The Glenn Dyer breakdown: A night that was best avoided, except for Nigella. Her program, Nigellissima gathered 615,000 metro viewers on ABC1 at 8.30pm and 889,000 nationally. American Idol bored for Fox and the Murdochs on Ten and garnered 580,000 metro and 775,000 national programs. By way of comparison, Nine’s production of The Voice last year beats Idol for glitz, pace, a bit of drama and sheer entertainment.

Seven’s repeat of Legally Blonde grabbed 981,000 viewers nationally from 7.30pm and 609,000 in the metro markets.

Seven’s Today Tonight and Nine’s A Current Affair continued their phoney war, with TT getting more viewers nationally. Nine News had 1.710 million viewers across the country, Seven News, 1.630 million. TT‘s lead in the metro markets of 160,000 viewers was more than reversed nationally and ACA won the night easily with 1.444 million people against TT‘s 1.422 million. ACA in other words gained an extra 182,000 viewers in the regions.

Sky News had another solid night on Foxtel, with Paul Murray getting close to his highest ever figures at 9pm for his hour-long program, more than 60,000 people. That’s not big by FTA standards, but for Sky News, its huge. The election campaign and the Craig Thomson story helped, as they did for News 24 which had a metro share of 1.3% and 1.7% in regional markets.

Seven will win the second last week of summer ratings very easily, but the pace steps up from Monday night when Nine starts The Block All Stars, and the ABC’s usual Monday night line up of news and current affairs programs returns. Four Corners has another look at Lance Armstrong, should be great if the first effort in late 2012 is any guide.

Tonight: One day international cricket from Perth, Australia versus the West Indies. Ten has more American Idol. Seven hasn’t much at all apart from Better Homes and Gardens, and ABC starts a new local crime show in the Doctor Blake Mysteries and repeats Wednesday night’s ABBA doco at 9.30pm

Saturday: ABC1 has a new program called Paradise at 7.30pm. SBS2 has the national track championships from 7.30 pm. Seven has weak movies, as does Nine, well it does have the classic, the 1938 Wizard of Oz, a must watch. Ten has a movie and repeats of programs like Bondi Vet.

Sunday: Insiders, Offsiders and Inside Business return to ABC1 for the year from 9am. Sunday Night returns to Seven at 6.30pm. Ten has MasterChef: The Professionals. ABC1 has Upstairs/Downstairs. Nine has the second ODI between Australia and the Windies.

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

  1. Nine News — 1.710 million.
  2. Seven News — 1.630 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.444 million.
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.433 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.431 million.
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.422 million.
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.184 million.
  8. The Big Bang Theory episode one (Nine) — 1.144 million.
  9. QI (ABC1) — 1.119 million.
  10. The Big Bang Theory episode two (Nine) — 1.115 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.202 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.188 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.137 million.

The Losers: Most viewers. It was a weak night of TV compared to earlier this week.

Metro News & CA: Nine remains stronger at 6pm and 6.30pm, look at the national figures.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.202 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.189 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.137 million.
  4. ABC1 News (7pm) — 994,000.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 977,000.
  6. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 805,000.
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 706,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 516,000.
  9. Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 203,000.
  10. Lateline (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 158,000.
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 149,000.
  12. The Business (ABC1, 11pm, repeat) — 86,000.
  13. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 85,000.
  14. The Drum (ABC News 24, 10pm, repeat) — 66,000.

In the morning: Normal transmission has been resumed.

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 385,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 346,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 183,000.
  4. Mornings Summer (Nine, 9am) — 120,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 27.5% from Nine (three channels) on 25.8%, Ten (three) on 19.9%, the ABC (four) on 19.2% and SBS (three) on 7.6%. Seven leads the week with 35.4% from Nine on 26.0%, Ten on 17.2% and the ABC on 16.2%. Main Channels: Seven won narrowly with a share of 19.4% to Nine’s 19.3% (let’s call it a tie?), with ABC1 on 13.5%, Ten on 13.9% and SBS ONE on 5.1%. Seven leads the week with 29.1% from Nine on 19.4%, ABC 1 is on 11.6% and Ten is on 11.5%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.6%, from GO and Eleven with 3.8%, 7mate was on 3.5%, ABC2, 3.4%, ONE with 3.2%, Gem was on 2.7%, SBS TWO, 1.4%, News 24, 1.3%, ABC3, 1.1% and NITV 0.1%. The 11 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 28.9%. GO leads the week with 3.8%, 7TWO is on 3.4% and Eleven is on 3.0%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 22.3% from Nine (three) on 20.9%, Ten (three) on 16.1%, the ABC (four) on 15.6% and SBS (three) on 6.2%. The 16 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 83.3%, with the 11 digital channels on a share of 23.5% and the five main channels share on 59.8%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave Pay TV a share last night of 16.7%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox8 — 3.6%
  2. TV1 — 2.9%
  3. LifeStyle — 2.4%.
  4. A&E — 2.1%.
  5. Sky News — 2.0%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Chicago Fire(Fox8) — 90,000.
  2. Family Guy(Fox8) — 83,000.
  3. The Simpsons(Fox8) — 80,000.
  4. Futurama(Fox8) — 74,000.
  5. Fiver Cottage(LifeStyle) — 71,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 34.7% from WIN/NBN (3) on 25.8%, The ABC was on 17.2%, SC Ten (3) was on 16,0%, and SBS (3) on 6.3%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 22.6%, from WIN/NBN on 19.7%, ABC 1 on 11.5% and SC Ten on 8.9%. 7mate won the digitals with 6.9%, from on 7TWO with 5.1% and GO on 4.0%. The 11 digital channels had a very high FTA share last night of 32.1%. Prime/7Qld lead the week on 36.5%, from WIN/NBN on 28.3%, the ABC is on 16.2% and SC Ten is on 14.3%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Nine News — 509,000.
  2. Home and Away– 486,000.
  3. A Current Affair — 466,000.
  4. Seven News — 439,000.
  5. ABC1 News — 438,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven won four of the five metro markets (overall and main channels). Nine won Melbourne. Ten was third (overall and the main channels) in brisbane and third overall in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. The ABC/ABC 1 were third in Melbourne and third in the main channels in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. A weak night for Ten then. 7TWO won Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and shared Sydney with GO and Eleven, which won Brisbane. Seven leads the week everywhere.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data