The Celebrity Apprentice ship comes in

The Winners: Seven’s night, as it was always going to be. The Celebrity Apprentice managed to beat Home and Away, but it is as predictable as the soap is.

No Two and a Half Men, in the early rankings. It seems someone from Nine forgot it was there and coded in two episodes of The Big Bang Theory, while in reality there was only one, which averaged 914,000. The second (which looks like it was Two and a Half Men, and was on later confirmation) averaged 964,000, which isn’t all that hot for such a high-profile program. The data was later sorted out, but it is the second time that Nine has wrongly coded programs in a couple of weeks.

Packed to the Rafters (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.608 million
The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.387 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.211 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.146 million
Celebrity Apprentice (Nine) (7pm) — 1.080 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.045 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.045 million
NCIS (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.029 million

The Losers: Seven and its viewers for the ending Packed to the Rafters last night ahead of time. Seven was the loser for ending it before the run was up. The viewers lost because they won’t have the most watched regularly scheduled program on TV this year.

News & CA: Nine News and ACA had a better night and won Melbourne as well as Sydney. Seven News and TT won the rest.

6.30 with George Negus lost nearly 100,000 viewers from Monday night.

Today beat Sunrise in the morning for the second morning in a row. The momentum continues to shift to Nine.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.211 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.146 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.045 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 999,000
ABC News (7pm) — 844,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 622,000 (+13,000 on News 24 simulcast)
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 600,000
Ten News (5pm) — 549,000
Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 527,000
6.30 With George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 407,000
Insight (SBS) (7.30pm) — 205,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 196,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 161,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 148,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11pm) — 90,000 (+11,000 at News 24 at 8.30pm)

In the morning:

Today (Nine) (7am) — 366,000
Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 360,000

The Nation:

FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 33.6% from Nine (three) on 25.2%, Ten (three) was on 23.3%, the ABC (four) was on 12.6% and SBS (two) ended with 5.3%. Seven leads the week with 31.1% from Nine on 28.4% and Ten on 20.7%.
Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 27.3% from Nine on 19.4%, Ten was on 18.0%, ABC 1, 9.1% and SBS ONE, 4.2%. Seven leads the week with 24.2% from Nine on 22.6% and Ten on 14.8%.
Digital: 7TWO won with 3.8%, from Eleven on 3.5%, GO was on 3.1%, Gem was on 2.7%, 7mate was on 2.4%, ABC 2 was on 2.1%, ONE was on 1.8%, SBS TWO was on 1.1% and ABC 3 and News 24 finished with 0.7% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share of 21.9% last night in prime time. 7TWO leads the week with 3.8% from Eleven on 3.6% and GO on 3.3%.

Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 28.1% from Nine (three) on 21.1%, Ten (three) was on 19.5%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 14.1%, the ABC (four) was on 11.5% and SBS (two) ended with 4.5%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of 85.9% with the 10 digital channels on 18.3% and the five main channels on 67.6%.

The five most-watched pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (3.97%)
Lifestyle (2.21%)
Disney Jnr. (1.76%)
Crime & Investigation (1.71%)
Sky News (1.68)

The five most-watched pay TV programs were:

Australia’s Next Top Model (Fox 8) (7.30pm) — 227,000
ICARLY (Nickelodeon) — 78,000
Australia’s Next Top Model (Fox 8) (noon) — 68,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 67,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 66,000

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 35.7% from WIN/NBN (three) on 25.4%, SC Ten (three) was on 21.4%, the ABC (three) ended on 12.3% and SBS (two) was on 5.2%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with a share of 27.4% from WIN/NBN with 19.3%. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.8% from 7mate on 3.5% and Gem on 3.4%. The 10 digitals had a total share of 24.9%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.7% from WIN/NBN on 28.5%.

The five most-watched programs in regional areas were:

Packed to the Rafters — 780,000
The X Factor — 707,000
A Current Affair — 535,000
Nine News — 528,000
Seven News — 514,000

(Note, this list includes figures from Tasmania as well as other regions)

Major Markets: It was Seven overall and the main channels in every market. Nine and Ten were second and third in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. but in Adelaide and Perth Ten pushed Nine into third spot. GO won Sydney, 7TWO won Melbourne and Adelaide, Eleven won Brisbane and Perth. Nine leads in Sydney from Seven and Ten. Seven leads the rest from Nine and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A very cynical move by Seven to end Packed to the Rafters last night five episodes ahead of the scheduled end of season. Seven reckons it has the year won and viewers can go jump. The promo for the 2012 series at the end of last night’s episode contained shots (sky diving, for example) from the promos for the just-ended series for this year. It is another very good example (like Nine’s appalling ad breaks in the Rugby World Cup finals) of a commercial TV network doing something to suit itself and not viewers.

The Celebrity Apprentice averaged 1.532 million, so nationally, it failed to top Home and Away in the 7pm slot.

The top five national programs were:

Packed to the Rafters — 2.389 million
The X Factor — 2.094 million
Seven News — 1.725 million
Nine News — 1.571 million
Home and Away — 1.549 million

(This list includes Tasmania, metro and regional markets)

TONIGHT: The ABC is the place to be tonight: Poh’s Kitchen On the Road, Spicks and Specks, Green Planet, The Hamster Wheel and then Happy 25th to Margaret and David at 10pm.

Nine starts an observational reality series called Young Doctors at 8pm, (Wednesday night is Nine’s medical night with RPA a previous fixture). CSI, if there are any Ted Danson fans at 8.30 pm on Nine.

Ten has Bondi Vet and another hiding coming when the ratings are released tomorrow morning.

Seven has the very silly program The One: Australia’s Most Gifted Psychic at 7.30pm, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour follows at 8.30pm. Fewer viewers are interested in this one.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports