The Winners: Seven won All People, Nine scooped the demos with the fresh eps of The Big Bang Theory, which helped The Mentalist at 8.30pm remain attractive to viewers. The “doco” on the Norway mass murderer’s mind on Seven at 10pm, 415,000.

  1. The Big Bang Theory Ep 2 (Nine, 8pm) — 1.606 million.
  2. The Big Bang Theory Ep 1 (Nine, 7.30) — 1.505 million.
  3. The X Factor (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.310 million.
  4. Seven 6pm News — 1.298 million.
  5. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.195 million.
  6. The Mentalist (Nine, 8.30pm) — 1.136 million.
  7. The Big Bang Theory (Nine, 7pm, repeat) — 1.122 million.
  8. Home and Away (Seven, 7pm) — 1.103 million.
  9. Nine 6pm News — 1.085 million.
  10. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.055 million.

The Losers. Undercover Boss Australia on Ten at 8.30pm, 795,000. Law and Order SVU in repeat at 9.30pm on Ten, 409,000. Fourth. CSI Miami on Nine at 9.30pm, 704,000. Sort of OK, but it is a weak program.

News & CA:

  1. Seven 6pm News — 1.298 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30) — 1.195 million.
  3. Nine 6pm News — 1.085 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30) — 1.055 million.
  5. 7pm ABC1 News — 931,000.
  6. Australian Story (ABC 1, 8pm) — 819,000.
  7. Four Corners (ABC 1, 8.30pm) — 767,000.
  8. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 744,000 + 26,000 on News 24 simulcast.
  9. Media Watch (ABC 1, 9.15pm) — 715,000.
  10. The 7PM Project (Ten, 7 pm) — 705,000.
  11. Q&A (ABC1, 9.35pm) — 661,000 + 63,000 on News 24 simulcast.
  12. Ten News At Five (Ten, 5pm) — 543,000.
  13. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 402,000.
  14. 6.30 With George Negus (Ten, 6.30pm) — 346,000.
  15. Today (Nine, 7am) — 339,000.
  16. Lateline (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 286,000.
  17. World News Australia (SBS 1, 6.30pm) — 174,000.
  18. Lateline Business (ABC1, 11.05pm, replay) — 134,000 + 20,000 on News 24 at 8.30pm.
  19. World News Late (ABS1, 9.30pm) — 87,000.

Nine News and ACA beat Seven News and TT in Sydney after Hot Seat beat Deal or No Deal in Sydney by 58,000 viewers. Seven News and TT won the rest. With school holidays and lives adjusted to daylight saving, the audiences for the morning shows on Seven and Nine jumped sharply. But audiences for Ten News at Five and especially for 6.30 With George Negus didn’t improve from 5-7pm.

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 31.1% from Nine (3) on 29.8%, Ten (3) was on 18.3%, the ABC (4) was on 17.1% and SBS (2) ended with 3.8%. Seven leads with 30.5% from Nine on 29.4% and Ten was on 20.0%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 24.4%, from Seven on 23.7%, ABC 1 was on 13.8%, Ten was on 13.3% and SBS ONE was on 3.2%. Nine leads the week with 23.1% from Seven on 23.1% and Ten on 14.8%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.5%, from GO on 3.5%, Eleven was on 3.2%, 7mate was on 2.9%, Gem and ABC 2 were on 2.0% each, ONE was on 1.7%, News 24 was on 0.7%, SBS TWO was on 0.6% with ABC 3 on 0.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 21.6%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.2% from GO on 3.6% and 7mate on 3.2%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 26.2% from Nine (3) on 25.1%, Ten 93) was on 15.4%, the ABC (4) ended with 14.4%, pay TV (200-plus channels) finished with 13.4% and SBS (2) was on 3.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 86.6%. The 10 digital channels had a share of 18.2% and the five main channels had a share of 68.4%. The five most-watched pay TV channels last night were: 1. Fox 8, 3.6%; 2. TV 1, 2%; 3. UKTV, 2%; 4. Lifestyle, 1.85%; 5. Nick Jr, 1.83%. The five most-watched programs on pay TV last night were: 1. Australia’s Next Top Model (Fox 8), 133,000; QI (UKTV), 82,000; 2. The Simpsons (Fox 8), 68,000; 3. Eastenders (UKTV), 64,000; 4. Rove LA (Fox 8), 62,000.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a share of 33.2% for their three channels as Big Bang Theory’s fresh eps just didn’t do it for regional viewers. WIN/NBN (3) were second with 29.3%, with SC Ten (3) on 17.5%, with the ABC (4) on 16.5%, and SBS (2) ended with 3.5%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 25.0% from WIN/NBN on 22.4%, ABC 1 was 3rd with 13.0% and SC Ten was 4th with 12.0%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.0%, from GO on 4.2% and Eleven on 3.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 24.1%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.4% from WIN/NBN on 29.3%. The five most-watched programs in regional markets last night were: 1. The X Factor, 630,000; 2. Seven News, 628,000; 3. The Big Bang Theory Ep 2, 588,000; 4. The Big Bang Theory Ep 1, 570,000; 5. ACA, 560,000.
  • Major Markets: Nine won Sydney and Melbourne overall and in the main channels. Seven and the ABC were second and third in Sydney and Ten was third overall in Melbourne but the ABC 1 was third in the main channels. Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth overall and in the main channels. ABC 1 was third in the main channels in Adelaide. 7TWO won the digitals in Melbourne and Adelaide. GO won Sydney, Eleven won Brisbane and 7mate won Perth. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Sydney, Seven leads Nine and Ten in the four other metro markets.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine won with another splashy return for one of its key US programs, The Big Bang Theory. It will continue to do well (but will the next fresh ep of Two and A Half Men do well on Nine tonight though?) as the ratings year approaches its end. Nine is of course wasting fresh eps of this program and other programs simply to limit its weekly losses against Seven, which has only briefly dipped into the new eps of some of its US programs,

Ten is another network that is dragging down fresh eps of new and old US programs in an effort to limit this year’s damaging loss of ratings and TV revenues. The eps used this year by Nine and Ten of these high-rating programs will become repeats in 2012 and therefore produce lower viewers. The obvious duds showing up (Prime Suspect, for example, on Nine) will become ratings fodder on the various digital channels.

Ten’s problems were on show last night with Junior MasterChef at 7.30 pm, watched by 843,000 people. That was Ten’s most-watched program last night in metro markets. That’s partly why Ten had yet another weak Monday night in metro and regional markets.

The five most-watched programs nationally last night were:

  1. The Big Bang Theory Ep 2, 2.195 million;
  2. The Big Bang Theory, Ep 1, 2.075 million;
  3. The X Factor, 1.940 million;
  4. Seven News, 1.928 million;
  5. Home and Away, 1.620 million.

Rove on Fox 8 had its second ep out of four where the audience fell well under 100,000 viewers. Last night’s 62,000 was still high enough to make the top five.

Tonight: The X Factor and then Packed To The Rafters on Seven from 7.30pm. The ABC has Foreign Correspondent at 8pm. Insight is on SBS at 7.30pm, The Joy of Sets on Nine at 9pm. NCIS on Ten at 8.30pm. The Modern Family repeats from 7.30pm on Ten are always worth another look