The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Nine’s night as the gripping final session of the Test cricket delivered the network hundreds of thousands of viewers they would not have normally gotten on a late spring Sunday. That boosted the audience for the 6pm News, then Hamish and Andy and then 60 Minutes.

Seven’s share nationally for programs like Sunday Night and Weekend Today were cut by a telethon in Perth on the local Seven outlet. Despite that, Seven still won Perth by a mile (telethon ended at 8pm local, but the 6pm News still aired and was easily the most watched program in Perth last night with 253,000 viewers). Telethon raised $16.805 million, with all funds raised for the Princess Margaret Hospital and child health research

Hamish and Andy re-wrote the Anzac alliance, especially the one requiring Australian TV stars to make fools of themselves and play nude rugby in deepest Invercargill. Worth the price of admission. Over 1.33 million metro and 1.9 million national viewers agreed with the alliance-busting performance. Will they be so tough on Australia next Sunday?

Nine’s movie straight after 60 Minutes was The Social Network (aka the history of Facebook by the current can-do-no-wrong of broadcast media, Aaron Sorkin). Those credentials meant nothing last night to local viewers. It averaged just 535,000 metro viewers (and 679,000 nationally) from 9pm (that’s a flop in Australian TV terms).

Facebook’s cred is very different now after the botched float and other less-than-flattering news stories this year. Bones on Seven from 8.30pm averaged 930,000 metro and more than 1.4 million national viewers and easily accounted for the movie, as did Devil’s Dust on ABC1 and Homeland on Ten (739,000 and 1.016 million nationally) at 8.30pm.

ABC1’s Devil’s Dust (part two is tonight at 8.30pm) was great TV drama. Sadly 679,000 metro viewers wasn’t enough (1.022 million nationally), but the James Hardie asbestos scandal remains one of the big stories of our time that many in business, the media, trade unions and government (especially the NSW government and public service) resist confronting, even after all these years. Top notch TV.

The last session of the first cricket Test averaged 809,000 regional and more than 1.2 million national viewers. Could someone put a rocket up the South African batsmen? Ten debuted its coverage of rugby union with the Wallabies’ defeat at the hands of France from Paris from 7am yesterday: just 105,000 watched nationally: 86,000 watched on Fox Sports 1. All ho-hum really.

Tonight: A reduced night on the ABC with Four Corners, Media Watch and Q&A absent tonight. Four Corners has taken its usual early departure for the year. The ABC still can’t find the money to allow the program to finish at the end of ratings in two weeks. Australian Story finishes the year tonight as a lead-in for the second part of the excellent Devil’s Dust‘s at 8.30 pm. Why couldn’t the ABC and Q&A management have arranged a special one-off hour long or longer discussion tonight about the story and the lessons from the James Hardie asbestos scandal? Why run a repeat of QI?

At least Q&A is back next week with Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull appearing together as rejects of the year (with RBA board member Heather Ridout and economist Judith Sloan). Media Watch also returns next Monday night. The X Factor continues on Seven tonight, then the weak Castle. The Mentalist is on Nine and Ten has Can of Worms.

Last Week: Seven won, though Nine did well with the last week of Big Brother. But Seven finished the week with big wins on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Ten was just pipped by the ABC and ABC1 in All People but had more viewers in the younger demos, as you’d expect. Seven was again a big winner in regional markets as viewers continued to ignore Nine’s programming, led by Big Brother.

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

  1. Hamish & Andy’s Caravan of Courage: Australia v New Zealand (Nine) — 1.960 million.
  2. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.813 million.
  3. Nine News — 1.756 million.
  4. Seven News — 1.722 million.
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.614 million.
  6. Bones (Seven) — 1.411 million.
  7. Michael Palin’s Brazil (ABC1) — 1.317 million.
  8. Border Security (Seven) — 1.280 million.
  9. First Test — Australia v South Africa (Nine) — 1.277 million.
  10. Air Ways (Seven) — 1.224 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Hamish & Andy’s Caravan of Courage: Australia v New Zealand (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.338 million.
  2. 60 Minutes (Nine, 8pm) — 1.260 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.204 million.
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.196 million.
  5. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.028 million.

The Losers: The Social Network movie on Nine at 9pm. Ten’s 5pm News and The Project. Less than 400,000 viewers. I know the cricket made an impact, along with daylight saving, but those figures could become the norm with the cuts in the news budget another short-sighted decision.Metro News & CA: Nine News won easily, especially in Sydney and Melbourne thanks to the Test cricket. End of story.

  1. 60 Minutes (Nine, 8pm) — 1.260 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.204 million.
  3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.196 million.
  4. Sunday Night (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.028 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 800,000.
  6. Ten News (5pm) — 386,000.
  7. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 320,000
  8. SBS News (6.30pm) — 158,000.

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven, 8am) — 298,000.
  2. Weekend Today (Nine, 8am) — 252,000.
  3. Landline (ABC1, 12pm) — 187,000.
  4. Insiders (ABC1, 9am) — 143,000 + on 60,000 on News 24.
  5. The Bolt Report (Ten, 10am) — 141,000.
  6. The Bolt Report repeat (Ten, 4.30pm) — 129,000.
  7. Inside Business (ABC1, 10am) — 107,000.
  8. Offsiders (ABC1, 10.30am) — 106,000.
  9. Meet the Press (Ten, 10.30am) — 89,000.

Metro FTA: Nine (three) won with a share of 32.4% from Seven (three) on 29.0%, Ten (three) was on 19.3%, the ABC (four) was on 14.8% and SBS (two) ended on 4.5%. Main Channels; An easy win for Nine with 24.1% from Seven with 21.8%, Ten was on 14.9%, ABC1 was on 12.2% and SBS ONE ended with 4.1%.

Metro Digital: GO won with 5.1% from 7TWO on 4.1%, Gem on 3.2%, 7mate was on 3.1%, ONE ended with 2.5%, Eleven was on 1.9%, ABC2, 1.5%, News 24 and ABC3 were on 0.6% each and SBS TWO finished with 0.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 23.1%.

Metro including Pay TV: Nine (three) won with a share of 26.7% from Seven (three) on 23.9%, Ten (three) was on 15.9%, the ABC (four) was on 12.2% and SBS (two) ended on 3.7%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share of 84.9%. The 10 digital channels share was 20.1%, the five main channels had a share of 64.8%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a solid start to the week with a share of 15.1%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox Sports 2 — 3.1%.
  2. TV1 — 3.0%.
  3. Fox8 — 2.0%.
  4. LifeStyle, showtime premiere, A&E, 111 Hits — 1.8%.
  5. LifeStyle Food, Cartoon Net, Fox Classics — 1.4%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Rugby Union: Aust. V France (Fox Sports 1) — 86,000.
  2. Modern Family (Fox8) — 82,000.
  3. A League: Adelaide v Perth (FS1) — 80,000.
  4. NCIS (TV1) — 68,000.
  5. A League: On Sunday (FS1) — 59,000.

Regional: WIN/NBN (three) won with a share of 31.7% from Prime/7Qld (three) on 29.8%, SC Ten (three) was on 17.9%, the ABC (four) was on 16.0% and SBS (two) ended on 4.7%. The main channels were shared by WIN/NBN and Prime/7Qld on 21.1%, with ABC1 on 12.5%, and SC Ten on 12.3%. The digitals were won by GO on 6.7%, with 7TWO on 5.0% and Gem on 3.8%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a high 29.1%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Hamish & Andy’s Caravan of Courage: Australia v New Zealand — 622,000.
  2. Sunday Night — 586,000.
  3. Nine News — 571,000.
  4. 60 Minutes — 543,000.
  5. Seven News — 526,000.

Major Metro Markets: A win for Nine (overall and the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide). In Perth Seven won from Nine and Ten (thanks to the annual Telethon). GO won the digitals in all five metro markets thanks to two good movies (one of which was Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) and repeats of The Big Bang Theory.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data