Nine fails as Seven packs the punches

It's not often we see a much hyped line up like Nine's schedule last night slump as badly as it did last night.

The Winners: Easily Seven’s night, in all people and the demos, with Packed to the Rafters and The X Factor dominating. Seven’s Parenthood returned at 9.30pm and averaged 701,000 and was beaten by the fresh episode of Ten’s NCIS: Los Angeles with 869,000.

The Renovators averaged 869,000 at 7.30pm for Ten and was the Network’s third most-watched program on the night. There’s nothing like the approaching end of a reality series to re-awaken interest among viewers in a program long scorned.

Packed to the Rafters (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.587 million
The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.399 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.197 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.134 million
NCIS (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.048 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.038 million

The Losers: Nine. The schedule from 7pm collapsed. Two and a Half Men fell under a million viewers last night at 984,000, a long way from the 1.252 million a week ago and the 2.3 million for the opening episode. But Charlie’s Angels really tanked, second episode out, with the 639,000 not good enough at all for 7.30pm and a long way from the 815,000 for the debut last week.

The Joy of Sets on Nine at 9pm averaged 462,000 last night, down from 545,000 a week ago and 1.165 million for the debut episode.

Survivor: South Pacific at 9.30 pm averaged 407,000, down from 455,000 a week ago. The second episode of Survivor: South Pacific at 10.30pm averaged 321,000 and easily beaten by the repeat episode of NCIS: Los Angeles on Ten with 508,000.

The United States of Tara on the ABC at 9.30pm, 284,000. Terrible figures and hurt the following programs badly.

News & CA: Another weak night for Nine News and ACA, although Nine News still beat Seven News in Sydney and tied Melbourne. ACA won Sydney, but lost the rest.

6.30 with George Negus also had another weak night and the morning shows were also down because of holidays and the adjustment to daylight saving (which also impacts the 6-7pm News and current affairs programs and helps the 7pm ABC News).

Seven News (6pm) — 1.197 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.134 million
ABC News (7pm) — 965,000
Nine News (6pm) — 959,000
A Current Affair (6.30pm) — 893,000
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 747,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 634,000 (+ 16,000 on News 24 simulcast)
Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 561,000
6.30 With George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 320,000
Insight (SBS) (7.30pm) — 177,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 164,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 160,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 153,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 93,000 (+ 22,000 on News 24 at 8.30pm)

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 302,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 276,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 33.9% from Ten (3) on 25.2%, Nine (3) was on 21.%, the ABC finished with 13.6% for its four channels and SBS (2) ended with 5.8%. Seven now leads the week with 30.8% from Nine on 29.1%.
Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 27.0% from Ten on 19.5%, Nine was on 16.0%, ABC 1 was on 9.7% and SBS ONE ended with 4.1%. Seven now leads the week with 23.5% from Nine in 22.1% and Ten back on 16.1%.
Digital: 7TWO win with a share of 4.1%, from Eleven on 3.9%, ABC 2 was on 2.9% (and its best night for months), which put it ahead of 7mate, GO and Gem each with 2.8%. ONE was on 1.9%. SBS TWO ended with a high 1.7% and News 24 was on 0.6% and ABC 3 finished with 0.4%. That’s an FTA viewing share last night of 23.9%. 7TWO now leads the week with 4.2% from GI on 4.0% and Eleven on 3.4%.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels won with a share of 28.3% from Ten (3) on 21.0%, Nine (3) was on 17.9%, pay TV (200-plus channels) finished with 14.3%, the ABC (4) ended on 11.3% and SBS (2) was on 4.9%. The 15 FTA channels had an 85.7% share of prime time viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a share of 19.8% and the five main channels, 65.9

The five most watched pay TV channels last night were:

Fox 8 (3.35%)
Lifestyle (2.30%)
TVI (2.05%)
Disney (1.96%)
UKTV (1.91%)

The five most watched pay TV programs were:

The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 85,000
The Big Bang Theory (Comedy Channel) — 75,000
Eastenders (UKTV) — 69,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 64,000
Coronation Street (UKTV) — 64,000

Regional: A clear win for Prime/7Qld with a share of 34.9% for their three channels. SC Ten (3) had one of its best nights this year, second with 24.2% WIN/NBN (3) was third with 22.2%, the ABC (4) was on 13.1% and SBS (2) ended with 5.4%. Prime/7Qld won with a share of 27.1% from SC Ten on 19.2% and WIN/NBN on 16.7%. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.4% from 7mate on 3.5% and Eleven with 3.3%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 24.5%. Prime/7Qld now not grabbed the lead for the week, narrowly, with a share of 30.9% to WIN/NBN’s 30.8%.

The five top programs in regional areas were:

Packed to the Rafters — 758,000
The X Factor — 675,000
Seven News — 551,000
Home and Away — 525,000
NCIS — 502,000

Major Markets: It was Seven from Ten and then a weak Nine in each of the five metro markets, both overall and in the main channels. 7TWO won Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. It shared Sydney with Eleven, which again won Brisbane. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Sydney, but in the rest of the country it’s Seven from Nine in Ten. In Perth Ten and Nine share second place.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Ten second and Nine a distant third. It’s not often we see a much-hyped line-up such as Nine’s schedule last night slump as badly as it did last night, and for the second week in a row for Charlie’s Angels and the Joy of Sets. Nine didn’t have one program with a million or more viewers last night. Ten had one, Seven had the other five.

For Ten, a solid performance and not a MasterChef program in the schedule to base the evening’s success on. The Renovators remains a hindrance, even though it had a better night last night.

The five most-watched programs nationally last night were:

Packed to the Rafters — 2.347 million
The X Factor — 2.074 million
Seven News — 1.748 million
Home and Away — 1.563 million
NCIS — 1.551 million

Tonight: The ABC has Spicks & Specks at 8.30pm and Gruen Planet at 9 o’clock and the debut of the new program from The Chaser called The Hamster Wheel. Nine CSI and Prime Suspect (which bombed last week). Ten has The Renovators and Glee, plus another episode of the poorly rating second series of Hawaii Five O. Seven has a program about a psychic at 7.30 called The One: Australia’s Most Gifted Psychic and then Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour.