The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Was that the dullest night of TV this year? Good Friday night last week at least had an NRL game and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on ABC1. Last night had programs viewers mostly ignored or treated with indifference. The ABC snuck home into third in the metro market main channels after its programs did better than Ten’s did from 8 o’clock onwards. Catalyst at 8 o’clock (on the or-asm, which might explain the popularity) averaged 597,000 viewers. Australia On Trial at 8.30 averaged 597,000.

Seven’s Better Homes and Gardens on Melbourne in AFL markets, 530,000.

The footy shows, 736,000 at 9.30 in total … 317,000 in Melbourne, the third biggest audience of the night. Better Homes had more at 7.30 with 325,000, Nine News had 355,000, and the 7 o’clock ABC News had 346,000. The AFL Footy Show is fading. In Sydney up to 175,000 and in Brisbane up to 102,000.

Two Greedy Italians on SBS ONE at 8.30, 329,000. Not just a nice looking cooking show about Italian food, unlike How To Cook Like Heston at 8 o’clock, which is all about Heston and teaches you nothing about the food he’s preparing except how simply fabo he is.

The week is close: the NRL in Sydney and Brisbane will see Nine win at last Sydney for the week. But the AFL game tonight especially (Carlton v Collingwood) and tomorrow will push Seven back into the lead in Melbourne and further in front in Adelaide and Perth and give Seven the week.

Tonight: AFL on Seven (main channel and 7mate) and pay TV. Carlton v Collingwood. Great match-up! NRL on Nine. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven in the north on the main channel. Ten continues to bury Young Talent Time at 7 o’clock, and has a first run movie at 8 o’clock called Home Alone from 1990. Just kidding! The ABC has the excellent Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries on 1 at 8.30. Why, the story line could be today, since Miss Davis “investigates the puzzling death of a magazine columnist who is also the author of fairy stories”. Sounds like quite a few media people, and not just in magazines. SBS has another version of the Titanic story.

Tomorrow: AFL on Seven’s main channel and 7mate and on pay TV, day and night. NRL on pay TV. Ten has another first run movie called Home Alone 3 at 6.30pm. Just kidding, again! And another called Die Hard With A Vengeance (really kidding). Seven has one of its own called Walk The Line in northern markets on its main channel. (It’s the Johnny Cash biopic repeated). Nine has a repeat and a fresh movie and nothing much else. SBS has a repeat of RocKwiz (how many times?). The ABC at least has a fresh New Tricks at 7.30pm and the start of a new series of Whitechapel (which is odd to wonderfully good).

Sunday: Official ratings return, so Insiders, Insider Business and Offsiders are back (How was the Easter Egg hunt, Baz, Al?). Bolt continues to bore for Ten, Meet The Press remains and Weekend Sunrise and Today entertain us in their own, unique fashions. They will be all atwitter about the Logies, TV’s night of nights. AFL on Seven (main channels and 7mate) and on pay TV. NRL on Nine and pay TV. The second cricket Test on pay TV overnight. At night, the gang are back with their mega hitters: Dancing With The Stars and Inside The Titantic on Seven. The first episode of The Voice and The Logies on Nine. Ten has fresh episodes of The Biggest Loser, New Girl, Modern Family and the first run movie (really) Avatar. The ABC has Australia: Time Traveller at 7.30pm (better than the Logies) and the second and final part of Waking The Dead.

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

  1. Seven News — 1.724 million.
  2. Nine News — 1.631 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) 1.477 million.
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.422 million.
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.361 million.
  6. ABC1 News — 1.355 million.
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.139 million.
  8. CSI (Nine) — 1.027 million.
  9. The Footy Show (Nine) — 1.017 million.
  10. RBT (Nine) — 968,000.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.187 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.088 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.069 million.

The Losers: It was just a weak night.

Metro News & CA: Seven News lost Sydney and Melbourne, but won the rest. TT lost Melbourne, won the rest.

  1. Seven News (6pm) – 1.187 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.088 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.069 million.
  4. ABC1 News (7pm) — 980,000.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 925,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 678,000.
  7. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 481,000.
  8. Lateline (ABC 1, 10.30pm) — 237,000.
  9. SBS News (SBS ONE, 6.30pm) — 192,000.
  10. The Business (ABC 1, 11.05pm, repeat) — 113,000.
  11. SBS News (SBS ONE, 10.30pm) — 87,000.
  12. The Drum (News 24, 6pm) — 35,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: Ten’s Breakfast averaged 206,000 from 6-9am, including its “Early Show”. News Breakfast on the ABC averaged 61,000 including the simulcast on News 24.

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 381,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 329,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 240,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 98,000.
  5. The Circle (Ten, 9am) — 60,000.
  6. News Breakfast (ABC 1, 6am) — 41,000 + 20,000 on News 24 simulcast.
  7. Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 46,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 28.1%, from Nine (3) on 27.3%, Ten (3) was on 19.2%, the ABC (4) ended with 18.3% and SBS (2) was on 7.2%. Seven leads the week with 26.5% from Nine on 26.0% and Ten on 21.6%. Main Channels: Nine won with 20.9%, from Seven on 19.6%, ABC 1 was on 13.4% and Ten was on 13.0%, while SBS ONE ended on 6.3%. Nine and Seven are tied for the lead with 19.2% each. Ten is next on 14.2%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.7%, from 7mate on 3.8%, GO and Eleven were on 3.7% each, ABC 2 was on 3.0%, Gem was on 2.7%, ONE ended on 2.5%, ABC 3 was on 1.1%, and News 24 and SBS TWO ended with 0.8% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 26.8%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.9% from Eleven on 3.8% and GO on 3.5%.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 22.6%, from Nine (3) on 21.9%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 17.5%, Ten (3) was on 15.4%, the ABC (4) ended with 14.7% and SBS (2) was on 5.8%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 82.5%. The 10 digitals channels had a total share of 21.8%, the five main channels, 60.7%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox 8 — 4.2%.
  2. Lifestyle — 2.7%.
  3. Nickelodeon — 2.4%.
  4. TV 1 — 2.1%.
  5. Fox Sports 1 — 2.0%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Grand Designs Australia (Lifestyle) — 147,400.
  2. Extreme Sailing (Fox Sports 1) — 127,500.
  3. American Idol (Fox 8) — 105,700.
  4. The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 100,300.
  5. AFL: League Teams (Fox Footy) — 91,200.

Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 29.8% from Prime/7Qld (3) on 27.9%, SC Ten (3) was third with 19.8%, the ABC (4) was on 16.3% and SBS (4) ended on 6.2%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN on 22.0% from Prime/7Qld on 16.9%. The digitals were won by 7mate with 5.8, from 7TWI on 5.2% and GO on 5.0%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 31.3%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 28.2% from WIN/NBN on 27.1%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Nine News — 568,000.
  2. ACA — 552,000.
  3. Seven News — 538,000.
  4. Home and Away — 426,000.
  5. WIN News — 391,000.

Major Metro Markets: Nine won overall and the main channels in Sydney and Melbourne and won the main channels in Brisbane. Seven won overall in Brisbane and won Adelaide and Perth. In Sydney the ABC was third overall and ABC1 was third in the main channels, as it was in Melbourne and Adelaide. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Eleven won Brisbane, 7 mate won Adelaide. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven leads Nine and Ten in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

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