The Glenn Dyer breakdown: With the results episode of The X Factor, Seven was always going to win and it won big with more people tuning in for the winner and final program, unlike the final episode of Big Brother a few weeks ago when the total audience on Nine in metro and national markets couldn’t reach (let alone top) the audience for the first episode of the 2012 series. The results episode added around half a million viewers from Monday night.

More than 2.1 million (and nearly 2.9 million nationally) viewers watched the winner announced and around 1.87 million metro and 2.78 million national viewers watched the lead up program from 7.30pm. Seven’s Grimm had more than 900,000 metro and 1.4 million national viewers, thanks to the winner announcement of X Factor being the lead-in. It might be a different story next week with X Factor off the schedule.

ABC1’s Foreign Correspondent‘s report on the Mongolian mining boom was again excellent and had echoes here in Australia (with Rio Tinto a central player in both booms). It had nearly 600,000 metro and 893,000 national viewers, which wasn’t bad given the dominance of The X Factor on Seven.

Tonight: A Moody Christmas tonight: watch, watch, watch. And stay with Problems straight after on ABC1 and check the new program out. Nine and Seven are light on tonight in good viewing (The Force looks the best on Seven, nothing on Nine). Ten has Glee and The Good Wife which both deserve a look. SBS One has the silly Monster Bug Wars.

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

  1. The X Factor Winner (Seven) — 2.897 million.
  2. The X Factor (Seven) — 2.786 million.
  3. Seven News — 1.618 million.
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.560 million.
  5. Nine News — 1.559 million.
  6. ABC1 News — 1.480 million.
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.450 million.
  8. Grimm (Nine) — 1.432 million.
  9. 10 Scariest Plane landings (Nine) — 1.235 million.
  10. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.201 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. The X Factor Winner (Seven, 9.30 -9.40 pm ish) — 2.162 million.
  2. The X Factor (Seven, 7.30 – 9.30 pm ish) — 1.870 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.083 million.
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.045 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.032 million.
  6. Home and Away (Seven, 7 – 7.30 pm) — 1.021 million.

The Losers: Well, with the results episodes of The X Factor on last night it’s unfair to list any losers, especially on Ten and Nine.Metro News & CA: Nine News had big wins in Sydney and Melbourne while Seven News won the rest, but not by enough to offset Nine’s combined margin 178,000 in Sydney and Melbourne. ACA won Sydney and Melbourne, TT won the rest, Perth by more than 120,000, hence the national win.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.083 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.045 million.
  3. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.032 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 938,000.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 927,000.
  6. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 749,000.
  7. Ten News (Ten, 5pm) — 642,000.
  8. Foreign Correspondent (ABC1, 8pm) — 593,000.
  9. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 538,000.
  10. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 442,000,
  11. Ten News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 247,000.
  12. Lateline (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 186,000.
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 136,000.
  14. The Business (ABC1, 11.05pm, repeat) — 130,000.
  15. SBS News Late (10.30pm) — 57,000.
  16. The Drum (News 24, 10pm, repeat ) — 46,000.

In the morning: Sunrise and Today swapped positions and audience sizes from Monday’s win by Today.

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 356,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 320,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 145,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 109,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 55,000 + 38,000 on News 24.
  6. Breakfast (Ten, 7pm) — 38,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (three) won easily with a share of 38.6%, from Nine (three) on 22.3%, Ten (three) on 17.5%, the ABC (four) was on 16.5% and SBS (two) ended on 5.0%. Seven leads the week with 35.0% from Nine on 25.6%, the ABC is on 18.2%, Ten is on 16.7% and SBS is on 4.5%. Main Channels: Seven won with 33.0% from Nine on 16.8%, Ten on 12.5%, ABC1 on 12.3% and SBS ONE was on 3.8%. Seven leads the week with 28.2% from Nine on 19.5%, ABC1 on 14.1% and Ten on 11.5%.

Metro Digital: Digital viewing again fell because of the final results episodes of The X Factor on Seven’s main channel. 7TWO won with a lowish share of 3.1%, from GO on 3.0%, Eleven on 2.6%, Gem and 7mate on 2.5% each, ONE on 2.4%, ABC2 on 2.2%, SBS TWO on 1.2%, and News 24 and ABC 3 on 1.0% each.  The 10 digital channels had a total share last night of 19.5%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.8% from GO on 3.4% and 7mate on 3.0%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three) won easily with a share of 32.5%, from Nine (three) on 18.8%, Ten (three) on 14.8%, the ABC (four) was on 13.9% and SBS (two) ended on 4.2%. The 15 FTA channels had their highest viewing share for some months with 86.3%. Thanks to The X Factor on Seven, the five main channels had a share of 70.2% which is the highest for some months. The 10 digital channels had a lowish share of 18.1%. The 200-plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a 13.7% viewing share last night, slightly higher than Monday night’s 13.5%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. TV1 — 2.5%.
  2. Fox8 — 2.1%.
  3. A&E, Nick Jr — 1.9%.
  4. LifeStyle — 1.8%.
  5. Cartoon Network — 1.6%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. The Walking Dead (FX) — 84,000.
  2. Coronation Street (UKTV) — 57,000.
  3. Family Guy (Fox8) — 57,000.
  4. Pawn Stars (A&E) — 58,000.
  5. Eastenders (UKTV) — 50,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three) won easily with a share of 41.7%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 23.5%, The ABC (four) was on 15.8%, SC Ten (three) on 15.0 and SBS (two) ended on 4.0%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 33.2%, from WIN/NBN on 17.1%, ABC 1 on 11.1% and SC Ten on 10.3%. The digitals were won by 7TWO with 4.7% with 7mate on 3.7% and GO on 3.5%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share of 25.7%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 37.5% (and will win easily), with WIN/NBN on 27.2%, The ABC was on 17.0% and SC Ten was on 14.4%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. The X Factor Winner — 975,000.
  2. The  X Factor — 906,000.
  3. Seven News — 574,000.
  4. Home and Away — 538,000.
  5. Grimm — 495,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep for Seven in every metro market, Nine was second and Ten third (overall and the main channels) in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. In Perth it was Ten third overall and ABC1 third in the main channels. In Melbourne it was the ABC/ABC1 third overall and the main channels. Meanwhile, 7TWO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. ONE won Brisbane and GO won Adelaide. For the week, Seven leads Nine and the ABC  in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. In Brisbane Ten’s third behind Nine.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data