MasterChef heating up ahead of tonight's final

MasterChef averaged 1.520 million metro viewers and 2.047 million nationally and was the highlight of the night and saw Ten dominate the demos.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night, with Ten second and Nine moving up to a weak third. MasterChef averaged 1.520 million metro viewers and 2.047 million nationally and was the highlight of the night. MasterChef saw Ten dominate the demos.

Being Lara Bingle was watched by 790,000 viewers, not the 931,000 in the preliminary ratings, a figure boosted by the pre-recorded MasterChef running over by around 15 minutes. In other words, Ten knows MasterChef is going over and doesn’t amend its program guides to allow for that. Being Lara Bingle‘s audience was up 12% from a week ago from 684,000 viewers.

Tonight: The grand final of MasterChef on Ten, from 7pm until 9.30pm. Tune in at 9pm for the winner’s announcement. And Seven has the grand final of Australia’s Got Talent. ABC 1 has the new Gruen Sweat at 9.15pm, after the dying Randling at 8.30pm. The contrast between the two programs from the Andrew Denton empire couldn’t be more stark. Vera is on 7TWO at 8.30pm. Ignore Nine. The documentary Murdoch’s Scandal on SBS ONE at 9.30pm is now very much out of date with the charges laid against eight people from the News of the World paper overnight.

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

MasterChef (Ten) — 2.047 million
Seven News — 1.885 million
Nine News — 1.806 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.511 million
Winners & Losers (Seven) — 1.501 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.449 million
ABC News — 1.404 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.382 million
Once Upon a Time (Seven) — 1.341 million
NCIS (Ten) — 1.062 million

The Metro Winners:

MasterChef (Ten) (7pm) — 1.520 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.279 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.228 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.112 million
Winners & Losers (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.026 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.012 million
ABC News — 1.006 million

The Losers: Nine, again. Two hours of the US version of The Voice, 544,000.

Metro News & CA: A Current Affair picked up last night and had wins in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven News won the rest.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.279 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.228 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.112 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.012 million
ABC News — 1.006 million
Ten News (5pm) — 677,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 673,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 651,000
Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8.30pm) — 614,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 434,000
Ten News (Ten) (10.30pm) — 246,000
Insight (SBS) (8.30pm) — 221,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 196,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 185,000
Dateline (SBS News (9.30pm) — 161,000
The Business (ABC) (11pm) — 127,000
SBS News (10.30pm) — 61,000
The Drum (News 24) (6pm) — 36,000

In the morning: Nine’s Mornings got to within 3000 of Seven’s The Morning Show and there was more life for Ten’s Breakfast.

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 374,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 323,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 152,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 149,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 62,000
Breakfast (Ten, 7 – 9 am) — 47,000
News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 42,000 (+19,000)*

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 28.2%, from Ten (3) on 25.8%, Nine (3) was on 23.2%, the ABC (4) ended with 16.9% and SBS (2) was on 5.8%. Seven leads the week with 31.0% from Ten on 23.8% and Nine on 23.2%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 21.6% from Ten on 20.4%, Nine was on 14.6%, ABC 1, 11.8% and SBS ONE was on 4.2%. Seven leads the week with 24.6% from Ten on 18.3% and Nine on 16.7%.

Metro Digital: GO won with a share of 5.7%, boosted by the movie Terminator Salvation at 8.30pm which ran until 11pm. 7TWO was second with 3.6%, Eleven was on 3.2%, 7mate ended with 3.1%, ABC 2 and Gem finished with 2.9% each; ONE was on 2.2%, SBS TWO was on 1.7%, ABC 3, 1.3% and News 24, 0.8%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 27.1%. GO now leads the week with 3.9%, from 7TWO on 3.4% and 7mate on 3.1%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 22.9%, from Ten (3) on 21.0%, Nine (3) was on 18.8%, the ABC (4) ended with 13.7% and SBS (2) was on 4.7%. Pay TV with its 200 plus channels saw its total share rise to 16.1% last night, the highest weeks (outside of Saturday nights).

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (2.4%)
TV1 (2.2%)
Lifestyle (2.1%)
Fox Classics (1.9%)
A&E (1.8%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

iCarly (Nickelodeon) — 109,000
AFL: AFL 360 (Fox Footy) — 91,000
Camp Orange (Nickelodeon) — 84,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 66,000
Hardcore Pawn (A&E) — 65,000

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 31.3%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 24.5%, SC Ten (3) was on 22.5%, the ABC (4) was on 16.2% and SBS (2) ended with 5.5%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with a share of 14.4%, from SC Ten on 16.8% and WIN/NBN on 14.4%. GO won the digital with 6.5%, from 7TWO on 5.3% and Gem with 3.5%. The 10 digital channels had a high FTA share last night of 31.4% (boosted by the movie Terminator Salvation on GO). Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.2% from WIN/NBN on 26.3%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Seven News — 605,000
Nine News — 578,000
MasterChef — 521,000
A Current Affair — 499,000
Once Upon a Time — 487,000

Major Metro Markets: A closer night between Seven and Ten. Seven won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Ten won Melbourne overall and the main channels. GO won the digitals with its movie Terminator Salvation. Seven leads Nine and Ten in Sydney and Brisbane. Seven leads Ten and Nine in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports