The Winners: Seven’s night, very, very easily. In Their Footsteps on Nine was good last night. Dancing with the Stars lifted on the opening last week when it averaged 1.505 million. MasterChef slipped from last week when it averaged 1.503 million, and from the opening Sunday when it averaged 1.569 million. That’s a 10% loss in two weeks.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.745 million
  2. Dancing with the Stars (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.606 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.441 million
  4. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.409 million
  5. Castle (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.091 million
  6. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.083 million
  7. In Their Footsteps (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.056 million

The Losers: Ten, apart from MasterChef, the schedule last night looked barren and viewers thought so too. Why didn’t Ten bring back Offspring to last night where it was last year and succeeded? It would have made for a far stronger night. That’s not saying it and MasterChef won’t do well tonight. But Ten is lacking in programs that can hold the audience’s attention.

News & CA: Andrew Bolt’s The Bolt Report did well. He reminds me of the last Human Headline, Derryn Hinch. They have the same capacity for self-promotion and to talk about themselves. But Bolter lacks Derryn’s courage.

Seven News lost Sydney to Nine at 6pm, won the four other metro markets. Combine the audiences of Ten’s 5pm and 6pm news broadcasts and there a respectable 860,000 watched in total last night. The 6pm audience can’t be the 5pm audience backing up again can they?

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.745 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.441 million
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.083 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 758,000
  5. Ten Evening News (6pm) — 448,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 420,000
  7. SBS News (6.30pm) — 225,000
  8. The Bolt Report (4.30pm) — 129,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 353,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 233,000
  3. Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 213,000
  4. The Bolt Report (Ten) (10am) — 174,000
  5. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 166,000
  6. Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 136,000
  7. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 136,000
  8. Meet The Press (Ten) (10.30am) — 118,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 33.8% from Nine (3) on 25.4%, Ten (3) was on 20.3%, the ABC (4) was on 10.8% and SBS (2) ended with 9.7%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won easily with 28.0% from Nine on 18.1%, Ten was on 15.2%, ABC 1, 8.8% and SBS ONE, 8.9%.
  • Digital: GO won with 3.9% from Gem on 3.4%, 7TWO was on 3.2%, Eleven was on 2.9%, 7mate, 2.6%, ONE, 2.3%, ABC, 1.0%, SBS TWO, 0.8%, News 24, 0.6% and ABC 3, 0.5%. That’s a total share of 21.2% in FTA prime time viewing last night.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3) won with a share of 28.3%, from Nine (3) on 21.2%, Ten (3) was on 17.0%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) ended with 13.6%, the ABC (4) was on 9.0% and SBS (2), ended with 8.1%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 34.8%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 28.3%, SC Ten (3) was on 18.9%, the ABC (4) was on 11.5% and SBS (2) ended with 6.4%. The main channels were won by Prime/7Qld with 27.6% with WIN/NBN on 19.7% and SC Ten way back on 13.5%. The digitals were won by GO on 5.1%, with 7TWO on 4.4%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA viewing share last night of 24.4%.

Major Markets: Seven had a clean sweep, both overall and in the main channels winning all five metro markets. Nine was second and Ten third in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Nine was second overall in Adelaide but ten was second in the main channels. Ten was second overall and in the main channels in Perth. GO won Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Gem won Sydney, 7TWO won Adelaide.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven’s week, very easily in the end, despite the strength of MasterChef and the attempt by Nine to restart its stuttering performance which collapsed by midweek. Seven won the main channels and the digitals. Seven also won the regional areas through Prime/7Qld.

Eurovision got its usual half a million or so viewers last night for SBS (503,000) for nearly four hours and its seems Nine, Ten and especially the ABC suffered a bit more than Seven did. SBS ONE slipped past ABC ONE in the share rankings last night as a result.

Dancing with the Stars averaged 635,000 viewers in regional areas which gave it a national audience last night of 2.24 million. MasterChef averaged 428,000 in regional areas and a national audience all up of 1.837 million viewers.

Seven’s tactic of assaulting MasterChef on Sundays with Dancing with the Stars and on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with Australia’s Got Talent is paying off. Seven’s big win last night, plus expectations of solid efforts tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday means it is already positioned to win the week. Ten and Nine need to boost their Sunday evening performances. Seven had been a struggler in previous years on Sunday nights and Thursdays. Now both are working for it.

TONIGHT: The ABC’s wall of news and current affairs that rolls on from 7pm to around 11.35pm. Seven starts the local version of The Amazing Race, which will run for 90 minutes from 8.30pm.

Ten has MasterChef at 7.30pm and returns Offspring for a two hour length episode at 8.30pm. Nine debuts Come Fly With Me at 8pm. Definitely worth a look. Hopefully this won’t be a repeat of the Ben Elton atrocity.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports