Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: Home and Away finishes strong

Home and Away remains perhaps the most crucial program in Seven's nightly ratings push.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night, with a solid win in metro and regional markets. Home and Away failed to crack the million metro viewers for its last program of the year. But the 996,000 people in the five metro markets was close enough (and 1.5 million nationally) and pushed Seven to a clear win on the night with the 90-minute finale for 2012.

Home and Away had 981,000 viewers this year Monday to Friday, down from 1.039 million last year and 1.021 million in 2010. That fall in part reflects the impact of Nine running The Block and Big Brother at 7pm during their seasons, and fall in Seven’s News and TT ratings in Melbourne since August.

Home and Away had the last word on BB and end up beating it most nights at the end of BB‘s season. Home and Away was stronger in regional markets than BB was. It remains perhaps the most crucial program in Seven’s nightly ratings push.

The ratings though told the story of the night: no program after 7pm topped the figures for Seven News, so a weak night of viewing, but it’s that time of year, holidays beckon and 2013 is in sight.

A Moody Christmas was funny, sick, poignant and reaffirming: 551,000 metro and 832,000 national viewers watched and those who didn’t were the losers.

While Nine News and ACA lost Sydney to Seven News last night, they again won in Melbourne and helped the network not only to win the night and deny Seven a clean sweep (again) of the five metro markets, but also to remain in front in Melbourne in the final week of ratings. Seven leads the rest, with a huge lead in Perth as Nine continues to wilt in the face of neglect by owner WIN and Nine HQ in Sydney which is only interested in its east coast stations and pays little regard of WIN’s poor management of its Nine stations in Perth and Adelaide.

Tonight: The final of Beauty and the Geek Australia on Seven after Once Upon A Time. More 15-Minute Meals from J Oliver on Ten. The two Law and Order episodes are repeats. ABC1 has Redfern Now after a repeat of Kitchen Cabinet. Nine has CSI. SBS has more foodie programs.

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

Seven News — 1.642 million.
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.516 million.
Nine News — 1.467 million.
ABC1 News — 1.470 million.
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.367 million.
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.230 million.
QI (ABC1) — 1.168 million.
7.30 (ABC1) — 1.148 million.
Grimm (Seven) — 1.038 million.
Hot Property (Nine) — 970,000.

The Metro Winners:

Seven News — 1.068 million.

The Losers: It’s that time of year — it’s very late in the ratings season, the network and viewers are both tired and approaching exhaustion. The real losers have been seen and forgotten (Excess Baggage anyone, Smash, perhaps a visit to The Shire?). And then there’s Emily Owens MD at 9.30pm on Ten, 192,000 metro viewers (and 290,000 nationally). Appalling.

Glee, 569,000 metro and 757,000 nationally and The Good Wife, 509,000 metro and 716,000 nationally. Both are faded beauties, trawling for good results among the lower demos in markets such as Adelaide or Brisbane and occasionally Sydney and Melbourne. Glee and The Good Wife survive on their ability to appeal to different demos, they are fading in that as well.Metro News & CA: Seven News and TT had a win in Sydney, but a loss in Melbourne, and a big win in Perth. Nine News again won Brisbane. ACA also won Brisbane, again.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.068 million.
Nine News (6pm) — 998,000.
Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 978,000.
A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 851,000.
7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 740,000.
Ten News (5pm) — 638,000.
The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 537,000.
The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 383,000.
Lateline (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 171,000.
SBS ONE News (6.30pm) — 146,000.
Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 140,000.
The Business (ABC1, 11.05pm, repeat) — 99,000.
SBS ONE Late News, 10.30pm) — 86,000.
The Drum (News 24, 10pm, repeat) — 46,000.

In the morning: One more morning and no Breakfast on Ten.

Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 381,000.
Today (Nine, 7am) — 349,000.
The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 158,000.
Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 133,000.
News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 58,000 + 28,000 on News 24.
Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 41,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 31.8%, from Nine (three) on 27.7%, Ten (three) was on 18.0%, the ABC (four) was on 17.1% and SBS (two) ended on 5.4%. Seven leads the week with 30.8% from Nine on 27.9%, Ten is on 18.6% and the ABC is on 17.9%. Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 22.3% from Nine on 18.8%, ABC1 was on 12.7%, Ten was on 12.0% and SBS ONE was on 4.5%.

Metro Digital: 7mate won with a share of 5.1% from Gem on 4.8%, 7TWO was on 4.4%, GO was on 4.1%, Eleven was on 3.8%, ABC2 was on 2.3%, ONE was on 2.2%, News 24 was on 1.1%, ABC 3 was on 1.0% and SBS TWO was on 0.9%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of a high 29.7%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 25.7%, from Nine (three) on 22.4%, Ten (three) was on 14.5%, the ABC (four) was on 13.8% and SBS (two) ended on 4.3%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of 83.1%. The 10 digital channels share was a high 24.0%. The five main channels share was 59.1%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a week’s high viewing share of 16.9%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox8 — 3.6%.
TV1 — 2.6%.
LifeStyle — 2.2%.
Fox Sports 2, Discovery — 1.8%.
Disney Jr — 1.7.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Family Guy (Fox8) — 84,000.
Family Guy (Fox8) — 81,000.
The Simpsons (Fox8) — 74,000.
Futurama (Fox8) — 69,000.
Sons of Anarchy (Showcase) — 69,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 35.2%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 27.5%, the ABC (four) was on 16.8%, SC Ten (three) was on 15.5%, and SBS (two) ended on 5.0%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 23.6%, from WIN/NBN on 18.1%, ABC1 on 11.5% and SC Ten on 9.1%. Meanwhile, 7mate won the digitals with 6.1%, from 7TWO and Gem on 5.6% each. The 10 digital channels had an ultra high FTA share last night of 33.4%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.7%, from WIN/NBN on 29.5%, the ABC on 16.7% and SC Ten on 15.7%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Seven News — 574,000.
Home and Away — 522,000.
ACA — 516,000.
Nine News — 469,000.
ABC1 News — 451,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven won (main channels and overall) in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine again won Melbourne. The ABC/ABC1 were third in Sydney, again and ABC1 was third in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Ten was third in Adelaide, 7mate won Melbourne and Brisbane and 7TWO won Adelaide and shared Sydney with Gem, which won Perth. Nine leads in Melbourne, Seven leads the rest, with the ABC in third place in Sydney and Ten still fourth.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data