audience of the first six episodes, an early warning sign for Seven?

The ABC’s decision to combine 7.30 and Foreign Correspondent into an hour sort of worked last night. But what it did show was two things: that 7.30 is singularly ill equipped to cover a story of this complexity and reach on its own and more importantly, the management of the ABC and News and Current Affairs are stuck in a time warp and don’t seem to be able to think differently.

As it was last night, Eric Campbell’s piece (Foreign Correspondent) on Japan’s anti-nuclear groups stood out and was the first of its kind. We should have heard and seen more of what Mark Willacy and Stephen McDonell were seeing and finding out from the quake and tsunami zones, and we should have had a discrete report on what was happening at Fukushima with some background as to the problems the plant’s owners have had and were having. But at least the ABC had a go at trying to bring us more.

The commercials (bar Ten with 6PM With George Negus) have taken a far less comprehensive approach reporting this greater tragedy than they did at Christchurch. In terms of staff, costs and access, Christchurch was closer and easier, and yet the current dramas in Japan are far more important.

6PM With George Negus and Ten’s 6.30pm News had another solid night. Both programs are starting to attract more viewers on a regular basis. If he axes or changes them, he will send a mixed message to viewers and ruin all the time, effort and emotional investment staff and management have put into this big gamble.

Over 810,000 people watched 6PM With George Negus at its normal time and it’s repeat at 10.40pm. Ten may have stumbled on success by desperately slotting it into a late night repeat. Dare Lachlan Murdoch change that?

TONIGHT: My Kitchen Rules and Criminal Minds on Seven, Nine has The Farmer Wants a Wife, Ten had The 7pm Project and The Biggest Loser. The ABC has the last Laid at 9.30pm, after another meandering Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight. Inspector Rex is repeated, again.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports