The Winners: As expected, a combination of the NRL grand final and Underbelly: Razorback pushed Nine to a win on the night.

Ten’s Terra Nova started OK, but it’s very kitsch. The Computer Generated Images (CGI) need polishing. Junior MasterChef held up well against the end of the NRL grand final and Seven’s Sunday Night was very, very strong against the thrilling last half hour of the actual game when Auckland staged a fightback.

  1. NRL: Grand final (Nine) (5pm ) — 2.027 million
  2. NRL: Grand final (presentation) (Nine) (7pm) — 1.548 million
  3. Underbelly: Razor (Nine) (8.45pm) — 1.290 million
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.289 million
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.45pm) — 1.233 million
  6. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.219 million
  7. Terra Nova (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.206 million
  8. Nine News (6pm) — 1.191 million
  9. Terra Nova (Ten) (9.30pm) — 1.157 million
  10. NRL: Grand final (pre-match entertainment) (Nine) (4.30pm) — 1.120 million
  11. Junior MasterChef (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.055 million

The Losers: No real losers. Wild Boys’ audience at 7.30pm on Seven dropped to 986,000, the first dip under a million, but that was understandable given the impact of the NRL grand final broadcast on Nine in dragging viewers away.

The grand final though crushed The Renovators on Ten at 6.30pm to 508,000.

News & CA: The start of daylight saving hurt some of the early-morning chats, but not by as much as the sharp fall, again for The Bolt Report on Ten at 10am — it was back well under 100,000 viewers at 86,000.

Evening news TV audiences were also irrelevant given the NRL festival on Nine. That’s why the 288,000 for the first 90-minute Weekend News on Ten was not a good guide. The next couple of weeks will be more accurate.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.289 million
  2. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.45pm) — 1.233 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.219 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.191 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 736,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 288,000
  7. SBS News (6.30pm) — 140,000
  8. Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 109,000
  9. The Bolt Report (Ten) (4.30pm) — 108,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 324,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 258,000
  3. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 190,000 (+37,000 on News 24 simulcast)
  4. Inside Business (ABC 1, 10 – 10.30 am) — 136,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 115,000
  6. The Bolt Report (Ten) (10am) — 86,000
  7. Meet the Press (Ten) (10.30am) — 67,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 35.5%, from Seven (3) on 26.4%, from Ten (3) on 22.6%, the ABC (4) was on 12.8% and SBS (2) with 2.8%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with 28.1% from Seven on 19.7%, Ten was on 18.6%, ABC 1 was on 10.7% and SBS ONE was on 2.4%.
  • Digital: GO and 7TWO shared the night with 3.7% each, from Gem on 3.6%, 7mate was on 3.1%, Eleven was on 2.8%, ONE was on 1.2%, ABC 2 was on 1.1%, ABC 3 was on 0.6% and News 24 and SBS TWO was on 0.4%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share of 20.6%.

Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with 29.2% from Seven (3) on 21.8%, Ten (3) was on 18.6%, pay TV (200-plus channels) with 15.2%, the ABC (4) was on 10.6% and SBS (2) was on 2.3%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.8% share of TV viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a share of 17.0% and the five main channels had a share of 64.8%.

Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 37.5% from Prime/7Qld (3) on 26.6%, SC Ten (3) was on 20.3%, the ABC (4) was on 12.3% and SBS (2) was on 3.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 29.6%, from Prime/7Qld on 19.1% and SC Ten was on 15.9%. GO won the digitals with 4.3% from 7TWO on 4.3% and Gem on 3.6%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets last night were:

  1. NRL: Grand final — 1.150 million
  2. NRL: Grand final (presentation) — 946,000
  3. NRL: Grand final (pre-match entertainment) — 721,000
  4. Nine News — 655,000
  5. Wild Boys — 560,000

Major Markets: Nine won Sydney and Brisbane overall and in the main channels. It also won Melbourne thanks to a solid performance by Underbelly: Razor. In Adelaide and Perth, the audience didn’t much care for anything from Nine. In the digitals, Gem won Brisbane and Perth, 7TWO won Melbourne and Adelaide and GO won Sydney.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week was Seven’s week, overall, in the main channels and digitally in the metro markets, the regions and nationally. Seven won all five metro markets. On Friday and Saturday nights though, Foxtel won the Sydney markets with no NRL on Nine. Foxtel didn’t do as well in other metro markets on those nights. Prime/7Qld won the regional markets.

The national top five programs were:

  1. NRL: Grand final — 3.177 million
  2. NRL: Grand final (presentation) — 2.499 million
  3. Nine News — 1.846 million
  4. NRL: Grand final (pre-match entertainment) — 1.842 million
  5. Underbelly: Razor — 1.813 million

Tonight: The usual hour or four and a half of news and current affairs on the ABC. Seven has The X Factor. Nine has The Farmer Wants a Wife and hopes The Mentalist will be rediscovered by viewers anxious for a fresh episode, which tonight’s is. SBS has Swift and Shift.

Ten has Junior MasterChef, which will show up Undercover Boss Australia. Ten has dropped its late-night news in favour of half an hour extra on weekends, which started last night.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports