A Current Affair in a river of ratings trouble

A Current Affair is starting to be a deadweight, especially in Adelaide and Perth.

The Winners: Seven’s night.

Nine depended on fresh episodes of The Big Bang Theory to boost its performance.

In the AM TV battle, Seven’s Morning Show (9-11.30am) averaged 199,000 which was more than the combined audiences for Nine’s Kerry Anne (72,000), Ten News at 9am (42,000) and The Circle on Ten from 10am (45,000).

Seven’s Morning Show has been dominating the post-breakfast timeslots all year, despite the publicity machine Ten has tried to build around The Circle.

The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (8pm) — 1.554 million
The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.495 million
The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.371 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.258 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.235 million
The Mentalist (Nine) (8pm) — 1.129 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.113 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.071 million

The Losers: Ten. Undercover Boss Australia at 8.30pm, 531,000.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Brisbane. Seven News won the rest. Today Tonight had a clean sweep over A Current Affair. In fact, ACA started the week well under 900,000 viewers, which means the rest of the week will be weak.

There are no simulcast figures for Q&A, 7.30 or the 8.30pm broadcast of Lateline Business because the figures are incomplete and are not available.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.258 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.235 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.071 million
ABC News (7pm) — 942,000
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 881,000
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 784,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 720,000
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 635,000
Media Watch (ABC) (9.15pm) — 635,000
Ten News (5pm) — 550,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 533,000
6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 402,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 300,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 195,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 163,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 128,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 380,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 348,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 33.0% from Nine (3) on 28.7%, Ten (3) was on 16.9%, the ABC (4) was on 16.7% and SBS (2) ended with 4.8%. Nine leads the week with 32.0% from Seven on 30.4% and Ten on 18.1%.
Main Channel: Seven won with 25.1% from Nine on 23.4%, ABC 1 was on 12.9%, Ten was on 11.9% and SBS ONE ended on 3.5%. Nine leads the week with 26.7% from Seven on 23.2% and Ten on 12.7%.
Digital: 7TWO won with 4.5%, with Eleven and 7mate on 3.3%, GO was on 2.9%, ABC 2 was on 2.5%, Gem was on 2.4%, ONE ended on 1.7%, SBS TWO was on 1.3%, News 24 was on 0.7% and ABC 3 was on 0.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share of 23.2%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.1%, from GO on 3.3%, Eleven on 3.2% and 7mate on 3.0%.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 27.6% from Nine (3) on 24.0%, Ten (3) was on 14.1%, as was pay TV (200-plus channels). The ABC (4) was on 13.9% and SBS (2) ended with 4.0%. The 15 FTA channels had an 85.9% share of prime time viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a share of 19.4%, the five main channels, 66.5%.

The five most-watched pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (3.65%)
Lifestyle (2.04%)
Fox Sports 2 (2.04%)
TV1 (1.98%)
111 Hits (1.85%)

The five most-watched pay TV programs were:

Australia’s Next Top Model (Fox 8) — 154,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 99,000
Eastenders (UKTV) — 73,000
Rove LA (Fox 8) — 67,000
QI (UKTV) — 66,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 32.7% from WIN/NBN (3), SC Ten (3) was on 17.1%, the ABC (4) was on 16.7% and SBS (2) was on 3.9%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 25.0%, from WIN/NBN on 23.0%, ABC 1 was on 12.4% and SC Ten was on 11.3%. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.5%, from Eleven on 3.8% and GO on 3.7%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 25.4%. WIN/NBN still leads the week on 33.2% from Prime/7Qld on 30.3%.

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

The Big Bang Theory — 575,000
The X Factor — 570,000
The Big Bang Theory — 565,000
Seven News — 547,000
ACA — 525,000

Major Markets: Seven won overall and the main channels in every market, except the main channels in Melbourne where Nine won. The ABC was third overall and the main channels in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Ten was third overall in Melbourne, and third overall and in the main channels in Brisbane. 7TWO won the digitals in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. 7mate won Sydney. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Sydney and Brisbane. Seven leads Nine and Ten in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: With The X Factor running for 90 minutes, Seven was always going to prove too strong for Nine and its fresh double episode of The Big Bang Theory. But Nine would have gotten closer if the News and ACA had been closer to Seven news and Today Tonight. ACA is starting to be a deadweight, especially in Adelaide and Perth (as are the WIN Nine News broadcasters as well in those markets). Seven won All People, 16 to 39s, 18 to 49s. Nine won 25 to 54s

The five most watched programs nationally last night were:

The Big Bang Theory — 2.199 million
The Big Bang Theory — 1, 2.070 million
The X Factor — 2.071 million
Seven News — 1.804 million
Home and Away — 1.619 million

Tonight: Seven has The X Factor and Packed To The Rafters. Nine has a fresh Two and a Half Men, which needs Charlie Sheen to save it. Nine has boned The Joy of Sets in metro markets at 9pm and substituted with an earlier flop, Mike & Molly, which returns with new episodes. Joy of Sets is on WIN at 9pm though, according to some schedules. Ten has a fresh NCIS. The ABC has Foreign Correspondent.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports