The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night again, thanks to The X Factor. Ten failed to make it into third for the first Tuesday night in several weeks because it slipped in repeats of NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles (at 8.30 and 9.30pm) instead of the fast-tracked fresh episodes, and paid the price. The ABC was therefore third behind Nine. Seven again had a bigger win in regional markets than in metro markets with The X Factor and Winners & Losers. Seven dominated the major demos as well.

The X Factor again had more than 1.4 million metro and over 2.1 million national viewers. The fresh episode of The Big Bang Theory had more than 1.2 million metro and nearly 1.6 million national viewers for the best figures for the new season. Seven’s Winners & Losers followed The X Factor and won the slot for the network from 8.40pm with more than 1.1 million metro and over 1.6 million national viewers.

In fact the top three programs in metro markets and nationally were in the mid-evening, showing that there were things that kept viewers watching in solid numbers past the 6 to 7pm news and current affairs hour. Over three million people were watching Seven and Nine nationally from 8.30 to 9pm.

While Today Tonight had 94,000 more metro viewers than A Current Affair, nationally the position was reversed with the Nine show adding more than half a million regional viewers to give it over 1.4 million viewers, while TT could only add 213,000 viewers in regional markets for 1.195 million nationally.

ABC1’s Foreign Correspondent made a welcome return last night with 589,000 metro and 899,000 national viewers. And I forgot to say what a solid episode Australian Story was on Monday night; it deserved its high rating from viewers with a look at the life of film maker/lawyer/watch dealer, Ben Lewin. Watch for his movie, The Sessions, looks good. Both programs reinforce the strength of ABC long form story telling.

Tonight: The final Gruen Planet for the year on ABC plus another episode of the improving Hamster Wheel. Seven has another Surveillance Oz. Nine has Big Brother and Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, which is not good TV at all. Ten returns Glee at 7.30pm. After the slump in the previous season, it had better perk up or the downloading gang will be claiming another win (Australian viewers in the 16 to 49 demos have gone right off Glee). The Good Wife is on at 8.30pm. Unfortunately it is suffering from viewer familiarity and LA Law disease in that all the various plot lines for a law firm drama are exposed to the audience in the first two or three series and audiences know that. (Nasty scheming male/female partners, rivals, lovers. Gay lawyers, disadvantaged lawyers, corruption, takeover, mergers, insider trading, you name it, it happens). But The Good Wife is still a good series. I can’t say anything about Emily Owens MD which debuts on Ten after TGW at 9.30pm. But from the synopsis it sounds like a cross between Scrubs, Ben Casey and Grey’s Anatomy, so be cautious.

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

  1. The X Factor (Seven) — 2.194 million.
  2. Winners & Losers (Seven) — 1.657 million.
  3. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.598 million.
  4. Seven News — 1.578 million.
  5. Nine News — 1.502 million.
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.413 million.
  7. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.403 million.
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.392 million.
  9. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.240 million.
  10. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.195 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. The X Factor (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.441 million.
  2. The Big Bang Theory (Nine, 8.30pm — 1.204 million.
  3. Winners & Losers (Seven, 8.40pm) — 1.114 million.
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.097 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.030 million.
  6. Nine News (6pm) — 1 million.

The Losers: Ten, the NCIS repeat wasn’t liked by the audience after two fresh epispdes. NCIS Los Angeles on Ten at 9.30pm was also a repeat and had 450,000 metro viewers and 659,000 nationally. Not good. That was after I Will Survive ended its poor season with just 321,000 metro and 455,000 national viewers at 7.30pm.Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne, but Seven News had big wins in Brisbane, Adelaide and especially Perth. A Current Affair won Sydney and Melbourne, but like the news, Today Tonight had solid wins in the three other metro markets, especially Perth.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.097 million.
  2. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.030 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 982,000.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 888,000.
  6. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 702,000.
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 596,000.
  8. Foreign Correspondent (ABC1, 8pm) — 589,000.
  9. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 528,000.
  10. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 348,000.
  11. Insight (SBS ONE, 8.30pm) — 211,000.
  12. Lateline (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 184,000.
  13. Ten late News (10.30pm) — 179,000.
  14. Dateline (SBS ONE, 9.30pm) — 157,000.
  15. SBS News (6.30pm) — 148,000.
  16. The Business (ABC1, 11.05pm, repeat) — 120,000.
  17. SBS late News (10.30pm) — 86,000.
  18. The Drum (News 24, 10pm, repeat) — 35,000.

In the morning:Today’s turn to win, Ten’s Breakfast edged up, again.

  1. Today (Nine, 7am) — 360,000.
  2. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 353,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 158,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 128,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 53,000 + 26,000 on News 24.
  6. Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 47,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 32.4%, from Nine (3) on 28.7%, the ABC (4) was on 17.5%, just in front of Ten (3) on 17.3% and SBS (2) on 6.2%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 15.3% from Nine on 20.8%, ABC 1 on 12.7%, Ten was on 11.7% and SBS One was on 4.6%. Seven leads the week with 23.3%, from Nine on 21.1%, ABC1 on 14.6% and Ten on 11.9%

Metro Digital: A fairly close night with 7TWO winning with a share of 3.6%, from 7mate on 3.4%, Eleven on 3.0%, GO and Gem on 2.9% each, ABC 2 on 2.8% and ONE on 2.7%. SBS TWO was on 1.6%, ABC 3 1.1% and News 24 ended on 0.9%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 24.9%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.0%, from GO on 3.6%, 7mate on 3.2% and Gem on 3.1%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 27.2%, from Nine (3) on 22.4%, the ABC (4) was on 14.7%, Ten (3) was on 14.5% and SBS (2) on 5.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 85.9%. The 10 digital channels share totalled 20.9%, the five main channels share was 65.0%. The 200 plus channels on the Foxtel platform gave Pay TV a total share last night of 14.1%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox 8 — 3.2%.
  2. TV1 — 2.6%.
  3. Fox Classics — 2.2%.
  4. LifeStyle — 1.8%.
  5. A&E — 1.7%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. The Walking Dead (Fx) — 76,000.
  2. Pawn Stars (A&E) — 74,000.
  3. Total Drama World Tour (Cartoon) — 60,000.
  4. Storage Wars (A&E) — 59,000.
  5. The Simpsons (Fox 8 ) — 54,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 35.6%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 24.7%, the ABC (4) was on 17.2%, just in front of SC Ten (3) on 16.7% and SBS (2) on 5.7%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 26.1%, from WIN/NBN on 18.1%, ABC1 was on 11.7% and SC Ten ended on 11.2%. 7mate won the digitals with 4.9%, from 7TWO on 4.6% and Gem with 3.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 28.6%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 34.2%, from WIN/NBN on 26.0%, the ABC is on 19.0% and SC Ten is on 16.4%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. The X Factor — 753,000.
  2. Winners & Losers — 543,000.
  3. A Current Affair— 526,000.
  4. Nine News — 502,000.
  5. Seven News — 479,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven won everywhere overall, and in four of the five markets in the main channels (Melbourne saw Nine win the main channels). The ABC and ABC1 were third everywhere bar Melbourne where Ten was third overall and in the main channels. 7TWO won Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. 7mate won Sydney, and ABC 2 won Brisbane. Nine leads the week in Melbourne, Seven leads in the four other markets. The ABC is third in Sydney, Melbourne Brisbane (sharing third with Ten) and Adelaide. In Perth its the ABC second and Nine third.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data