The Glenn Dyer breakdown: My Kitchen Rules had its smallest audience this week last night — 1.8 million metro and 2.613 million national viewers. That was after the departure of Jessie and Biswa on Wednesday night, and the normal downturn in viewing on Thursday nights for various reasons. But 1.8 and over 2.6 million viewers for a Thursday night is excellent. Oztam data shows the MKR figures were the highest Thursday night ratings since MasterChef back in July 2010 (a bit of irony for Ten). Bones (after MKR) also did well in its Thursday slot with 919,000 metro and more than 1.4 million national viewers.

What wasn’t so excellent was the 858,000 metro and 1.271 million national viewers for The Block All Stars which is modest at best. Over at Ten American Idol got what it deserved, only 388,000 metro and 517,000 national viewers. They are Glee-like figures and Idol deserves that fate for insulting our intelligence. It was swamped by shows on Nine and especially Seven. The Bold and The Beautiful at 4.30pm had 389,000 metro viewers for Ten (and 555,000 nationally). Idol did better in the demos that Ten coverts, but with such small figures that it’s almost laughable.

Seven’s final “special” one-hour news bulletin that includes the almost non-existent Today Tonight program ends tonight. From Monday it’s back to reality. Seven’s problems in Melbourne won’t change. We have seen this week that Seven’s 6pm weakness is holding the network back in Melbourne: its wins (in the main channels) or overall, have been smaller than in Sydney or other markets. And that is due to the weakness at 6pm which sets up the rest of the night.

Tonight: The last Friday night of summer 2012-2013 ratings. The fourth meaningless ODI cricket game on Nine this afternoon and tonight. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven. The Living Room on Ten, after the second episode of American Idol. The highlight is the second Dr Blake Mystery on ABC1 at 8.30pm. The German view of Senator Joe McCarthy on SBS at 8.40pm could be worth watching or recording and watching later. He, of course, pioneered the “reds under the beds” approach to political and cultural life in the US, which in turn became an unwelcome export to countries as far away as Australia (cue Menzies, Holt and Asian dominoes).

Saturday: Seven starts its new horse racing coverage deal and has weak movies at night. Nine has the NRL All Stars v the Indigenous All Stars game at 7.30pm. Ten has a repeats of Bondi Vet and School of Rock (should win viewers big time — not). ABC1 has The Paradise and then Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (a repeat).

Sunday: Official ratings start, so it’s game on for 2013. The morning chats on ABC1, Seven and Nine. The final meaningless ODI against the Windies in Melbourne on Nine. Seven has Sunday Night, then Downton Abbey‘s first new episode after two episodes of Border Security. Ten has fresh Bondi Rescue and Modern Family (hurrah), and then MasterChef: The Professionals at 7.30pm (boo) and Elementary (a big test). ABC1 has the first new series of Midsomer Murders, they’ve imported people from surrounding shires to fill the vacancies created in recent series.

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

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 2.613 million.
  2. Nine News — 1.545 million.
  3. Seven News — 1.510 million.
  4. Bones (Seven) — 1.455 million.
  5. Home and Away — 1.370 million.
  6. ABC1 News — 1.347 million.
  7. The Block All Stars (Nine) — 1.271 million.
  8. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.147 million.
  9. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 1.147 million.
  10. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.093 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.801 million.
  2. Seven News — 1.116 million.
  3. Nine News — 1.092 million.

The Losers: Ten for offering viewers a load of tosh called American Idol on its main channel. Return it to Eleven.Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne at 6pm, the markets that count. Seven won Brisbane, another market that counts, and Adelaide and Perth, which don’t count as much. Seven’s 118,000 margin in Perth was offset by Nine’s 118,000 in Melbourne. You know which margin cut the deepest. Yep, at Seven in Melbourne. Seeing there is no TT, we can’t compare it with ACA, which won the 6.30pm slot, even though Seven had more viewers.

  1. Seven News — 1.116 million.
  2. Nine News — 1.092 million.
  3. Today Tonight — 978,000.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 939,000.
  5. ABC1 News — 875,000.
  6. 7.30 (ABC 1, 7.30 – 8 pm) — 736,000.
  7. Ten News (Ten, 5 – 6 pm) — 625,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 424,000.
  9. Lateline (ABC 1, 10.30 – 11.05 pm) — 179,000.
  10. Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30 – 11.15 pm) — 168,000.
  11. World News Australia (SBS ONE, 6.30 – 7.30 pm) — 144,000.
  12. The Business (ABC 1, 11.05 – 11.30 pm, rpt) — 94,000 + 40,000 on News 24 *
  13. World News Late (SBS ONE, 10.30 – 11 pm) — 76,000.
  14. The Drum (News 24, 10 – 10.45 pm, rpt) — 47,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7 – 9 am) — 370,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7 – 9 am) — 342,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9 – 11 am) — 166,000.
  4. Mornings Summer (Nine, 9 – 11 am) — 102,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC 1, 7 – 9.30 am) — 48,000 + 18,000 on News 24) *

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 33.4% from Nine (three) on 27.1%, the ABC (four) was on 16.7%, Ten (three) was on 16.3% and SBS (three) ended on 6.5%. Seven leads the last week of summer ratings with 33.7%, from Nine on 27.5%, Ten is on 16.8%, the ABC is on 16.7% and SBS is on 5.2%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 27.0%, from Nine on 18.8%, ABC 1 was on 11.6%, Ten was on 9.5% and SBS ONE was on 5.1%.

Metro Digital: Go won easily with a share of 5.2%, from Eleven on 3.95, 7TWO was on 3.8%, Gem was on 3.0%, ONE was on 2.9%, ABC2, 2.8%, 7mate was on 2.6%, SBS TWO, 1.3%, ABC3, 1.2% and News 24 ended with 1.1%. NITV was on 0.1%. The 11 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a moderate 28.9%. GO leads the week with 3.9% , from 7TWO on 3.2%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 27.7% from Nine (three) on 22.4%, the ABC (four) was on 13.8%, Ten (three) was on 13.5% and SBS (three) ended on 5.4%. The 16 FTA channels had a total viewing share of 84.8% (the lowest of the week so far), with the 11 digital channels on 22.9% and the five main channels on 62.7%, pay TV’s share rose to the week’s high, so far, of 15.2%, based on the 200 plus channels on Foxtel.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox8 — 3.8%.
  2. TV1 — 2.6%.
  3. LifeStyle — 2.1%.
  4. Sky News — 1.9%.
  5. A&E — 1.8%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Family Guy (Fox8) — 81,000.
  2. The Simpsons (Fox8) — 74,000.
  3. Eastenders (UKTV) — 66,000.
  4. Futurama (Fox8) — 64,000.
  5. Chicago Fire (Fox8) — 62,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld won easily with a share of 38.5% for its three channels, from WIN/NBN (three) on 26.1%, the ABC (four) on 16.9%, SC Ten (three) on 12.2% and SBS (three) on 6.3%. The main channels were won easily by Prime/7Qld with 28.8% from WIN/NBN on 18.1%, ABC1 on 11.6% and SC Ten on just 6.7%. The digitals were won by 7mate with 5.1% from GO on 4.8% and 7TWO with 4.5%. the 11 digital channels had and FTA viewing share last night of a moderate 28.6%. Prime/7Qld lead the week with 36.1% from WIN/NBN on 29.2%, the ABC is on 16.1% and SC Ten is back on 13.9%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. MKR — 813,000.
  2. Bones — 539,000.
  3. Home and Away — 474,000.
  4. ABC 1 News –473,000.
  5. Nine News — 453,000.

Major Metro Markets: Seven won everywhere (overall and main channels) except in Melbourne (overall)l, where Nine got up, thanks to stronger performances by its main channel than elsewhere, and its two digital channels, GO and Gem. Apart from that Nine was second everywhere bar Perth where ABC1 ended up second in the main channels and Nine third. The ABC was third overall (and in the main channels) in Sydney and Melbourne. It was third in overall in Perth and ABC1 was third in Brisbane and Adelaide in the main channels.

Ten tied third in Sydney overall and was a clear third overall in Brisbane and Adelaide. In the digitalis, GO won everywhere bar Adelaide where 7TWO got up. Seven leads Nine and the ABC in Sydney and Melbourne, in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, it’s Seven from Nine and Ten (narrowly).

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data