Seven wins the night

Seven's night, with a surprisingly long list of good audiences for a pretty dreary evening.

The Winners: Seven’s night, with a surprisingly long list of good audiences for a pretty dreary evening.

The ABC surprised with a solid effort. Its documentary, Targeting bin Laden, at 8.30pm averaged 808,000 and finished third behind The Mentalist and The X Factor/Body of Proof on Seven.

Body of Proof averaged 965,000 from 9pm. Junior MasterChef averaged 602,000 and was weak on Ten.

The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.408 million
The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (8pm) — 1.359 million
The Celebrity Apprentice (7.30pm) — 1.250 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.195 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.093 million
Celebrity Apprentice (Nine) (7pm) — 1.062 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.050 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.041 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.012 million
The Mentalist (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1 million

The Losers: Undercover Boss USA on Ten at 8.30pm, 460,000. Ten generally, again.

News & CA: Nine News again won the 6pm battle with Seven in Sydney, Seven News won the rest. A Current Affair won Sydney and Melbourne, Today Tonight won the rest.

The big news from news and current affairs last night was the return to more than a million viewers by ACA, for the first time in more than a month.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.195 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.093 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.050 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.041 million
ABC News (7pm) — 860,000
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 809,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 656,000 (+25,000 on News 24 simulcast)
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 571,000
Ten News (5pm) — 560,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 216,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 169,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 131,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 124,000 (+13,000 on News 24 at 8.30pm)

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 393,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 367,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels), won with a share of 32.6% from Nine (3) on 29.4%, the ABC (4) was on 17.0%, Ten (3) was on 15.9% and SBS (2) ended on 5.1%. Seven leads the week with 30.4% from Nine on 30.0% and Ten on 18.9%.
Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 25.1% from Nine on 22.6%, ABC 1 was on 13.6%, ten was on 10.6% and SBS ONE was on 4.3%. Seven leads the week with 22.8% from Nine on 21.1%, Ten on 12.5% and ABC 1 on 12.4%.
Digital: 7TWO and GO shared the night with 4.2% each, from Eleven on 3.8%, 7mate was on 3.3%, Gem was on 2.6%, ABC 2 was on 2.1%, ONE was on 1.6%, SBS TWO and ABC 3 were on 0.8% each and News 24 ended with 0.5%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share last night of 23.9%. GO leads the week with 6.4% from 7TWO on 4.3% and Eleven on 3.8%.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels), won with a share of 27.3% from Nine (3) on 24.6%, the ABC (4) was on 14.2%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 13.9%, Ten (3) was on 13.4% and SBS (2) ended on 4.3%. the 15 FTA channels had an 86.1% viewing share last night with the 10 digital channels totalling 20% and the five main channels 66.1%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (3.21%)
Lifestyle (2.20%)
UKTV (2.11%)
Nickelodeon Jr (1.81%)
TV 1 (1.81%)

The top five pay TV programs were:

The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 98,000
QI (UKTV) — 90,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 76,000
Rove LA (Fox 8) — 69,000
Futurama (Fox 8) — 62,000

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 36.8%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 29.6%, the ABC (4) was on 16.2%, SC Ten (3) was on 12.9%, and SBS (2) ended on 4.5%. The main channels were won surprisingly easily by Prime/7Qld with 28.0%, from WIN/NBN on 21.6% (Celebrity Apprentice and The Big Bang Theory aren’t as popular in regional areas). ABC 1 was 3rd with 12.5% and SC Ten was a poor 4th back on 8.2%. The digitals were won by 7TWO on 5.2%, with GO on 4.4% and Gem and 7mate on 3.6% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 25.7% last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week on 34.3% from WIN/NBN on 30.1%.

The five most-watched programs in regional areas were:

The X Factor — 707,000
Seven News — 529,000
Body of Proof — 524,000
Home and Away — 518,000
The Mentalist — 472,000.

Major Markets: Seven won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine won Melbourne overall and the main channels. Except for third in Melbourne overall and sharing third spot in Brisbane overall with the ABC, Ten was not sighted in the top three last night. The ABC and ABC 1 took third elsewhere. GO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Eleven won Brisbane, 7TWO won Adelaide. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Sydney and Melbourne, Seven leads Nine and Ten in the rest.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won by a surprising margin given that Monday night has become’s Nine’s strongest with The Celebrity Apprentice and fresh The Big Bang Theory episodes, which in turn have revived The Mentalist at 8.30pm. Ten was its usual weak self and even though the ABC has rested its Monday night favourites, it again proved too strong for Ten.

Australian Story‘s final episode for 2011 last night was a repeat, but it again showed us why, when it chooses to be, is the best documentary program on TV. The William McInnes/Sarah Watt story from 2005 was poignant, given Sarah Watt’s recent death from cancer — it was a fine way to end the year. Her death went unappreciated on commercial TV.

The five top programs nationally last night were:

The X Factor — 2.116 million
The Big Bang Theory — 1.741 million
Seven News — 1.723 million
The Celebrity Apprentice — 1.658 million
Home and Away — 1.530 million

Tonight: A very quiet night. Seven has The X Factor, the ABC has Foreign Correspondent. Ten is resting its fresh NCIS episodes and brought NCIS Los Angeles forward to 8.30. Nine is just plain weak with the appalling Two and a Half Men at 8.30.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports