The Winners: The ABC debuted Crownies last night at 8.30pm in a telemovie length effort (110 minutes). It averaged 706,000, which was OK for a Thursday night. It would struggle on other nights. If you watched last night, return next week to see how it settles: the storylines should have been bedded down.

The NRL Footy Show: 136,000 in Sydney, 73,000 in Brisbane. The Foot Shows averaged 653,000 nationally. 296,000 in Melbourne was low by earlier in the season, but that was still the 6th most watched program in Melbourne. But the Footy Show was beaten nationally and in Sydney and Brisbane by Crownies.

Ten won the demos convincingly.

  1. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.609 million
  2. Seven News (6pm)  — 1.335 million
  3. The Block (Nine) (7pm) — 1.167 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.164 million
  5. Nine News (6pm) — 1.040 million

The Losers: Seven, hardly an edifying night of TV. Desperate Housewives, 608,000 for this year’s finale. The NRL Footy Show on Nine, tragic!

News & CA: Seven News and Today Tonight beat Nine News and ACA in all five metro markets.

  1. Seven News (6pm)  — 1.335 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.164 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.040 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 881,000
  5. ABC News — 859,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 849,000
  7. Ten News  (Ten) (5pm) — 618,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 517,000
  9. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 449,000
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.20pm) — 254,000
  11. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (10.30pm) — 217,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 186,000
  13. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 124,000
  14. SBS News (9.30pm) — 117,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (10.55pm) — 101,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 339,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 312,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) was with a share of 27.2%, from Seven (3) on 25.8%, Ten (3) was on 24.2%, the ABC (4) was on 15.6% and SBS (2) ended with 7.2%. Seven leads the week with 28.8% from Nine on 26.2% and Ten on 25.1%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with 20.4%, from Ten on 18.9%, with Seven on 18.3%, with ABC 1 on 12.2% and SBS ONE on 6.6%. Seven leads the week on 21.8% from Nine on 19.6% and Ten on 19.1%.
  • Digital: GO won with 4.2%, from 7mate on 3.8%, 7TWO was on 3.7%, Eleven was on 3.5%, Gem was on 2.6%, ABC 2 ended with 2.2%, ONE was on 1.9%, and SBS TWO, News 24 and ABC 3 were all on 0.6% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share of 23.7%. GO leads the week with 4.0%, from 7TWO on 3.7% and Eleven on 3.5%.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 22.2%, from Seven (3) on 21.0%, Ten (3) was on 19.8%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 15.5%, the ABC (4) ended with 12.7% and SBS (2) finished on 5.9%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.5% share of TV viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a total of 19.2% and the five main channels, 65.3%.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 29.7% from Prime/7Qld (3) on 26.6%, SC Ten (3) was on 22.3%, the ABC (4) ended with 15.0% and SBS (2) was on 6.1%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 22.4% from Prime/7Qld on 18.3% and SC Ten on 16.4%. GO and 7mate won the digitals with 4.9% each, with Eleven on 4.3%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 27.0%. Prime/7Qld leads the week on 30.0% from WIN/NBN on 28.4%.

Major Markets: Mostly Nine’s night. Nine won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Ten was mostly second and Seven third. The digitals saw 7TWO and GO tie Sydney. GO won Melbourne and Perth. 7mate won Brisbane and Adelaide. Seven leads Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine has clawed its way to the front in Melbourne, but will be overtaken by Seven with tonight’s AFL game. Nine will do well in Sydney and Brisbane with the NRL.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: It’s clear now that for the moment, Nine and Ten are one program networks: Nine has The Block doing well. Ten has MasterChef. MasterChef will soon be joined by The Renovators on Ten, Nine pushes the The Block into Sundays at 6.30pm and starts another Underbelly. Seven loses Downton Abbey on Sunday night and Australia’s Got Talent will end soon, though the Network is being coy about how many episodes are left to broadcast.

MasterChef was the standout performing last night with 2.131 million viewers nationally, thanks to 522,000 in the regions and 1.609 million in the metro markets.

TONIGHT: AFL and NRL on Seven and Nine in the appropriate markets. The Tour de France on SBS (more mountains … goody!). Better Homes and Gardens on Seven. MasterChef master class on Ten. The ABC has Silent Witness returning. Hmmm, this was a fading series last time round. The Block is on Nine.

Saturday: NRL and AFL on Foxtel, AFL on Ten. The Tour de France on SBS (more mountains). Repeats of Kingdom and New Tricks on the ABC. Seven, Nine and Ten are viewing deserts. Inspector Morse repeat on 7TWO.

Sunday: The morning chats, AFL on Seven, NRL on Nine, both on Foxtel. Sunday Night returns to Seven, a new series, Great Migrations, at 7.30pm and the final episode of Downton Abbey and the climax, is pretty good. Nine has The Block at 6.30pm (now six days a week like MasterChef) and 60 Minutes. Ten MasterChef. The Tour de France is back on the flat. Fresh Midsomer Murders returns to the ABC with a new Inspector Barnaby.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports