A fairly weak Thursday night

The Winners: Seven snuck home, thanks to The X Factor, Today Tonight and Home and Away and the News. From 8.30pm, Seven’s schedule was a black hole so far as viewers were concerned.

The Footy Shows, 790,000, thanks to a big rise to 352,000 in Melbourne for the AFL Footy Show. The NRL Footy Show program had 169,000 in Sydney and 78,000 in Brisbane. Appalling figures for a football show in a popular competition in the second week of finals with strong Brisbane and Sydney teams.

Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year on Nine at 8.30pm, 822,000. Won the slot, but the days of million viewer audiences are well behind them now.

The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.284 million
Seven News — 1.160 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.109 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.072 million

The Losers: Ten’s Rush at 8.30pm, 660,000, fewer viewers than The Renovators at 7.30pm (696,000) — which is a turkey. Ten also, for putting in a second episode of Law and Order SVU at 10.30pm and pushing the late news to 11.30pm. Dud programming move.

Serious Crash Unit on Seven at 9pm, 419,000. Law and Order LA on Seven at 9.30pm, 259,000. Worse than anything on Ten and Nine in recent weeks. Baseball’s mercy rule should be involved for this one. Crownies on the ABC at 8.30pm 551,000 beat Seven’s offering!

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

At 5.30pm Hot Seat won nationally by 70,000 over Deal or No Deal, with 37,000 of that in Sydney and 35,000 in Melbourne, hence Nine News’ wins in both markets.

ACA won Sydney, but lost the rest to TT, especially in Melbourne where it shed 41,000 viewers from the news.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.160 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.109 million
Nine News (6pm) — 941,000
ABC News (7pm) — 892,000
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 861,000
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 710,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 622,000 (+ on News 24 simulcast)
Ten News (5pm) — 546,000
6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 350,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 257,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 171,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11.30pm) — 156,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 145,000 (+ on News 24 at 8.30pm)
SBS News (9.30pm) — 131,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 381,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 338,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) on 30.4%, Nine (3) 28.1%, Ten was on (3) was on 21.4%, the ABC (4) was on 15.3% and SBS (2) was on 4.8%. Seven leads the week with 33.5% from Nine on 26.2% and Ten on 19.7%.
Main Channel: Seven won narrowly with 21.9% from Nine on 21.8%, Ten was on 15.4%, ABC 1 was on 11.7% and SBS ONE was on 4.2%. Seven leads the week with 25.6%, from Nine on 19.9% and Ten on 13.5%.
Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.6%, from Eleven and 7mate on 3.9% each, GO was on 3.4%, Gem was on 2.9%, ABC 2 was on 2.4%, ONE was on 2.1%, ABC 3 was on 0.7% and News 24 and SBS TWO were on 0.6% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 25.1%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.5% from Eleven on 3.9% and GO on 3.7%.
Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) finished with a share of 32.2%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 28.3%, with SC Ten (3) on 20.6%, the ABC (4) was on 14.5% and SBS (2) ended with 4.4%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN on 228%, from Prime/7Qld on 22.7%. The digitals were won by 7TWO on 4.95, 7mate was on 4.6% and Eleven finished with 3.7%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share of 25.7%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 35.1% from WIN/NBN on 27.9%. The top five programs in regional areas were: 1. The X Factor, 546,000; 2. ACA, 518,000; 3. Nine News, 469,000; 4. Home And Away, 456,000; 5. Seven News, 449,000.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) had a share of 25.0% from Nine (3) on 23.1%, Ten (3) was on 17.6%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 15.2%, the ABC (4) was on 12.6% and SBS (2) was on 4.0%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.8% share of prime time viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a share of 20.5% and the five main channels, 64.3%.

The top five pay TV channels yesterday were:

Fox Sports 2 (3.33%)
Fox 8 (3.02%)
Lifestyle (2.09%)
Fox Classics (1.95%)
TV1 (1.9%)

The top five pay TV programs:

AFL: AFL Teams (Fox Sports 1) — 94,000
RWC: US versus Russia (Fox Sports 3) — 75,000
The Suite Life On Deck (Disney) — 66,000
Phineas & Ferb (Disney) — 65,000
Eastenders (UKTV) — 64,000

Major Markets: A tighter night. Seven won from Nine and Ten in Adelaide and Perth. It won Brisbane from Ten and Nine overall and Nine and Ten in the main channels. Seven won Sydney overall, Nine won the main channels. In Melbourne Nine won overall and the main channels, thanks to the AFL Footy Show and Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year. In the digitals, 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne and shared Adelaide with Eleven, which won Brisbane. 7mate won Perth. Seven leads 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: Just another fairly weak Thursday night. The end of the ratings year can’t come too quickly for the networks.

By the way, from September 25, Ten brings us Junior MasterChef. How wonderful. The promo I saw last night was a sulking child who stuffed up an oven setting. That’s all we need, junior divas of the spoon and sulking Sams of the blender. Oprah ended on Ten today at 1pm when the final episode repeat was aired. She’s no more.

The top five programs nationally last night were:

The X Factor — 1.913 million
Seven News — 1.690 million
Home and Away — 1.608 million
Nine News — 1.453 million
Today Tonight — 1.429 million

Tonight: NRL/AFL on Seven and Nine. Test cricket on Fox Sports. The final Silent Witness of this series on the ABC, The Renovators on Ten. World Cup Rugby on Fox Sports. Davis Cup on Seven.

Saturday: Monroe on the ABC; NRL and AFL finals on Nine and Ten; Test cricket on Fox Sports, as well as the Australia/Ireland game in the Rugby World Cup. Nine has it after the NRL. Fox Sports has it live. The game is actually played at 6.30pm. Davis Cup on Seven

Sunday: The morning chats. No football on free-to-air TV. Summer is coming. (Rugby World Cup on Fox Sports, as well as Test cricket). Underbelly on Nine after 60 Minutes. Mrs Carey’s Concert on the ABC at 8.30pm. Sunday Night, Wild Boys and Bones (fresh and repeat) on Seven. Ten has Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation. Davis Cup on Seven (if Australia is lucky).

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports