Ten's The Shire: more debit than debut

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven won the night, with Revenge at 8.30pm averaging 1.344 million metro viewers and 1.958 million nationally, which made it number one. MasterChef topped the night again in metro markets with 1.355 million viewers, but dipped to third nationally with 1.852 million viewers.

Ten’s The Shire was more debit than debut last night. Ten says the program is reality with “soft scripts”. Soft rubbish is more like it.

Just 913,000 people watched at 8pm in metro markets, and 1.215 million nationally. Ten says 941,000 watched, adjusted for the late start of around 8.10pm. That was more than 400,000 fewer than watched MasterChef. It was a weaker debut that its precursor, Being Lara Bingle (tonight, 8pm on Ten), which averaged 925,000 metro viewers, with less publicity than The Shire. Like the Being Lara Bingle debut, The Shire missed the top 10 in metro markets, coming in at Number 11. But The Shire is a demo play, and it did well with top three efforts among men and women from 16 to 39 to 25 to 54. It was marginally more popular with males.

Analysis of The Amazing Race and The Shire from just after 8pm when both shows were on air shows the news isn’t all that good for Ten: The Shire started with a million viewers for the first few minutes, but lost 32% of that audience to end the program with 679,000 viewers — a serious loss of audience. The Amazing Race added viewers (it started at just over 830,000 people when The Shire started, and ended with more than 1.2 million). The reality for Ten is that MasterChef viewers headed for Seven soon after The Shire started.

A final gripe. Ten did the usual commercial TV trick last night with the end of MasterChef, which ran 10 minutes over, and the supposed start at 8pm of The Shire. It didn’t, nor did it finish at 8.30pm, try around 8.42pm. The makes the flight of more than 400,000 people from The Shire even more telling!

Tonight: Winners & Losers on Seven. Nine has the US version of The Voice from 7pm. Ten has MasterChef and a fresh NCIS. The ABC has The Race to London and the final episode of the excellent Joanna Lumley’s Greek Odyssey. The Tour de France is on SBS at 10pm.

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

Revenge (Seven) — 1.958 million
Seven News — 1.878 million
MasterChef Australia (Ten) — 1.852 million
Nine News — 1.840 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.626 million
ABC News — 1.457 million
Home & Away (Seven) — 1.436 million
Australian Story (ABC 1) — 1.381 million
The Amazing Race Australia (Seven) — 1.361 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.324 million

The Metro Winners:

MasterChef (Ten) (7pm) — 1.355 million
Revenge (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.344 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.250 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.224 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.062 million
ABC News (7pm)– 1.043 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.032 million

The Losers: The Voice on Nine for two hours from 7pm, just 592,000. Nine had better go to black tonight, it will be cheaper. The movie The Dark Knight from 9pm, 481,000. Contemptuous programming by Nine.

Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane easily (and also won Sydney on Sunday night, not Seven, as I mistakenly reported yesterday). A Current Affair also won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane as viewers showed indifference to the Today Tonight interview with the captain of the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise liner that sank off Tuscany. Few cared about the “exclusive” interview.

Nine News (6pm) — 1.250 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.224 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.062 million
ABC News (7pm)– 1.043 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.032 million
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 942,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 852,000
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 816,000
Ten News (5pm) — 717,000
Media Watch (ABC) (9.20pm) — 700,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 615,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 611,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 438,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 244,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 182,000
Ten News (10.30pm) — 126,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 115,000
The Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 115,000
The Drum (News 24) (6pm) — 40,000

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: With school starting in many states, Today had a win, but no joy for Ten’s Breakfast with another very weak start for the week.

Today (Nine) (7am) — 318,000
Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 316,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 151,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 132,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 63,000
News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 51,000 (+27,000)
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 28,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 29.2% from Nine (3) on 22.6%, Ten (3) was on 21.9%, the ABC (4) was on 19.8% and SBS (2) ended on 6.5%. Seven leads the week with 31.8% from Nine on 24.4% and Ten with 21.4%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 22.6% from Nine on 16.6%, Ten was on 16.4%, ABC 1 was on 15.1% and SBS ONE was on 5.9%. Seven leads the week with 24.6% from Nine on 18.1% and Ten on 16.1%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with 4.2%, from GO on 3.5%, Eleven was on 3.0%, ABC 2 ended with 2.7%, Gem and ONE were on 2.5% each, 7mate was on 2.4%, ABC 3 ended with 1.1%, News 24 was on 0.9% and SBS TWO ended on 0.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 23.4%. GO leads with 4.1% from 7TWO on 3.5% and Eleven with 3.1%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 24.0% from Nine (3) on 18.5%, Ten (3) was on 18.0%, the ABC (4) was on 16.2%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) was on 15.8% and SBS (2) ended on 5.3%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.2% share of TV viewing last night. The five main channels share was 66.2% and the 10 digital channels share totalled 18.0%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox Sports 2 (4.4%)
Fox 8 (2.8%)
TV1 (2.1%)
Lifestyle (2.0%)
Fox Footy (2.05)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

NRL: Easts v Souths (Fox Sports 2) — 369,000
NFL: NFL XTRA (Fox Sports 2) — 192,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 115,000
AFL: On The Couch (fox Footy) — 113,000
AFL: AFL 360 (Fox Footy) — 99,000

Regional: Prime/7QLd (3 channels) won with a share of 32.8%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 23.6%, SC Ten (3) was on 19.3%, the ABC (4) ended on 17.5% and SBS (2) finished with 6.7%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 24.2%, from WIN/NBN in 16.7%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.8%, from GO on 3.6% and Gem and Eleven with 3.3% each. the 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 26.9%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 34.5%, from WIN/NBN on 25.2%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Seven News — 655,000
Revenge — 615,000
Nine News — 590,000
A Current Affair — 566,000
MasterChef — 497,000

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep for Seven, both overall, and the main channels in all five metro markets. Nine and Ten were second and third in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. in Adelaide. In Adelaide, ABC 1 pushed Nine out of third in the main channels, while in Perth the ABC was second overall (Nine and Ten tied for third) and ABC 1 was second in the main channels with Nine third and Ten 4th. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. GO won Brisbane. Seven leads everywhere. Nine is second expected in Adelaide where Ten is second. In Perth Ten could move into second spot after tonight.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports