The Winners: Only three programs with a million or more viewers.

A weak night generally, except for The Slap at 8.30pm on ABC 1 with 915,000 viewers.

Nine again played ducks and drakes with its schedule, dropping The Mentalist into the 9.30pm slot (it averaged 569,000) when the advanced TV guides had CSI Miami at that time. It was pushed back to 10.30pm.

  1. Beauty and The Geek Australia (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.143 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.105 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.012 million

The Losers: Each of the commercial networks were losers. The Law & Order: S.V.U repeat on Ten at 9.30pm, 510,000. Seven’s How I Met Your Mother at 9.30pm was a repeat and averaged 318,000.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney from Seven News and shared the win in Melbourne. A Current Affair won Sydney and Melbourne, but lost the rest. In Adelaide, ACA only had 47,000 viewers from 6.30pm to 7pm.

In the morning, Sunrise suddenly jumped to its highest audience for months, while Today also rose.

In the late evening, Lateline Business had its highest audience for months with 199,000 watching the 11pm replay as viewers looked for more on what was happening in the Greek crisis.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.105 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.012 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 969,000
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 913,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 848,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 725,000 (+25,000 on News 24 simulcast)
  7. The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 553,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 538,000
  9. Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 307,000
  10. Lateline Business (ABC) (11pm) — 199,000 (+32,000 on News 24 at 8.30pm)
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 194,000
  12. SBS News (9.30pm) — 154,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 435,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 364,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 26.9% from Nine (3) on 26.5%, Ten (3) was on 21.1%, the ABC (4) was on 20.0% and SBS (2) ended on 5.5%. Seven leads the week with 29.0% from Nine on 28.3% and Ten with 20.1%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 19.1% from Nine on 18.9%, ABC 1 was on 15.6%, Ten was on 14.5% and SBS One was on 4.7%. Seven and Ten still lead the week with 21.1% each. Ten is third with 13.8% and ABC 1 is on 13.4%.
  • Digital: GO won the digitals with 4.4% from 7TWO and 7mate with 3.9% each. Eleven was on 3.8%, Gem was on 3.1%, ONE ended with 2.8%, ahead of ABC 2 on 2.6%, ABC 3 and News 24 were on 0.9% each and SBS TWO ended with 0.8%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 27.1%. 7TWO and GO lead the week with 4.1% each, with Eleven and 7mate on 3.8% each.

Including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 22.2% from Nine (3) on 21.8%, Ten (3) was on 17.4%, the ABC (4) was on 16.5%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 14.8% and SBS (2) ended on 4.6%. The 15 FTA channels had an 85.2% viewing share in prime time last night. The 10 digital had a share of 22.5% (high) and the five main channels had a share of 62.7%.

The five most-watched pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox 8 (2.58%)
  2. Lifestyle (2.48%)
  3. TV 1 (2.42%)
  4. 111 Hits (1.87%)
  5. Disney (1.78%)

The five most-watched pay TV programs were:

  1. Grand Designs (Lifestyle) — 95,000
  2. The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 82,000
  3. Grand Designs (Lifestyle) — 81,000
  4. Pair of Kings (Disney) — 78,000
  5. America’s Got Talent (Fox 8) — 78,000

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 31.1% from WIN/NBN on 29.0%, SC Ten (3) was on 21.3%, the ABC (4) was on 17.4% and SBS (2) ended on 4.1%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN on 19.5%, from Prime/7Qld on 19.3%. The digitals were won by GO with 6.0% from 7TWO on 4.6% and 7mate on 4.2%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share of 31.1%, the second night in a row the digital share has been above 30%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.1% from WIN/NBN on 28.5%.

The five most-watched programs in regional TV were:

  1. Seven News — 507,000
  2. Beauty and The Geek Australia — 504,000
  3. Home and Away — 454,000
  4. A Current Affair — 443,000
  5. Nine News — 432,000

Major Markets: A close night. In Sydney, Seven won overall from and the ABC, but Nine won the main channels from Seven and ABC 1.

In Melbourne, Nine won overall and the main channels from Seven and Ten. In Brisbane, it was Nine from Seven and Ten overall and Nine from Seven and ABC 1 in the main channels. In Adelaide it was Seven from Ten and Nine overall and in the main channels it was Seven from Ten and ABC 1.

Finally, in Perth it was Seven from Nine and Ten overall and Seven from Nine and ABC 1 in the main channels. GO won Adelaide and shared Sydney with 7mate. 7mate won Perth. 7TWO won Melbourne, Eleven won Brisbane. 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: If you didn’t watch, you would have missed another gripping episode of The Slap. The rest of the offerings were weak, although the first episode of My Sri Lanka with Peter Kuruvita was good viewing.

The five most-watched programs nationally last night were:

  1. Beauty and The Geek Australia — 1.647 million
  2. Seven News — 1.612 million
  3. Nine News — 1.401 million
  4. Home and Away — 1.368 million
  5. The Celebrity Apprentice —  1.298 million

Tonight: Better Homes and Gardens on Seven. Ignore the movies afterwards. Nine has movies you can avoid. Ten has House, then movies to ignore. The ABC starts repeats of old Midsomer Murders.

Saturday: Movies on Seven, Ten and Nine. Seven has ET, which is 29 years old! SBS has RocKwiz, which is the evening’s highlight if you don’t like Doc Martin (ABC, 7.30pm).

Sunday: Morning chats. Sunday Night and maybe Wild Boys on Seven. Terra Nova on Ten for those who like stuff like that. The ABC has the final episode of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. SBA has Dateline and Nine has 60 Minutes and then the final episode of Underbelly: Razor, which has improved as it got older.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports