The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night, easily with another solid audience for The X Factor’s first live ep. Nine’s Underbelly and part of Big Brother regained the million metro viewer level, but the BB eviction nominations fell under the million mark as the core audience in metro markets lost interest. They have seen it all before and know the only time to watch is the first and last eps of a program that is as predictable as BB.

The X Factor had more than 1.5 million metro and well over 2.3 million national viewers. It helped Seven to a big win everywhere except Melbourne where local viewers confirm they like Big Brother. But then they also like the The Footy Show (AFL) on Nine as well. BB and Underbelly are certainly on the nose in Adelaide, Perth and regional markets.

The regular BB had 1.006 million metro viewers. The live nominations fell to 961,000 metro viewers. The nominations weren’t broken out in regional markets and the program as a whole had a total national audience of 1.321 million. That was more than 200,000 behind Seven’s Home and Away, which averaged 1.030 million metro and 1.544 million nationally and was a clear winner.

Ten was again very weak. Seven’s GCB at 9.30pm (or rather, after the live ep of The X Factor finished) had a nominal 975,000 viewers and 1.457 million nationally.

A Current Affair “exposed” a Twitter troll last night and gave him the very thing that he craves: national coverage and publicity. ACA should join Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, which went all troll last week in the dumb corner. Media Watch last night exposed the Tele’s campaign for the sham it was. ACA’s was in the same boat. Trolls want publicity and it bolsters their egos when they get it. Nice one ACA and Tracy Grimshaw. Don’t they read the ACMA guidelines on dealing with trolling and cyber bullying?

Tonight:  The X Factor and Winners & Losers on Seven. Big Brother on Nine and nothing else. Ten has I Will Survive and an NCIS repeat. The ABC has Poh’s Kitchen lending a hand and Rick Stein in Spain (after getting over his dose of the blues last week). SBS has Insight and Dateline on ONE.

London updates: Good news for the Seven Network from the UK;  there’s new life it seems in the new series of three of its current ratings mainstays, Downton Abbey, The X Factor and Dancing With The Stars. The third series of Downton Abbey returned to ITV on Sunday night and managed an impressive 9 million viewers (actual and same night catch up). That was a 36% share of the audience watching at the time across the UK. The audience for the 90 minute first ep (Shirley McClaine and THAT wedding) was the same as the first ep of series two a year ago.

The UK versions of The X Factor (ITV) and Dancing With The Stars (called by its original name, Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC) also did well at the weekend. The X Factor was the lead in for Downton and averaged just 9.7 million viewers on the night, the best for the current season, but down on the 11.5 million who tuned in a year ago.

And, with British Olympic stars Victoria Pendleton and Louis Smith making their debuts, Strictly Come Dancing averaged eight million viewers, for a 40% audience share (at 6.30pm last Saturday). The X Factor’s Saturday ep averaged 9 million (it started later at 8.10pm) and had a 39.5% audience share. That was down from the 10 million for the same night a year ago, though. Strictly Come Dancing though opened higher this year than the 7.6 million for the first ep in the 2011 series on the same weekend last year.

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

  1. The X Factor (Seven) — 2.363 million.
  2. Seven News — 1.968 million.
  3. Nine News — 1.819 million.
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.544 million.
  5. 7pm ABC 1 News — 1.536 million.
  6. GCB (Seven) — 1.457 million.
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.404 million.
  8. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.392 million.
  9. Underbelly (Nine) — 1.365 million.
  10. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.321 million.

The metro winners:

  1. The X Factor (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.593 million.
  2. Seven 6pm News — 1.343 million.
  3. Nine 6pm News — 1.257 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.193 million.
  5. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.141 million.
  6. 7pm ABC 1 News — 1.093 million.
  7. Home and Away (Seven, 7pm) — 1.030 million.
  8. Underbelly (Nine, 8.30pm) — 1.013 million.
  9. Big Brother (Nine, 7pm-ish) — 1.006 million.

The losers: Ten, like a broken record, as weak as Sunday night. Can of Worms at 8.30pm on Ten, 494,000 metro and 671,000 national viewers. Fading, fading … Don’t Tell The Bride at 7.30pm, 483,000 metro viewers and 658,000 nationally.

Metro news & CA: Nine News and ACA won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in a strong showing. Seven and TT won Adelaide and Perth.

  1. Seven 6pm News — 1.343 million.
  2. Nine 6pm News — 1.257 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.193 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.141 million.
  5. 7pm ABC 1 News — 1.093 million.
  6. 7.30 (ABC 1, 7.30pm) — 870,000.
  7. Australian Story (ABC 1, 8pm) — 817,000.
  8. Ten News At Five (Ten, 5pm) — 721,000.
  9. Q&A (ABC 1, 9.35pm) — 611,000 + 85,000 on News 24*.
  10. Media Watch (ABC 1, 9.20pm) — 582,000.
  11. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 572,000.
  12. Four Corners (ABC 1, 8.30pm) — 533,000.
  13. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 460,000.
  14. Lateline (ABC 1, 10.35pm) — 330,000.
  15. World News Australia (SBS ONE, 6.30pm) — 173,000.
  16. The Business (ABC 1, 11.10pm, rpt) — 171,000.
  17. Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 149,000.
  18. World News Late (SBS ONE, 10.30pm) — 42,000.
  19. The Drum (News 24, 10pm, rpt) — 39,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: Today finally got past Sunrise.

  1. Today (Nine, 7am) — 364,000.
  2. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 343,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 170,000
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 120,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC 1, 7am) — 43,000 + 19,000 on News 24*.
  6. Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 38,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 35.6%, from Nine (three) on 27.5%, the ABC (four) was on 18.4%, Ten (three) ended on 14.7% and SBS (two) was on 3.9%. Seven leads the week with 33.5% from Nine on 28.8%, the ABC with 19.2% and Ten on 14.3%.

Main channels: Seven won with a share of 27.5% from Nine on 21.4%, ABC 1 was on 13.7%, Ten was on 9.9% and SBS ONE ended on 3.3%. Seven leads the week with 25.8% from Nine on 22.7%, ABC 1 on 14.9% and Ten on 9.9%.

Metro digital: 7TWO won with a share of 5.1%, from GO on 3.7%, 7mate was on 3.0%, Eleven and ABC 2 were on 2.7% each, gem ended with 2.4%, ONE was on 2.2%, News 24 was on 1.2%, ABC 3 was on 0.8% and SBS TWO ended on 0.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 24.4%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.9% from 7mate on 3.8% and GO on 3.6%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 30.1%, from Nine (three) on 23.2%, the ABC (four) was on 16.2%, Ten (three) ended on 12.5% and SBS (two) was on 3.3%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share of 86.8% with the 10 digitals share totalling 20.6% and the five main channels share of 66.2%. The 200-plus channels of Foxtel have pay TV a share of 13.2% last night.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox 8 — 2.8%
  2. TV1 — 2.4%.
  3. LifeStyle — 1.9%
  4. UKTV, Fox Footy — 1.6%.
  5. LifeStyle Food, LifeStyle You — 1.5%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. AFL: All-Australian Awards (Fox Footy) — 136,000.
  2. AFL: On The Couch (FF) — 113,000.
  3. New Tricks (UKTV) — 100,000.
  4. The Simpsons (F8) — 96,000.
  5. Family Guy (F8) — 88,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 39.2%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 25.9%, the ABC (four) was on 17.8%, SC Ten (three) ended on 13.3% and SBS (two) was on 3.9%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 29.8% from WIN/NBN on 18.7%, ABC 1, on 12.7% and SC Ten on 8.5%. 7TWO won the digital channels with 6.5%, from GO on 4.2% and Gem on 2.9%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 26.8%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 37.5% from WIN/NBN on 26.8%, the ABC on 13.9% and SC Ten on 8.3%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. The X Factor — 773,000.
  2. Seven News — 624,000.
  3. Nine News — 551,000.
  4. Home and Away — 513,000.
  5. GCB — 483,000.

Major metro markets: Nine won Melbourne (overall) and shared the main channels with Seven as the News, ACA and Big Brother all rating strongly. Elsewhere not so strong and Seven had easy wins in Sydney and Brisbane and huge wins in Adelaide and especially Perth. 7TWO had a clean sweep in the digitals. Nine leads Seven and the ABC in Melbourne, Seven leads Nine and the ABC in the four other metro markets.

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

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports