The Winners: Nine’s night thanks to The Block and the debuting Top Design doing very well in Melbourne and averaged over 400,000 viewers in that market for two and a quarter hours. The Block averaged 499,000, Top Design, 440,000.

The ratings show the big win by Nine last night was the difference between it winning or Seven or Ten.

The Block and Top Design didn’t do as well in Sydney, 321,000 and 312,000. MasterChef also did far better in Melbourne, 560,000, than in Sydney, 443,000.

  1. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.620 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.404 million
  3. The Block (Nine) (7pm) — 1.309 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.279 million
  5. Top Design (Nine) (8pm) — 1.156 million
  6. Nine News (6pm)  — 1.123 million
  7. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.051 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.037 million

The Losers: Seven, a weakish prime time line up last night (and again tonight). Angry Boys (ABC, 9 pm) 453,000. More of the same disappointing stuff. Spicks and Specks, ABC, 8.30pm, 702,000. The ABC made the right decision, or rather the hosts and talent made the right decision to pull the plug later this year. The Defenders, 281,000. Appalling.

News & CA: Seven News won four of the five metro markets, the exception was Brisbane where Nine News got up. TT also won everywhere bar one market, Melbourne, where ACA won.

In Perth, Seven News at 253,000 viewers (in a small market than Brisbane where Seven’s news attracted 252,000 viewers). But the Nine News produced by WIN in Perth averaged just 60,000 viewers. In other words Seven News won by 193,000 people in Perth, or more than three times the Nine news’ audience. That is an appalling effort.

TT won by 217,000 viewers to 89,000, a smaller margin, but still enormous compared with markets elsewhere.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.404 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.279 million
  3. Nine News (6pm)  — 1.123 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.037 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 881,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 776,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 645,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 525,000
  9. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 446,000
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 216,000
  11. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (11pm) — 183,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 175,000
  13. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11.30pm) — 137,000
  14. SBS News (9.30pm) — 136,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) –112,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 371,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 310,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 29.6% from Ten with 25.9%, Seven on 25.8% (3 channels), the ABC (4) was on 12.8% and SBS (2) ended with 6.0%. Seven leads the week with 29.5% from Nine on 26.0% and Ten on 25.3%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with 22.4% from ten on 20.2%, Seven was on 18.9%, ABC 1 was on 9.6% and SBS ONE was on 5.6%. Seven leads the week with 22.6% from Nine on 19.5% and Ten with 19.2%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with 4.4% from GO on 4.3%, with Eleven on 3.8%, Gem on 2.9%, 7mate on 2.5%, ABC 2 was on 2.1%, ONE was on 1.9%, ABC 3 was on 0.6%, News 24, 0.5% and SBS TWO was on 0.4%. That’s a total share of FTA viewing of 23.4%. GO leads the week on 3.9% from 7TWO on 3.7% and Eleven on 3.5%.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 24.8% from Ten (3) on 21.7%, Seven (3) was on 21.6%, Pat V (100 plus channels) ended with 13.4%, the ABC (4) was on 10.7% and SBS (2) ended with 5.0%. The 15 FTA channels had an 86.6% share of prime time viewing last night. The 10 digitals had a total share of 19.6%, the five main channels were on 67.0%.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 30.8% from Prime/7Qld (3 channels) on 27.3%, SC Ten (3) was on 22.0%, the ABC (4) was on 13.7% and SBS (2) ended with 6.3%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 23.8% from Prime/7Qld on 19.4%. &TWO won the digitals with 4.9% from Eleven on 4.3% and GO on 3.8%. the 10 digital channels had a total FFTA share of 24.6% last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 30.8% from WIN/NBN on 28.0%.

Major Markets: Nine won from Seven and or Ten overall in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Seven again won Perth from Ten and Nine which could go to black some nights and won’t be missed. It must be very frustrating for Nine overall. The digitals were varied: 7TWO won Sydney and Brisbane, GO won Melbourne, Eleven won Adelaide and Perth. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Seven won Perth from Ten and Nine.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The Block continues to make the Nine Network a bit more competitive. Tonight it and AFL Footy Show, plus Seven running the a repeated repeat of The Vicar of Dibley at 7.30pm, will ensure Nine moves closer to Seven.

TONIGHT: MasterChef on Ten. The Block on Nine, plus the Footy Shows.

On Seven, Desperate Housewives is the season finale at 8.40pm and after that the network is running one of the tasteless programs of the year: The 50 Greatest Plastic Surgery Shockers.

The ABC starts a new drama called Crownies. SBS has the Tour de France and before that, another French Food Safari.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports