The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Ignore the Games and look at other ratings from last night. There’s a great story to be told. Thanks to the Olympics on Nine and Foxtel, and RSPCA Animal Rescue on Seven, The Shire could only interest 375,000 metro viewers and 492,000 nationally last night on Ten at 8 o’clock. That’s 12,000 fewer than the metro audience that watched Being Lara Bingle (a similar, solipsist program) fade to black on Tuesday night. Well done TV viewers of Australia, and a double black eye for Ten’s management team, from chairman Lachlan Murdoch, to CEO, James Warburton and head programmer David Mott who thought they could feed Australian TV viewers a double dose of pap.

Now back to the set: Nine and Foxtel had another good night with the London Games. End of story. ABC1’s Gruen Sweat was solid and had the best episode so far (in my opinion) at 8.30. The “stop funding Olympics athletes” Pitch segment was excellent. It had 794,000 metro viewers and 1.114 million nationally. Criminal Minds on Seven averaged 757,000 metro and 1.099 million nationally. Home and Away held up (showing Ten how to hold a young audience) with 898,000 metro and 1.327 million national viewers. Ten’s MasterChef Allstars hung in again with 745,000 metro and 1.008 million national viewers.

Games Update: Sally Pearson’s 100 metres hurdles final yesterday had about 643,000 metro viewers at 6am and 280,000 in regional markets, for more than 920,000 nationally. The Morning audience (6-9am) averaged 1.077 million as thousands of people tuned in from 6.15am onwards after they awoke to hear of Pearson’s win and that of Anna Meares. Nine’s coverage averaged a very solid 2.405 million nationally, and 1.631 million in metro markets.

Tonight: Games on Nine and Foxtel. Mrs Brown’s Boys for those looking for something less sporty. Seven has the usual split line-up between AFL (Better Homes and Gardens) and rugby league (repeats of Border Security). Grey’s Anatomy’s final episode of this series screens tonight. Ten has MasterChef Allstars. The ABC has a repeat of Midsomer Murders at 8.30 (Not another “haunted wood” murder. How many more are there?). SBS has a bit of cooking — the third and final ep of Sicily Unpacked program at 7.30 is the highlight.

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

  1. The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) — 2.550 million.
  2. The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) — 2.361 million.
  3. Seven News — 1.915 million.
  4. Nine News — 1.900 million.
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.327 million.
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.286 million.
  7. ABC News — 1.129 million.
  8. Gruen Sweat (ABC1) — 1.114 million.
  9. Criminal Minds (Seven) — 1.099 million.
  10. RSPCA Animal Rescue (Seven) — 1.086 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) — 1.695 million.
  2. The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) — 1.567 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.272 million.
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.256 million.
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.043 million.

The Losers: Ten management for The Shire. Randling, 372,000 from 9.15pm after Gruen Sweat had averaged a decent 794,000 in the face of the Games on Nine.

Metro News & CA: A Current Affair was again pre-empted in some metro and regional markets by the games.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.272 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.256 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.043 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 816,000.
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 788,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 743,000.
  7. The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 558,000.
  8. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 516,000.
  9. The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 402,000.
  10. Lateline (ABC1) (10.50pm) — 136,000.
  11. Ten late News (10.30pm) — 130,000.
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 130,000.
  13. The Business (ABC1) (11.25pm) — 85,000.
  14. SBS late News (10.30pm) — 58,000.
  15. The Drum (News 24) (10pm, repeat) — 32,000

In the morning: Today and Mornings were pre-empted by Nine’s Games coverage.

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 376,000.
  2. The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 145,000.
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) (6am) — 45,000 + 25,000 on News 24.
  4. Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 33,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Nine (3) won with a share of 40.8%, from Seven (3) on 25.9%, with the ABC (4) third with on 15.1%. Ten was 4th on 14.6% and SBS (2) was on 3.6%. Nine leads the week with 40.8%, from Seven on 23.9% and Ten on 16.3%. Main Channels: Nine won with 37.3%, from Seven on 17.6%, ABC 1 was third with 11.1%, Ten was on 9.8% and SBS ended with 3.1%. Nine leads the week with 37.5% from Seven on 17.1% and Ten with 11.3%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.6%, from 7mate on 3.7%, GO was on 3.0%. Eleven ended on 2.9%, ABC 2 was on 2.6%, ONE ended on 1.9%, ABC 3 was on 0.8%, News 24 was on 0.7% and SBS TWO ended on 0.5%, the same as Gem. the 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 21.0%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.4%, from GO on 2.9% and 7mate on 2.8%.

Metro including Pay TV: Nine (3) won with a share of 31.9%, from Seven (3) on 20.3%, with the ABC (4) on 11.8%, Ten was fourth with (4) on 11.4% and SBS (2) on 2.8%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of 80.3%. The five main channels share was 63.8%, the 10 digital channels share was 16.5%. Pay TV had another solid night thanks to the eight Games channels of Foxtel (In the Other Subscription Channels group). The share was 19.7% for the 200-plus channels.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Other Subscription Channels, 25.1%.
  2. Fox 8 — 2.8%.
  3. TV1 – 1.8%.
  4. LifeStyle — 1.4%
  5. Crime & Investigation — 1.1%.

Regional: WIN/NBN (3) won with a share of 42.5%, from Prime/7Qld (3) on 27.5%, The ABC (4) was on 13.5%, SC Ten (3) was on 12.2%, and SBS (2) ended with 4.4%. WIN/NBN with 38.8% won the main channels of course from Prime/7Qld with 17.6%, ABC 1 was on 9.5% and SC Ten, 7.6%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.8% from 7mate on 4.0% and GO on 3.2%. The 10 digital channels had a share last night of 22.8%. WIN/NBN leads the week with 41.8% from Prime/7Qld on 25.7%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. The Olympic Games (evening) (Nine) — 831,000.
  2. The Olympic Games (early evening) (Nine) — 818,000.
  3. Seven News — 559,000.
  4. Nine News — 629,000.
  5. WIN News — 462,000.

Major metro markets: Nine had another clean sweep, both overall and the main channels, as was expected. But the the ABC and ABC1 pushed Ten to fourth in Sydney and Melbourne. In Perth ABC1 was third and in Perth, Ten and ABC1 shared third spot. Ten was third in Adelaide and overall in Brisbane and Perth. 7TWO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Meanwhile, 7mate won Brisbane and Perth. Nine leads the week everywhere.

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