The Winners: Home and Away had its second audience of more than 1.2 million in as many nights, the best for over 18 months, while Monday night’s 1.26 million was the highest single night’s audience for more than 18 months as well.

Winners & Losers continues to slowly build, even though it’s been starting half an hour later at 9pm to accommodate the longer episodes of Australia’s Got Talent. That is helping kill Nine and Ten on the night.

  1. Australia’s Got Talent (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.847 million
  2. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.559 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.427 million
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.412 million
  5. Winners & Losers (Seven) (9pm) — 1.404 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.201 million
  7. Nine News (6pm)– 1.181 million
  8. Bondi Vet (Ten) (8pm) — 1.125 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.055 million
  10. ABC News (7pm) — 1.035 million

The Losers: Nine, again. Just not competitive. After the 6pm News and ACA, not one program with a million more more viewers.

News & CA: Today moved back in front of Sunrise yesterday morning. 7.30 was low because of the Queensland budget special (which gave a total audience for the ABC of 565,000), so 6.30 with George Negus didn’t have more viewers. But 7.30 is weak and looking weak. No confidence on screen at all.

Today Tonight won all five metro markets, but Seven News lost Sydney and Brisbane and won the rest. Seven’s News and current affairs programs are doing it much tougher than the other programming.

  1. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.427 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.412 million
  3. Nine News (6pm)– 1.181 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.055 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 1.035 million
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 938,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 706,000
  8. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 533,000
  9. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 507,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 456,000, excluding Brisbane where the State Budget was covered and averaged 109,000
  11. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (10.30pm) — 316,000
  12. Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 231,000
  13. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 208,000
  14. SBS News (6.30pm) — 188,000
  15. SBS News (9.30pm) — 131,000
  16. Lateline Business (ABC) (11pm) — 105,000

In the morning:

  1. Today (Nine) (7am) — 367,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 360,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 36.5%, from Ten (3) on 23.5%, Nine (3) was third with 20.9%, the ABC (4) was on 13.5% and SBS (2) ended with 5.4%. Seven now leads the week with 33.2% from Ten on 25.4% and Nine on 23.1%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 30.7% from Ten on 18.2%, Nine on 15.1%, ABC 1 was on 10.5% and SBS ONE ended with 4.6%. Seven leads the week on 26.8% from Ten on 19.6% and Nine on 17.0%.
  • Digital: GO won with 3.6%, from 7mate on 3.1%, Eleven was on 3.0%, 7TWO was on 2.8%, ONE and Gem ended with 2.2%, ABC 2 was on 1.8%, SBS TWO was on 0.8% and News 24 and ABC 3 ended with 0.6%. That’s a total share of FTA viewing last night of 20.7%. 7TWO still leads the week with 3.5%, from GO on 3.4% and Eleven on 3.0%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 30.6% from Ten (3) on 19.7%, Nine (3) was on 17.5%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) ended with 13.7%, the ABC (4) was on 11.3% and SBS (2) ended up with 4.5%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of TV viewing last night of 86.3%. The 10 digital channels shared a total of 17.4% and the five main channels had a total of 67.9%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won easily with a share of 38.0%, from WIN/NBN (3 channels) on 23.7%, SC Ten (3) on 20.5%, the ABC (4) was on 12.8% and SBS (2) ended up with 5.0%. Prime/7Qld on 30.8% won the main channels with daylight second and third, then WIN/NBN on 17.5% and SC Ten on 15.3%. 7TWO and GO won the digitals with 3.8% from 7mate on 3.4%. The 10 digital channels had a 23.3% share of FTA viewing last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week on 33.6%, from WIN/NBN on 25.1% and SC Ten on 23.1%. The Origin game on WIN/NBN will see the gap to Prime/7Qld narrow tonight.

Major Markets: Seven won from Ten and Nine everywhere, overall and in the main channels with the exception of Brisbane where Ten and Nine tied for second place. In the digitals, GO won Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. 7mate won Sydney, Eleven won Adelaide. Seven leads the week from Ten and Nine everywhere bar Brisbane where Nine is second and Ten is third.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven’s night and week, despite the high rating second State of Origin game on Nine tonight. After tonight Nine will move past Ten second in Sydney and Brisbane because of the boost from the huge Origin ratings, and could give Seven a nudge for leadership in Brisbane. But Nine won’t be able to overtake Ten in Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth and will finish third for the week.

On MasterChef, the immunity challenge was hopelessly weighted against the contestant, as were the macaroon and croquembouche challenges from last year and the year before. Unfair.

If you go to the Ten website you will find there are something like 13 different recipes for the test dish last night and the three professional judges would have struggled and lost. They aren’t professional pastry chefs, they are all rounders and employ specialists in their eateries. The choice of the dish and the pastry chef is another example of this program’s increasing arrogance. It’s a program for viewers, not the chef judges and their mates!

With 807,000 viewers in regional areas and the 1.847 million viewers in the five metro markets, Australia’s Got Talent has a national audience of 2.654 million people last night.

MasterChef, with 527,000 viewers in regional areas and 1.559 million in the metro markets, had a national audience of 2.086 million.

Winners & Losers had 559,000 viewers in regional areas and 1.404 million in the metros for a national figure of 1.963 million people. Winners & Losers had more viewers than MasterChef in regional areas last night.

TONIGHT: Second State of Origin game on Nine from 7.30pm (the brawl starts just after 8pm). It’s live in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, the game is on delayed broadcast in Adelaide and Perth from 9.30pm.

The ABC has Spicks and Specks and Angry Boys from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. Ten has MasterChef and the final Glee for this series. Seven has double repeats of Criminal Minds from 8.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports