The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A quiet night, enlivened by the second home and away AFL match of the year between Richmond and Carlton. The game averaged 665,000 metro viewers in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. 444,000 watched in Melbourne, the biggest audience in any market last night. But just 91,000 watched on 7mate in Sydney (40,000) and Brisbane (51,000). In regional areas a further 125,000 watched. The total FTA audience was 971,000. On Pay TV, 244,500 watched on Fox Footy. All up a total for the night of a over 1.2 million viewers, which is not to be sneezed at.

Nine’s The NRL Footy Show averaged a low 228,000 for Sydney (147,000) and Brisbane (81,000.) Including 154,000 in regional areas, a total of 382,000 watched nationally.

Seven lost Sydney to Nine, but won the rest and Nine was also weak in Brisbane.

Tonight: AFL on Seven, 7mate and Pay TV. Rugby League on Nine. Young Talent Time on Ten, then movies. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven in the north. Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on ABC 1.

Saturday: AFL on Seven and Pay TV again. A new New Tricks on ABC 1, movies on Seven in the northern markets. Nothing on Nine. Ten is also weak. The new 2012 edition of Gardening Australia starts with the new host, Costa Georgiadis, on ABC 1 at 6.30pm. Rugby League on Pay TV.

Sunday: Morning chats, Landline at Noon on the ABC. AFL on Pay TV. Rugby League on Pay TV and Nine. Sunday Night on Seven at 6.30pm.

A fresh 60 Minutes on Nine, but then a repeat of The Mentalist. At 6.30pm we have Easter With The Australian Women’s Weekly, which is real non-ratings spakfilla.

Ten at least continues The Biggest Loser at 6.30pm. Modern Family is a repeat, New Girl is down as a fresh episode, but NCIS at 8.30pm is a repeat.

The ABC has the second episode of the great The Time Traveller’s Guide series at 7.30pm and a fresh Waking The Dead at 8.30pm.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

  1. Seven News — 1.630 million
  2. Nine News — 1.430 million
  3. ABC News — 1.383 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.258 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.245 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.063 million
  7. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 1.001 million
  8. The Biggest Loser (Ten) — 969,000
  9. CSI (Nine) — 957,000
  10. RBT (Nine) — 923,000

The Metro Winners:

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.133 million

The Losers: The Straits on ABC 1 at 8.30pm, 461,000. Thankfully, gone.

Metro News & CA: Seven news won Sydney for the second night in a row, lost Melbourne, won the rest. It has been weeks, if not months since Seven won two nights in a row in Sydney!

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.133 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 987,000
  3. ABC News (7pm) — 985,000
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 943,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 796,000
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 651,000
  7. The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 487,000
  8. Lateline (ABC) (10.15pm) — 194,000
  9. SBS News (6.30pm) — 150,000
  10. SBS News (10.30pm) — 120,000
  11. The Business (ABC) (11.50pm) — 116,000
  12. The Drum (News 24) (6pm) — 34,000

In the morning: Nine’s Today popped up with a surprise win, Ten’s Breakfast sank again and was easily beaten by News Breakfast on ABC 1 and News 24.

  1. Today (Nine) (7am) — 369,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 356,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 189,000
  4. Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 86,000
  5. The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 47,000
  6. News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) –38,000 (+16,000)*
  7. Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 31,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven won with a share of 31.5% for its three channels. Nine (3) was second with 25.1%, Ten (3) was on 21.2%, the ABC (4) ended on 15.7% and SBS (2) was on 6.5%. Seven leads the week with 34.9% from Nine on 22.7% and Ten on 21.6%. Main Channels: Seven won with 22.1% from Nine on 17.3%, Ten was on 15.2%, ABC 1 was on 10.9% and SBS ONE was on 5.9%. Seven leads the week with 27.6% from Nine on 16.5% and Ten on 15.3%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 5.4%, from GO with 4.2%, 7mate was on 3.9%, Eleven was on 3.8%, Gem was on 3.5%, ABC 2 was on 3.2%, ONE was on 2.3%, ABC 3, 0.8%, News 24, 0.7% and SBS TWO, 0.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 28.4%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.8% from 7mate with 3.4%, GO on 3.3% and ONE and Eleven on 3.1% each.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 25.3%; Nine (3) was second with 20.2%, Pay TV was third (200 plus channels) with 17.2%. Ten (3) was on 17.1%, the ABC (4) ended on 12.6% and SBS (2) was on 5.3%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 82.8%, one of the lowest Monday to Friday for some time. The five main channels share fell below 60% to 59.8%, which was also low. The 10 digital channels total share was 23.0%. Pay TV’s share was high because of the AFL on Fox Footy.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox Footy (4.07%)
  2. Fox 8 (2.72%)
  3. Lifestyle (2.49%)
  4. TV 1 (2.46%)
  5. Fox Classic (1.88%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. AFL: Richmond v Carlton (Fox Footy) — 244,500
  2. Coronation Street (UKTV) — 68,100
  3. Storage Wars (A&E) — 65,400
  4. American Idol (Fox 8) — 62,400
  5. NCIS (TV 1) — 60,900

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won narrowly with a share of 29.7% from WIN/NBN (3) on 29.2%, SC Ten (3) was on 20.6%, the ABC (4) was on 15.5% and SBS (2) ended on 5.0%. WIN/NBN scored a rare win in the main channels with a share of 20.5% from prime/7Qld on 19.5%.  The digitals were won 7TWO with 6.1%, from GO on 6.0% and Eleven on 4.2%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a high 30.9%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.4% from WIN/NBN on 25.7%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Seven News — 498,000
  2. Nine News — 486,000
  3. A Current Affair — 460,000
  4. Home and Away — 417,000
  5. ABC News — 397,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven lost Sydney overall and the main channels to Nine with Ten third. In Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, it was Seven on top, with Nine and Ten in second and third. The digitals saw 7TWO win Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. 7mate won Brisbane. Seven leads the week everywhere, Ten is second in Brisbane (will change after the NRL tonight), in Adelaide and in Perth.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports