Nine and Ten can't capitalise on their 'big' shows

The Winners: You would have thought having high-rating programs such as MasterChef and The Block would mean the night would be fought out by Ten and Nine. Far from it. Seven won and for the third night this week, Ten and Nine failed to bury their opponent thanks to flops in their line-ups.

MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.675 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.362 million
The Block (Nine) (7pm) — 1.346 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.254 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.065 million
Criminal Minds (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.034 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.010 million

The Losers: Nine’s Top Design has been renamed Flop Design after 691,000 viewers last night at 7.30. The Renovators is headed the same way, 855,000 on a night when it should have climbed past the million mark after more than 1.6 million people watched MasterChef

News & CA: Seven News won everywhere bar Melbourne, TT won all five metro markets. That was a big swing from Tuesday night.

Nine’s Today nearly caught Seven’s Sunrise yesterday.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.362 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.254 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.065 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 977,000
ABC News (7pm) — 849,000
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 766,000
Ten News (5pm) — 626,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 619,000
6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 450,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 216,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.40pm) — 168,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 150,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 129,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 122,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 358,000
Today (Seven) (7am) — 355,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) got home with 29.5%, from Nine (3) on 26.2%, Ten (3) was on 24.9%, the ABC (4) was on 15.8%, and SBS (2) ended with 3.5%. Seven leads the week with 29.6% from Nine on 25.8% and Ten on 23.7%.
Main Channel: Seven won with 21.0% from Ten on 18.5%, Nine was on 18.0%, ABC 1 finished with 12.1% and SBS ONE ended with 3.0%. Seven leads the week with 22.9% from Nine on 19.2% and Ten with 17.7%.
Digital: GO won the week with 5.0% from 7TWO on 4.8%, Eleven was on 4.3%, 7mate was on 3.7%, Gem was on 3.2%, ABC 2 ended with 2.3%, ONE was on 2.1%, ABC 3 was on 0.8%, News 24, 0.7% and SBS TWO, ended with 0.5%. That’s an FTA viewing share of 27.4%.
Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 24.4%, from Nine (3) on 21.7%, Ten (3) ended with 20.6%, Pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 14.3%, the ABC (4 channels) ended with 13.1% and SBS (2) was on 2.9%. The 15 FTA channels had a share of 85.7%. The 10 digitals had a share of 22.6%; the five main channels had a combined share of 65.1%. Nearly 37% of the viewing audience last night weren’t watching the main channels.
Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 32.1%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 29.1%, SC Ten (3) was on 19.9%, the ABC (4) ended with 14.8% and SBS (2) finished on 4.0%. The main channels were won by Prime.7Qld with 22.7% from WIN/NBN on 20.9% and SC Ten on 15.0%. The digitals were won by 7TWO with 5.3%, from GO on 4.8% and 7mate on 4.2%, the 10 digital channels had a total FTA share last night of 27.8%. Prime.7Qld leads the week with 31.3% from WIN/NBN on 26.6%.

Major Markets: Seven from Nine or Ten everywhere bar Melbourne where Nine got up overall from Seven and Nine, while Ten won the main channels with Nine second and Seven third. GO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. 7TWO won Adelaide, Eleven won Perth. Seven leads Nine and Ten in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. In Melbourne, Seven and Nine are tied in the lead. In Perth, it’s Seven from Ten and a distant Nine.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A poor night for Nine last night, and a poor night for Ten. Both should have done a lot better. Seven with a second-rate line-up got home. Ten did well in the demos, thanks to MasterChef and The Renovators, but half the MasterChef audience vanished from Ten when The Renovators was on. The Renovators is supposed to take over when MasterChef ends and anchor Ten’s schedule. Here’s hoping it will, but based on this week’s performance, it’s a flop

Certainly Nine’s Top Design is rolling towards the TV’s big rubbish skip. It started three Wednesdays ago with 1.156 million, fell to 799,000 last Wednesday and then 691,000 last night.

The Renovators hasn’t gotten above a million viewers in four programs. Last night, with only Criminal Minds in the way on Seven, it should have really bounced, especially with 1.675 million people watching MasterChef. A great big lead in and it didn’t clock, again. Last night’s audience was lower (on a weaker night) than on Tuesday when it averaged 974,000 up against the back end of the strongly rating Australia’s Got Talent. Spicks and Specks on the ABC at 8.30pm beat it with 890,000 viewers.

Finally, tonight we will see what a joke Ten’s so-called sports coverage have become.

Ten has the rights to the world swimming titles in Shanghai, though you wouldn’t know. Tonight, Sydney youngster James Magnussen swims the premier event, the men’s 100-metre freestyle final. He’s the fastest qualifier and the unofficial world record holder after his flying first lap on Sunday night in the gold medal-winning effort of the men’s 4×100-metre relay. Do you reckon Ten might show it live, anywhere? There’s a highlights package at 10.30pm on ONE, but the men’s final will be on just before 9pm, Sydney time. A 15-minute or half-hour live window would have been easy to achieve. (Ten is recording it live for the highlights package on ONE).

TONIGHT: The Footy Shows on Nine. Nine starts Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year at 8.30. Will it do as well as their specials on Ten? That’s the TV question of the night.

Seven has the second episode of Law and Order LA on at 8.30: it bombed last week. Seven also has the Vicar of Dibley repeat at 7.30. The ABC has Crownies, which has nothing to recommend it.

Ten has MasterChef and then The Renovators. SBS has another French Food Safari (The Tour de Patisserie, not the Tour de France).

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports