A national audience of 2.918 million watches MasterChef finale

MasterChef easily won the battle of the Grand Finals, relegating Seven's Australia's Got Talent to an also ran.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Ten’s turn for a rare smile: a win last night as MasterChef easily won the battle of the Grand Finals, relegating Seven’s Australia’s Got Talent to an also ran. It was Ten’s best night of the year and naturally it won the demos as well.

MasterChef had 2.1919 metro viewers and 2.918 million nationally for the winner’s announcement (1.888 million and 2.413 million for the rest of the program). Australia’s Got Talent ended with just 998,000 and 1.579 million nationally. The weak performance compared to MasterChef last night and over the season raises questions about if we will see it again in 2013. Australia’s Got Talent lost nearly 2 million metro viewers from 2011 for the winner’s announcement. Admittedly, it was up against the grand final of MasterChef, but that was a course chosen by Seven.

Australia’s Got Talent‘s grand final announcement from 2011 averaged 2.980 million people which was the biggest audience for a regular show in TV in 2011. This year it fell to 998,000. The season average tumbled to 1.127 million from 1.873 million.

But Ten and MasterChef’s producers, Shine Australia (owned by the Murdoch family company, News Corp) can’t gloat too much. Shine and Ten failed to arrest the decline in MasterChef‘s audience. The metro final figures was down by more than 550,000 viewers on the 2.745 million recorded in 2011. The season average (up till last night) was 1.192 million, down sharply from 2011’s average of 1.509 million.

And while MasterChef also topped the rankings in regional areas, it was not enough to win the night overall for the network. Seven won thanks to solid efforts by Australia’s Got Talent and Mrs Brown’s Boys.

Tonight: The final Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year, plus the AFL and NRL Footy Shows on Nine. Ten has its footy shows, Before the Game, at 8.30pm, after the debut of MasterChef All Stars at 7pm. Seven has Criminal Minds. The ABC has the first new Absolutely Fabulous at 8pm: it has an Olympics theme. SBS has a new Sicilian orientated cooking show, Sicily Unpacked, at 7.30pm and there’s a new Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Lewis is on 7TWO (a repeat) at 8.30pm.

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

MasterChef (winner announced) (Ten) — 2.918 million
MasterChef (Ten) — 2.413 million
Seven News — 1.854 million
Nine News — 1.708 million
Australia’s Got Talent (Seven) — 1.579 million
Mrs Brown’s Boys (Seven) — 1.536 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.519 million
Home and Away (Seven) 1.385 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.324 million
Gruen Sweat (ABC 1) — 1.290 million

The Metro Winners:

MasterChef (winner announced) (Ten) (9pm) — 2.191 million
MasterChef (Ten) (7pm) — 1.888 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.229 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.165 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.032 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.002 million

The Losers: Can’t really call anything a loser with the grand final of MasterChef and Australia’s Got Talent, but Nine’s weakness is self-inflicted for obvious reasons. But tonight it’s back to being serious.

Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven news won the rest. A Current Affair won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Today Tonight had big wins in Adelaide and Perth.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.229 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.165 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.032 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.002 million
ABC News (7pm) — 959,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 701,000
Ten News (Ten) (5pm) — 691,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 632,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 437,000
Ten News (10.30pm) — 206,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.45pm) — 174,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 150,000
The Business (ABC) (11.20pm) — 107,000
SBS News (10.30pm) — 81,000
The Drum (News 24) (10pm) — 48,000

In the morning: Ten’s Breakfast and The Circle both dropped sharply from their strong showings on Tuesday morning.

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 370,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 291,000
The Mornings Show (Seven) (9am) — 160,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 107,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 35,000
News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 51,000 (+28,000)*
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 30,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Ten (3 channels) won with a share of 32.9% from Seven (3) on 28.4%, Nine (3) was on 17.3%, the ABC (4) ended on 17.2% and SBS (2) was on 4.2%. Seven now leads the week with 30.4% from Ten on 26.1% and Nine on 21.8%. Main Channels: Ten won with 27.9% from Seven on 20.6%, ABC 1 was on 12,.0%, Nine was on 11.9% and SBS ONE ended on 3.8%. Seven leads the week with 23.6% from Ten on 20.7% and Nine on 15.5%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with 4.3% from 7mate on 3.4%, ABC 2 was on 3.3%, GO was on 3.2%, Eleven was on 3.0%, Gem ended on 2.2%, ONE was on 1.9%, ABC 3 and News 24 ended with 1.0% each and SBS TWO finished on 0.5%. The 10 digital channels had a moderate FTA share last night of 23.8%. GO still leads the week with 3.7% from 7TWO on 3.6% and 7mate on 3.2%.

Metro including Pay TV: Ten (3 channels) won with a share of 27.4% from Seven (3) on 23.6%, Nine (3) was on 14.4%, the ABC (4) ended on 14.3% and SBS (2) was on 3.5%. The 200 channels of Pay TV had a combined total of 14.1%. The 15 FTA channels share was 85.9%, with 19.7% for the 10 digital channels and 66.2% for the five main channels.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (3.4%)
TV 1 (2.4%)
LifeStyle (2.3%)
Fox Classics & 111 Hits (1.5%)
Sky News (1.4%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 93,000
Location, Location, Location Australia (LifeStyle) — 83,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 73,000
Coronation Street (UKTV) — 67,000
AFL: AFL 360 (Fox Footy) — 64,000

Regional: MasterChef‘s success wasn’t enough to lift ten to victory last night, although it won the demos. Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won the night with a share of 33.5%, from SC Ten (3) on 27.2%, WIN/NBN (3) was on 19.4%, the ABC (4) ended on 15.3% and SBS (2) was on 4.2%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 23.9% from SC Ten on 21.0%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.4%, from 7mate on 4.1% and Eleven with 3.9%. The 10 digital channels had a highish FTA share last night of 29.3%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.5% from WIN/NBN on 24.6%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

MasterChef (winner announced) — 726,000
Seven News — 627,000
MasterChef — 605,000
Australia’s Got Talent — 581,000
Mrs Brown’s Boys — 579,000

Major Metro Markets: Nine was squeezed by Ten and Seven. Ten won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, overall and the main channels. In Adelaide and Perth, Seven won overall, but Ten won the main channels, so a clean sweep. The ABC finished third overall in Adelaide and Perth. ABC 1 was third in the main channels in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth as Nine faded away. 7TWO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. GO won Perth. Seven leads the week from Ten and Nine in all five metro markets.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports