The Glenn Dyer breakdown: The Footy Show (AFL grand final ep) in particular powered Nine to a big win last night, with some assistance in Sydney and Brisbane from the NRL version. A total of 1.108 million metro viewers watched the program in the five metro markets. But it didn’t do so well in the regions, finishing sixth and failing to push WIN (through WIN/NB) to the night’s win. As a result, the total national audience of well above 1.4 million ended up fourth on the most-watched list across the country last night.

While the AFL show in Melbourne was watched by a country-topping 522,000 people, the NRL version could only attract 242,000 (13th in Sydney) and 128,000 in Brisbane (14th). The AFL program topped Adelaide with 119,000 viewers, but in Perth it could only manager equal ninth (with Nine News) on 97,000.  But the NRL version couldn’t win Brisbane for Nine last night (Seven got up) and the AFL version of the show failed to sway Perth away from watching Seven. Interestingly, the NRL show was more popular in Melbourne from about 10.30 with 127,000 viewers (Melbourne Storm country) than in Sydney where the AFL version was only watched by 80,000. That’s despite the Swans being in the grand final.

Nine News beat Seven News nationally with the big driver a huge thrashing in Melbourne where Nine had a 154,000 margin over Seven (396,000 to 242,000). When will the changes being made in Seven News in Melbourne by Simon Pristel start worrying management in Sydney?

Jennifer Byrne’s interview with JK Rowling, (Australia’s biggest free TV plug for a writer) attracted 823,000 viewers (and 1.13 million nationally) on ABC 1 at 8pm. That will be more viewers than buyers of the book, but should help sales of Rowling’s first effort at adult fiction.

Seven’s special ep of The X Factor with One Direction (Boy Bland!) failed to have any bang, it averaged 691,000 for the hour from 7.30pm in metro states, which left it well down the most-watched list in metro markets. It did better in regional audiences finishing fifth and boosting its national audience to just over 1.1 million. But the audience was 300,000 or so less than what Seven was getting when the hour was split the week before with Better Homes and Gardens showing in AFL states and Spakfilla shows in NRL states.

Tonight: Better Homes and Gardens back to its normal night on Seven. Big Brother on Nine and not much else. The Game Plan footy shows on Ten. Scott and Bailey on ABC 1. That’s after a repeat of Miranda at 8 o’clock (and have you spotted Miranda in Call The Midwife on Sunday nights? Quite a different role).

Saturday: The Festival of The Boot part one: the AFL grand final (watch Seven from 9am. The bounce is about 2.30pm). Inspector Morse on 7TWO about 8.45pm, Dr Who on ABC 1. Nine has movies, Ten has movies after a special looking at how the movie Jaws “changed the world”. Boardwalk Empire starts on SBS at 9.30pm with a second ep at 10.50pm.

Sunday: Morning chats, and then the Festival of The Boot part two with Nine’s coverage starting at noon and the NRL grand final starting about 5pm, ending at 7.30pm or so in time for 60 Minutes. (that’s assuming it’s not a draw) and then House Husbands. Seven has Sunday Night, Border Security and then a new series at 8.30pm called Strike Back. Ten has nothing at all. Well, maybe the Moto GP at 9.30pm for two-wheeler revheads. SBS has the first part of two of a doco that looks at the human genetic code.

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

  1. Nine News  — 1.578 million.
  2. Seven News — 1.573 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.517 million.
  4. The Footy Show (Nine) — 1.477 million.
  5. 7pm ABC 1 News — 1.372 million.
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.306 million.
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.165 million.
  8. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 1.167 million.
  9. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.1388 million.
  10. Jennifer Byrne interviews JK Rowling (ABC 1) — 1.133 million.

The metro winners:

  1. The Footy Show (Nine, 8.30pm-ish) — 1.108 million.
  2. Nine 6pm News — 1.102 million.
  3. Seven 6pm News — 1.068 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.023 million.

The losers: Ten. Seven News in Melbourne.

Metro news and current affairs: Although Nine only won Sydney and Melbourne, the margins were more than enough to top the big margin Seven had in Perth. Brisbane and Adelaide saw close wins to Seven. ACA beat TT for the same reason.

  1. Nine 6pm News — 1.102 million.
  2. Seven 6pm News — 1.068 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.023 million .
  4. 7pm ABC 1 News — 999,000.
  5. Today Tonight (Seven 6.30pm) — 944,000.
  6. 7.30 (ABC 1, 7.30pm) — 810,000.
  7. Ten News At Five (Ten, 5pm) — 475,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 383,000.
  9. Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 155,000.
  10. World News Australia (SBS ONE, 6.30pm) –130,000.
  11. Lateline (ABC 1, 10.30pm) — 128,000.
  12. The Business (ABC 1, 11.05pm, rpt) — 110,000.
  13.  World News Late (SBS ONE, 10.30pm) — 75,000
  14. The drum (News 24, 10 – 10.45 rpt) — 32,000

In the morning: Sunrise had another solid win over Today, which isn’t having a good holiday. Strange.

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 376,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 308,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 184,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 122,000.
  5. News Breakfast    38,000 + 24,000 on News 24*.
  6. Breakfast (Ten) — 39,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 33.3%, from Seven (3) on 27.9%, the ABC (4) was on 17.7%, Ten (3) was 4th on 16.4% and SBS (2) ended on 4.7%. Seven leads the week with 32.9% from Nine on 27.2%, the ABC on 18.3% and Ten on 16/7%.

Main channels: Nine won with a share of 26.9%, from Seven on 18.8%, ABC 1 on 13.4%, Ten on 9.6% and SBS ONE on 4.1%. Seven leads the week with 24.9% from Nine on 21.2%, ABC 1 on 14.2% and Ten on 10.5%.

Metro digital: 7TWO won easily with a share of 5.6%, from Eleven on 4.3%, 7mate on 3.4%, GO on 3.3%, Gen was on 3.1%. ONE ended on 2.5%, ABC 2, 2.4%, News 24, 1.0%, ABC 3, 0.9% and SBS TWO was on 0.5%. The 10 digitals channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 27.0%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.5%, from 7mate on 3.5% and GO and Eleven on 3.4% each.

Metro including pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 27.4%, from Seven (3) on 22.9%, the ABC (4) was on 14.6%, Ten (3) was 4th on 13.5% and SBS (2) ended on 3.9%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of 84.4%. The 10 digitals share totalled 22.5%, the five main channels 61.9%. Pay TV’s share was 15.6% based on the 200-plus channels on the Foxtel platform.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox 8 — 3.0%
  2. LifeStyle — 2.6%.
  3. TV 1 — 2.2%.
  4. Fox Sports 3 — 2.1%.
  5. Cartoon Network — 1.8%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. The Simpsons (F8) — 96,000.
  2. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 82,000.
  3. Pawn Stars (A&E) — 80,000.
  4. Storage Wars (A&E) — 79,000.
  5. Family Guy (F8) — 76,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3) won with a share of 34.9%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 29.1%, the ABC (4) was on 16.3%, SC Ten (3) was 4th on 14.6% and SBS (2) ended on 5.1%. In the main channels it was much closer with Prime/7Qld on 22.3% from WIN/NB on 22.1%. ABC 1 was third with 11.3% and SC Ten was on a weak 7.3%. In the digitals 7TWO won again with 7.5% from 7mate on 5.6% and Eleven on 4.0%. the 10 digital channels had a very high FTA share last night of 32.3%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 36.8% from WIN/NBN on 25.4%, ABC 1 was on 17.6% and SC Ten is on 15.2%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Seven News — 506,000.
  2. ACA — 495,000.
  3. Nine News — 476,000.
  4. Home and Away — 445,000.
  5. The X Factor — 418,000.

Major metro markets: Nine won (overall and the main channels) in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Seven won both in Brisbane and Perth. Ten was third overall in Brisbane and Perth. The ABC was third (overall) elsewhere and third everywhere in the main channels with ABC 1. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Eleven won Perth. Seven leads Nine and the ABC on Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. in Brisbane and Perth its Seven from Nine and Ten.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data.