The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Last night may have been one of the most important nights of 2013 ratings, and we are five days away from the official battle starting. Put simply, Seven’s My Kitchen Rules simply blew away Nine’s The Block All Stars and Ten’s MasterChef: The Professionals.

My Kitchen Rules averaged 2.228 million metro viewers and had a a massive national audience of 3.238 million, with just over a million watching in regional markets as well. That’s a very rare audience figure for regional markets. The Block All Stars and MasterChef: The Professionals couldn’t even garner a million metro viewers each — The Block All Stars averaged 959,000 (1.383 million nationally) and MasterChef: The Professionals just 627,000 in the five main markets and a poor 813,000 nationally.

It was My Kitchen Rules’ highest ever episode. Only the winner announcement in last year’s grand finale was higher and that was for a 10-minute block. The Block All Stars had its lowest launch figures ever. And MasterChef: The Professionals audience last night was the lowest ever outside of the Friday night masterclass programs.

If My Kitchen Rules continues to gather these sorts of figures on one or two nights a week for the rest of the season, then Seven will win the first two ratings periods up to Easter in late March. Last week was the highest rating first week for My Kitchen Rules at more than 1.6 million metro viewers and well over 2.2 million nationally. This week could end up much bigger.

The Super Bowl on Ten and ONE averaged 309,000 nationally, while the Allan Border cricket medal averaged just 211,000 on Gem last night. The Border Medal presentation was watched by 120,000 people on pay TV (Fox Sports 2) and the Super Bowl audience on ESPN averaged just more than 100,000 (from a low of 99,000 to a high of 132,000).

Four Corners (765,000 metro and 1.131 million nationally) was OK, but the Lance Armstrong follow up was nowhere near as strong as the first report late last year. Australian Story (607,000 and 991,000 nationally) started the year with a bang and had a wonderful story that no commercial Australian TV program would have touched. Media Watch (792,000 and 1.133 million nationally) made a welcome return and Q&A (682,000 metro viewers and 987,000 nationally) bored Australia.

Tonight: My Kitchen Rules and Packed To The Rafters on Seven. Foreign Correspondent on ABC1, and then a New Tricks repeat, The Block All Stars on Nine and a fresh episode of Big Bang Theory. MasterChef: The Professionals on Ten, and then a fresh episode of NCIS. That should see Ten improve on last night’s dismal effort.

Super Bowl Ratings update: According to preliminary data from the Nielsen ratings company, 108.4 million people watched yesterday’s Super Bowl. That made it the third most-watched US broadcast in history, ranking behind the 2012 and 2011 Super Bowls. The 2012 averaged 111.3 million people, while the 2011 game averaged 111 million. Neilsen said that at CBS’ request, the overnight ratings figure did not include the 30-minute plus power outage. CBS also said that a record 164.1 million people watched all or part of the telecast for at least six minutes. This was up 3% from the 159.2 million in 2-12.

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

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 3.238 million.
  2. Revenge (Seven) — 2.190 million.
  3. Nine News — 1.668 million.
  4. Seven News — 1.655 million.
  5. Home and Away — 1.548 million.
  6. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.465 million.
  7. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.465 million.
  8. The Block All Stars (Nine) — 1.383 million.
  9. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.381 million.
  10. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.144 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven, 7.30pm) — 2.228 million.
  2. Revenge (Seven, 8.45pm) — 1.498 million.
  3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.234 million.
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.185 million.
  5. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.160 million.
  6. The Big bang Theory (Nine, 8.10pm) — 1.064 million.
  7. Home and Away (Seven, 7pm) — 1.024 million.

The Losers: Anyone who didn’t like food, renovation or current affairs. That means viewers on the whole should have been happy last night.

Metro News & CA: One the face of it, Seven News and Today Tonight had boasting rights last night, but they didn’t because Seven won’t produce the new look Today Tonight until next Monday. The real story from last night was the 142,000 winning margin for Nine News in Melbourne. Seven News won Sydney by 20,000, a handy margin.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.234 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.185 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.160 million.
  4. ABC1 News (7pm) — 990,000.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 950,000.
  6. Media Watch (ABC1, 9.20pm) — 792,000.
  7. Four Corners (ABC1, 8.30pm) — 765,000.
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 724,000.
  9. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 716,000.
  10. Australian Story (ABC1, 8pm) — 637,000.
  11. Q&A (ABC1, 9.35pm) — 607,000 + 77,000 on News 24. *
  12. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 490,000.
  13. Lateline (ABC1, 10.35pm) —
  14. Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 172,000.
  15. SBS News (6.30pm) — 153,000.
  16. The Business (ABC1, 11.10pm repeat) — 132,000 + 35,000 on News 24.
  17. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 52,000.
  18. The Drum (News 24, 6pm) — 38,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 351,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 326,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 182,000.
  4. Mornings Summer (Nine, 9am) –99,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 42,000 + 27,000 on News 24.*

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 37.0%, from Nine (three) on 25.7%, the ABC (four) on 18.6%, Ten (three) on 15.1% and SBS (three) 0n 3.6%. Seven leads the week with 31.6% from Nine on 27.4%, with Ten on 18.8% and the ABC is on 17.3%. Main Channels: Seven won with 30.4%, from Nine on 18.85, ABC1 was on 14.1% and Ten was on 9.9%, with SBS ONE on 2.6%. Seven leads the week with 25.5% from Nine on 21.7%, Ten is on 14.0% and ABC1 is on 13.4%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of GO won with a share of 4.3% from 7TWO on 4.1%, Eleven was on 2.9%, ABC2 was on 2.8%, Gem and 7mate were on 2.55, ONE was on 2.3%, SBS TWO and News 24 were on 0.9% each, ABC3 ended with 0.9% and NITV was on 0.1%. The 11 channels had an FTA share last night of a lowish 24.1%. 7TWO and GO lead the week with 3.5% each.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 31.1%, from Nine (three) on 21.6%, the ABC (four) on 15.7%, Ten (three) on 12.7% and SBS (three) 0n 3.0%. The 16 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 86.3%, with the 11 digital channels share totalling 20.4% and the five main channels sharing 65.9%. Pay TV’s share dipped to 13.7% last night on the 200 plus channels on Foxtel. Because of the power outage, the coverage on pay TV was all over the place.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. ESPN — 3.3%.
  2. Fox8 — 2.3%.
  3. TV1 — 2.2%.
  4. LifeStyle — 1.9%.
  5. Fox Sports 2 — 1.8%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. The Super Bowl (ESPN, 2pm) — 132,000.
  2. The Allan Border Medal (Fox Sports 2) — 120,000.
  3. The Super Bowl (ESPN, 10am) — 99,000.
  4. The Super Bowl (ESPN, 2.30pm) — 83,000.
  5. Family Guy (Fox 8) — 74,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 39.5%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 25.9%, the ABC (four) on 18.4%, SC Ten (three) on 12.6% and SBS (three) 0n 3.6%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 29.9% from WIN/NBN on 18.2%, ABC1 was on 13.6% and SC Ten was back on just 7.2%. Meanwhile, 7TWO won the digitals with 5.1% from GO on 4.8% and 7mate on 4.5%. The 11 digital channels had a moderate FTA share last night of 27.5%. Prime/7Qld now leads the week with 34.2% from WIN/NBN on 29.6%, the ABC on 16.2% and SC Ten on 15.6%. Ten should lift tonight.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. My Kitchen Rules — 1.008 million.
  2. Revenge — 693,000.
  3. Nine News — 483,000.
  4. Home and Away — 514,000.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 476,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep for Seven (overall and the main channels) in all five metro markets. Nine was mostly second, except in the main channels in Perth where ABC1 got up. The ABC and ABC1 were third elsewhere and overall in Perth. Meanwhile, 7TWO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Brisbane and Perth saw wins by GO. Seven now leads the week in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine still leads in Melbourne. Ten is third everywhere bar Sydney where the ABC shares that spot.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data