The Winners: Seven’s night, very, very easily. Seven won All people and the demos. The ABC did well thanks to its strong 8.30-10pm programs that won the timeslots easily.

The final episode of Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey did very well at 9.30pm with 583,000 viewers. In fact, it won the timeslot, giving the ABC a 90 minute perch at the top of the ratings pile last night.

  1. The X Factor (Seven, 7.30 – 8.30 pm — 1.526 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.353 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 1.235 million
  4. The Gruen Transfer (ABC 1, 9 – 9.30 pm) — 1.165 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven, 7 – 7.30 pm) — 1.123 million
  6. Spicks and Specks (ABC 1, 8.30 – 9 pm) — 1.054 million
  7. Nine News (6pm) — 1.049 million

The Losers: So many! Nine and Ten: almost pitifully bad last night, from go to whoa.

The Renovators on Ten at 7.30pm, 607,000, 121,000 less than The 7pm Project. At least 50,000 people extra returned to Ten for Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation at 8.30pm.

The Mentalist on Nine at 8.30pm ended up being a fresh episode: 516,000.

The biggest loser was Same Name at 7.30pm on Nine, just 525,000 people watched this rubbish. Even The Renovators beat it. It’s getting close to the bottom of Nine’s 2011 programming barrel for this turkey to make it to air. Nothing remotely redeeming in it.

News & CA: Seven News and TT had a rare clean sweep last night. Seven News won Sydney with 321,000 viewers to Nine’s 316,000. The margin between Hot Seat on Nine and Deal Or No Deal on Seven narrowed to 17,000 nationally and 50,000 in Sydney. The Sydney margin was far less than the 89,000 margin on Tuesday night.

ACA was weak in Sydney (271,000) and Melbourne, 241,000. TT had 306,000 and 323,000 viewers in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.

6.30 with George Negus slipped below the 400,000 level last night. A poor outcome for a solid program.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.353 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 1.235 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.049 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 967,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 893,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 728,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 720,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 536,000
  9. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 366,000
  10. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.40pm) — 286,000
  11. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 227,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 203,000
  13. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 122,000
  14. SBS News (9.30pm) — 104,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 425,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 355,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 31.5% from Nine (3) on 22.6%, Ten (3) was on 21.1%, the ABC, (4) was on 19.7% and SBS (2) ended on 5.2%. Seven leads the week with 32.3% from Nine on 25.7% and Ten with 20.2%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 23.4% from ABC 1 with 15.6%, Nine was on 15.1%, Ten ended on 14.4% and SBS ONE finished with 4.2%. Seven leads the week with 24.8% from Nine on 19.0% and Ten on 13.8%.
  • Digital: GO won with 4.4%, from Eleven on 4.3%, 7TWO was on 4.1%, 7mate was on 4.0%, Gem was on 3.0%, ABC 2 ended on 2.9%, ONE was on 2.3%, SBS TWO was on 1.0% and News 24 was on 0.7% and ABC 3, 0.5%. That’s an FTA viewing share in prime time of 27.3%. 7TWO still leads the week with 4.1% from GO on 3.9% and Eleven on 3.7%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 25.7%, from Nine (3) on 18.4%, Ten (3) was on 17.2%, the ABC (4) was on 16.1%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 15.8% and SBS (2) was on 4.2%. The 14 FTA channels had an 84.2% share of prime time TV viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a share of 21.3%, the five main channels, 62.9%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 32.6% from WIN/NBN (3 channels) on 26.4%, SC Ten (3) was on 19.8%, the ABC (4) was on 16.5% and SBS (2) ended with 4.7%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 23.0% from WIN/NBN on 18.4% and SC Ten on 13.7%. 7mate won the digitals with 5.0%, with Eleven on 4.8% and 7TWO on 4.6%. The 10 digitals had an FTA viewing share in prime time of a high 29.0%. Prime/7Qld lead the week with 33.1% from WIN/NBN on 28.7%

Major Markets: A look at the metro markets tells the story. Seven won from Nine and Ten overall in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. In Perth it was Seven from Ten and the ABC. In the main channels Seven won everywhere. Nine was second in Sydney and the ABC third in Sydney and Brisbane. In Melbourne the ABC was second and Nine third. In Adelaide and Perth it was the ABC second and Ten third as Nine’s weak performance in those markets continued. In the digitals GO won Sydney and Brisbane, Eleven won Melbourne, 7TWO won Adelaide and 7mate won Perth. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten in each of the five metro markets.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven’s night, again, but the ABC was the star. For all the talk of cash constraints and poor morale, the national broadcaster showed up the more highly resourced Nine and Ten networks and had its best night of ratings for the year, running second on the main channels nationally and in a few markets

  • The X Factor was the most-watched program nationally with 606,000 viewers in regional areas and 1.526 million in metro markets for a total of 2.132 million.
  • Seven News was next with a total of 1.849 million viewers, with 496,000 in the regions and 1.353 million metro viewers.
  • Home and Away was the third most watched program with 1.594 million viewers with 471,000 in the regions and 1.123 million in the five metro markets.
  • Nine News was fourth with 1.556 million viewers with 507,000 in the regions and 1.049 million in the metro markets.
  • The Gruen Transfer was fifth with 1.506 million viewers with 341,000 regional viewers and 1.165 million metro viewers.

Tonight: Seven has The X Factor at 7.30, Nine has Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year. That’s after repeats of The Big Bang Theory from 7 o’clock. The Footy Shows for those interested at 9.30.

Ten brings back Rush in a movie-length first episode. That’s after The Renovators, so not the best of lead-ins for an Australian cops show that was under pressure last year. The ABC has Crownies. SBS has the second episode of the new Gourmet Farmer.

Basically, another night to go out or read a book.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports