The Winners: Seven’s night, surprisingly easily in All People, but Nine did well in the demos.

Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year on Nine at 8.30pm, 895,000, still sinking. Nine’s Footy Shows, a low 681,000 nationally, 159,000 and 88,000 for the NRL version in Sydney and Brisbane. The AFL Footy Show in Melbourne, 281,000, which is a bit low, but still helped Nine to win Melbourne’s main channels.

  1. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.213 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.205 million
  3. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.032 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.004 million

The Losers: Nine and Ten. Until last night, Seven had become weak on Thursday nights.

Dinner Date on Seven at 7.30pm, 784,000. Figures not strong, but the program is horrible. Seven’s movie, The Proposal, at 8.30pm, 677,000, sounds low, but beat Ten and Nine in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth from 9.30pm.

The Renovators at 7.30pm on Ten, 767,000.

Three episodes of The Big Bang Theory on Nine all did poorly.

News & CA: Nine News again won Sydney, Seven won the rest. Deal or No Deal on Seven beat Nine’s Hot Seat nationally, but not in Sydney, which influenced the News lead-in.

A Current Affair‘s 797,000 was the lowest figure for some time. TT won all five metro markets for the first time in weeks.

Sunrise extended its lead in the morning over Today.

6.30 with George Negus faded last night. Thursday night is a low night, but the program seems to be struggling with viewers.

  1. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.213 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.205 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.004 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 865,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 797,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Nine) (7pm) — 737,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 637,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 499,000
  9. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 347,000
  10. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.40pm) — 223,000
  11. SBS News(6.30pm) — 181,000
  12. Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 166,000
  13. SBS News (9.30pm) — 113,000
  14. Lateline Business (ABC) (11pm) — 90,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 400,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 312,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 32.9% from Nine (3 ) on 25.8%, Ten (3) was on 21.7%, the ABC (4) was on 14.4% and SBS (2) ended on 5.2%. Seven now leads the week with 31.4% from Nine on 30.6% and Ten on 18.4%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 22.3% from Nine on 20.7%, Ten was on 15.3%, ABC 1 was on 10.7% and SBS ONE was on 4.2%, Nine still leads the week with 24.5% from Seven on 23.0% and Ten on 12.7%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 5.8% from 7mate on 4.8%, Eleven was on 4.5%, GO was on 2.6%, Gem was on 2.5%, ABC 1 was on 2.3%, ONE ended on 2.0%, SBS ONE finished with 1.0%, News 24 was on 0.8% and ABC 3 ended with 0.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 26.9%. 7TWO leads the week on 4.4%, from 7mate on 4.1% and Eleven on 3.6%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 27.0%, from Nine (3) on 21.1%, Ten (3) was on 17.8%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 15.5%, the ABC (4) was on 11.8% and SBS (2) ended with 4.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of TV viewing last night of 84.5%. The 10 digital channels share was a high 23.1%, the five main channels total share was 61.4%.
  • Regional: A win to Prime/7Qld (3 channels) with 34.6% from WIN/NBN (3) on 26.7%, SC Ten 93) was on 19.8%, the ABC (4) was on 13.9% and SBS (2) ended with 5.1%. The main channels went to Prime/7Qld on 22.0% from WIN/NBN on 20.7%. 7mate won the digitals with 6.7% from 7TWO on 5.9% and Eleven on 4.3%. The 10 digital channels had a high 29.8% total share of FTA viewing last night. Prime/7Qld now leads the week with 32.6% from WIN/NBN on 32.1%.

Major Markets: Seven from Nine and Ten everywhere (both overall and in the main channels), bar Melbourne where Nine won thanks to the AFL Footy Show. 7TWO was a clear national winner in all five markets in the digitals. Nine still leads Sydney from Seven and Ten and will win the week. Nine leads Brisbane narrowly and will win the week (thanks to the NRL tonight for Sydney and Brisbane). Seven and Nine lead Melbourne jointly and Seven will win the week with the AFL tonight. Seven leads Adelaide and Perth and will extend the lead tonight.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Thanks to its stronger performance (and the solid performance of its digital channels), Seven now leads the week in All People when, after Sunday night, Nine led, with daylight second and third. Nine still leads on the main channels, but its lead has been cut because of weak programming. Seven has had better programming on its main channel, but its two digital channels have had a very strong week and helped the network pass Nine in All People. Last night though nothing really stood out on what was a weak night of TV viewing. So it would come as no surprise that a lot of TV viewers preferred the digital channels, especially the two from Seven, both in the metro markets and in the regions.

  • Seven News was the most watched program nationally with 495,000 in the regions and 1.205 million in the metro markets for a national figure of 1.7 million people.
  • Today Tonight, the No.1 program in metro markets, didn’t make the top 10 in the regions.
  • Nine News had 463,000 viewers in the regions and 1.004 million in metro markets, for a national total of 1.467 million people.
  • Home and Away averaged 401,000 in the regions and 1.032 million in the metro markets for a national figure of 1.433 million.

Tonight: NRL (a great game between Storm and Manly). Will Nine screen it into Melbourne? Yes, from 11.30pm; a stupid time for teams that could be grand finalists in early October. Nine has The Mentalist. Seven has Better Homes and Gardens and then the AFL in the south, Better Homes and Gardens and a movie in the North. Ten has a program called The Renovators. The ABC had Silent Witness.

Saturday: AFL, NRL on Ten and Foxtel. The Rugby Test, Australia versus New Zealand from Brisbane, on Nine and Foxtel. The ABC has double Kingdom episodes tonight (yes it does!). Seven has movies. Ten has fillers before the AFL late in the north.

Sunday: The morning chats on the ABC, Nine, Ten and Seven. NRL and AFL on Nine, Seven and Foxtel (and Austar as well on each day). At night, Sunday Night and Bones on Seven. Nine has Underbelly: Razor at 8.30pm. Ten has The Renovators and a movie at 8.30pm. the ABC has Grand Designs and a movie at 8.30pm. SBS has Dateline.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports