The Winners: Nine’s night with the final of The Block and the first two episodes of Underbelly dominating. A monster night for Nine. It was interesting though that Sunday Night managed a million viewers up against the start of The Block and Bones a million up against the first episode of Underbelly.

Did Nine waste the second Underbelly episode at 9.30pm: not running it could have extended the season by a week?

  1. The Block (winner announced) (Nine) (8.15pm) — 3.089 million
  2. The Block (the auction) (Nine) (7.30pm) — 2.690 million
  3. Underbelly: Razor (episode 1) (Nine) (8.30pm) — 2.510 million
  4. The Block (Nine) (6.30pm) — 2.282 million
  5. Underbelly: Razor (episode 2) (Nine) (9.30pm) — 2.089 million
  6. Nine News (6pm)  — 1.597 million
  7. Seven News (6pm) — 1.387 million
  8. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.089 million
  9. Bones (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.020 million

The Losers: Nothing really on a night like last night

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne and won nationally, Seven News won the rest.

Landline was very solid at noon on the ABC and a fine way to remember three good ABC staffers.

The Bolt Report picked up, but Insiders was clearly the winner with 268,000 viewers yesterday on ABC 1 and News 24.

How Ten can justify the 6pm News with 243,000 viewers is beyond me. That was the flop of the night.

  1. Nine News (6pm)  — 1.597 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.387 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.089 million
  4. ABC News (7pm)  — 771,000
  5. Ten News (5pm) — 337,000
  6. Ten Evening News (6pm) — 243,000
  7. SBS News (6.30pm) — 208,000
  8. Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 142,000
  9. The Bolt Report (Ten) (4.30pm) — 115,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 333,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 280,000
  3. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 205,000
  4. Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 192,000
  5. Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 148,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 148,000.
  7. The Bolt Report (Ten) (10am) — 127,000
  8. Meet The Press (Ten) (10.30am) — 87,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 46.9%, from Seven (3 ) on 26.1%, Ten (3) was on 12.5%, the ABC (4) was on 10.5% and SBS (2) ended on 3.9%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with a massive 42.2% from Seven on 19.3%, Ten was on 8.3%, as was ABC 1. SBS ONE finished on 3.6%.
  • Digital: 7mate won with 3.6%, from 7TWO on 3.3%, Eleven and GO were on 2.4% each, Gem was on 2.3%, ONE was on 1.8%, ABC 2, 1.2%, News 24 was on 0.6%, ABC 3 was on 0.4% and SBS TWO ended on 0.3%. That’s a total FTA viewing share of 19.1%.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) ended with a share of 39.7% from Seven (3) on 22.1%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) was on 13.2%, Ten (3) ended with 10.6%, the ABC (4) was on 8.9% and SBS (2) ended with 3.3%. The 15 FTA channels had a high 86.8% share of viewing last night (Although pay TV’s share held up well against Nine’s juggernauts, while Ten was particularly squeezed). The 10 digital channels had a share of 15.4% and the five main channels, 71.4%.
  • Regional: A big win as well for Nine with WIN/NBN (3 channels) on 46.0%, from Prime/7Qld on 27.6%, SC Ten (3) was on 12.1%, the ABC (4) ended with 10.4% and BS (2) finished with 3.9%. WIN/NBN won the main channels by a country mile, 40.2% to 20.3% for Prime/7Qld. 7TWO won the digitals with 3.7% from 7mate on 3.6% and GO on 3.1%,. the 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 20.6%.

Major Markets: Nine from Seven and Ten overall and the main channels everywhere, bar Melbourne and Perth where the ABC pushed Ten into 4th spot on the main channels. In the digitals, 7mate won Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. 7TWO won Sydney and Adelaide.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week, Seven won All People overall, but Nine won the main channels by 0.1%. Nine won Sydney and Brisbane. Seven won Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Seven won the digitals.

Nine’s Friday night NRL game between Melbourne Storm and the St George Dragons averaged 552,000 in Sydney while the Souths/ NQ Cowboys game averaged 285,000 in Brisbane. Why the game wasn’t broadcast into Melbourne, seeing the Storm were playing, is a bit odd. Perhaps Nine didn’t want to go up against the Carlton-Hawthorn game on Seven (452,000), but the Storm could win this year’s NRL premiership and redeem itself after the scandal involving salary cap abuses in 2010.

WIN/NBN won the regionals for Nine.

Last night, The Block showed us the problem when reality programs hit the market place. MasterChef and The Biggest Loser doesn’t have that concern (but winners of music reality programs do, as some Australian Idol winners found out).

Last night the Nine Network found out that a cautious real estate market will cruel any hopes for a profitable end to a successful series. The final died before our eyes as the three houses were passed in. But viewers lapped it up. The national figures tell it all.

  • The Block (winner announced) had a massive 4.276 million viewers nationally with 1.187 million in regional areas and 3.089 million in the five metro markets.
  • The Block (the auction) had 3.764 million viewers, with 1.074 million viewers in regional areas and 2.690 million in metro markets.
  • Underbelly: Razor (episode 1) had 3.391 million viewers (890,000 in regional areas and 2.501 million in metro markets).
  • The Block averaged 3.176 million viewers with 894,000 in regional areas and 2.282 million in metro markets.
  • Underbelly: Razor (episode 2) had 2.841 million viewers nationally, with 752,000 in regional areas and 2.089 million in the five metro markets.
  • The 6pm Nine News was over 2.3 million viewers nationally with 1.597 million in metro markets and 708,000 in regional areas.

Outside the 2000 Sydney Olympics, they are probably the biggest viewing figures for a night that I can remember. The Block (winner announced) was the most-watched program of the year so far and will prove hard to top by the end of official ratings for the top spot.

Late news: Nine hasn’t had it all its way with renovation programs. Top Design, with Jamie Durie, was moved this morning from 7.30pm on Wednesday on the main channel to 8.30pm on Gem the same night, the weaker of Nine’s two digital channels.

Tonight: The ABC’s hours of news and current affairs: watch the 50th anniversary special of Four Corners and wonder about the current crop of reports. Nine doesn’t have The Block, but starts Farmer Wants a Wife at 7pm for 90 minutes.

Ten has the terrible The Renovators, and the much more interesting Can of Worms from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Seven has a repeat of Border Security, again, then the disappointing Body of Proof with back to back episodes, a sign of weakness. SBS has Swift and Shift Couriers.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports