TV ratings: Big Brother makes the difference for Nine

Last night was close; Seven won All People and the main channels, but Nine did well in the demos thanks to Big Brother.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Last night was close; Seven won All People and the main channels, but Nine did well in the demos thanks to Big Brother, which again struggled to top the million viewer mark in metro area for an eviction episode. We had an unusually high 11 programs in metro markets with a million or more viewers, so the audience didn’t lack for choice last night and took it. Only Ten missed out, but that’s not new news these days, is it?

Nationally, Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but Seven was boosted by big wins in Adelaide and Perth, which don’t care for Big Brother, or House Husbands. Big Brother was also on the nose in regional markets as viewers and didn’t make the national top 10 programs.

Apart from the east coast, viewers surprised a bit last night in the way they turned off Nine in a big, big way. Looking at last night’s figures, Nine was really a three metro market network and weak in Adelaide and Perth and extremely weak in regional markets. That’s not a good look for all those high-powered bankers and others talking today about the network’s future. Ten was also very weak in all markets, especially in the regions.

60 Minutes was most watched in the metro markets with Sunday Night second, but nationally it was Sunday Night’s night with more than 2.4 million viewers, 60 Minutes had nearly 2.3 million, big figures for programs that are old in that they have tried-and-true current affairs formats (and Chris Bath on Sunday Night insists on leaning into the camera).

House Husbands though retained its opening audience and averaged a solid 1.255 million last night in metro markets and more than 1.7 million nationally. (The Julia Morris haranguing of Garry Sweet while on her knees and he was searching for something, would have rung quite a few bells in quite a few homes, I’d say. That’s reality TV (even though its fiction), not the confected tripe on Big Brother.

Border Security averaged 1.243 million at 7.30 in metro markets for Seven and strong support in the regions boosted its national total to well over 1.8 million.

Tonight: The ABC’s hours and hours of news and current affairs. Seven has The X Factor. Nine has Underbelly (fading) and Big Brother (ditto). Ten has the loser, Don’t tell The Bride, the weak Can of Worms and returns the new series of Hawaii Five 0 to the screen (It was a big loser in its previous season).

Last Week: Seven won the week in the metro and regional markets. Nine won Sydney, Seven won the rest. Seven won the main channels, and the digitals. Seven also had a big win (again) in the regions with the driver everywhere The X Factor. The ABC was again third and Ten was back in fourth. Seven won Friday and Saturday nights because the AFL finals gave it wins in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth while the NRL finals saw Nine won Sydney and Brisbane. Pay TV ran second nationally on Saturday night behind Seven and in front of Nine with the NRL finals.

Footy finals update: The second week of finals saw solid audience figures for the two AFL and two NRL games. But the co-broadcasting of the AFL on Foxtel again underlined the boost the AFL has compared to the NRL. The AFL final on Friday between Adelaide and Fremantle averaged 1.292 million when the main and digital channels in metro and regional markets are added up. The pay TV audience was 394,000 , for a total of 1.686 million.

The Friday night NRL final between Manly and North Queensland averaged 1.655 million viewers on the main channel and Gem in metro and regional markets. The AFL final, thanks to the pay TV audience, had more viewers, just.

Saturday night’s AFL game between Collingwood and West Coast averaged 1.435 million on all channels across the country, plus the Fox Footy audience of 424,000, for a total of. 1.857 million, and was therefore the most-watched game of the weekend.

The NRL final between South Sydney and Canberra on Saturday night averaged 1.293 million on all channels and in all markets.

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

Sunday Night (Seven) — 2.401 million.
60 Minutes (Nine) — 2.297 million.
Seven News — 2.006 million.
Border Security (Seven) — 1.823 million.
House Husbands (Nine) — 1.763 million.
Air Ways (Seven) — 1.749 million.
Nine News — 1.678 million.
Mrs Brown’s Boys (Seven) — 1.545 million.
Kevin’s Grand Design (ABC 1) — 1.527 million.
Call The Midwife (ABC 1) — 1.444 million.

The metro winners:

60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.658 million.
Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.552 million.
Seven News (6pm) — 1.362 million.
House Husbands (Nine, 8.30pm) — 1.255 million.
Border Security (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.243 million.
Nine News (6pm) — 1.234 million.
Air Ways (Seven, 8pm) — 1.196 million.
Kevin’s Grand Design (ABC 1, 7.30pm) — 1.038 million.
Mrs Brown’s Boys (Seven, 8.30pm) — 1.030 million.
Big Brother live eviction (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.020 million.
Call the Midwife (ABC 1, 8.30pm) — 1.018 million.

The losers:

Metro News & CA: With the NRL season all but over (except for the Sunday Grand Final) Nine’s 5pm News went back to a national broadcast. It’s called “First At Five”. Last night, it wasn’t, it was a distant second behind Ten’s News at 5pm. At 6pm Seven news won Sydney, lost Melbourne, and won Brisbane (87,000) and Perth (108,000) by big margins. Nine won Melbourne by 110,000 viewers.

60 Minutes (Nine, 7.30pm) — 1.658 million.
Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.552 million.
Seven News (6pm) — 1.362 million.
Nine News (6pm) — 1.234 million.
ABC1 News (7pm) — 940,000.
Ten News (5pm) — 506,000.
The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 375,000.
Nine News (5pm) — 371,000.
SBS News (6.30pm) — 178,000

In the morning: The morning chit-chat battle between Nine and Ten was extra close yesterday morning. Inside Business on ABC 1 at 10 o’clock dropped to 106,000. Very low. Insiders at 9 o’clock also saw low figures.

Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 318,000.
Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 315,000.
Landline (ABC 1, noon) — 187,000.
The Bolt Report repeat (Ten, 4.30pm) — 160,000.
Insiders (ABC 1, 9am) — 147,000 + on 62,000 News 24.*
The Bolt Report (Ten, 10am) — 118,000.
Offsiders (ABC 1, 10.30am) — 117,000.
Inside Business (ABC 1, 10am) — 106,000.
Meet the Press (Ten, 10.30am) — 84,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 31.4% from Nine (three) on 30.1%, the ABC (four) was on 20.1% and Ten (three) was a distant fourth with 13.9%. SBS (two) finished with 4.4%.

Main channels: Seven won narrowly with 24.1% from Nine on 23.9%, ABC 1 on 16.2%, Ten on a very low 9.8% and SBS ONE on 4.1%.

Metro digital: 7mate won with 4.5% from GO on 3.6%, 7TWO on 2.8%, Gem on 2.6%, Eleven on 2.5%, ABC 2, 2.2%, ONE was on 1.6%, News 24 and ABC 3, 0.8% each and SBS was down on 0.3%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 22.7%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 26.2% from Nine (three) on 25.2%, the ABC (four) was on 16.8%, Ten (three) was fourth with 11.6%. SBS (two) finished with 3.7%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 85.7%. The five main channels totalled 67.4%, the 10 digitals totalled 18.3%. Pay TV had a total share last night for the 200-plus channels on Foxtel on 14.3%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 — 2.7%
TV1 — 2.6%
Showtime premiere — 2.2%.
LifeStyle — 2.1%.
A&E — 1.9

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were: The four eps of The Simpsons were all in the morning and not in prime time.

Rise if Planet of the Apes (Showtime premiere) — 104,000.
The Simpsons (F8) — 79,000.
The Simpsons (F8) — 75,000.
The Simpsons (F8) — 69,000.
The Simpsons (F8) — 68,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 36.0%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 27.7%. The ABC (four) ended on 19.7%, SC Ten (three) was a weak fourth with 12.1% and SBS (two) was on 4.5%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 26.9%, from WIN/NBN on 20.1%, ABC 1 was on 15.1% and SC Ten ended on just 8.1%. The digitals were won by 7mate with 5.2%, Go was second with 4.2% and 7TWO was on 3.8%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 25.8%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Sunday Night — 849,000.
Seven News — 644,000.
60 Minutes — 639,000.
Border Security — 579,000.
Mrs Brown’s Boys — 516,000.

Major metro markets: Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane overall and the main channels. Seven won Adelaide and Perth by large margins. The ABC and ABC 1 were third everywhere as Nine had a very weak night … (9.8% for the main channel in the five metro markets). The digitals were mixed: 7mate won Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, Go won Melbourne and Adelaide.

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

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports