The Glenn Dyer breakdown: With My Kitchen Rules in the line up, Seven was always going to win last night, and it did easily. But once again it wasn’t all flowers and chocolates on Valentines Day for the network with another weak performance by the 6pm news in Sydney and Melbourne, while Today Tonight, which had more viewers than A Current Affair, also got a towelling in Sydney and Melbourne.

American Idol bombed again for Ten, 349,000 metro and 488,000 national viewers is just not good enough. In fact The Bold and the Beautiful on Ten at 4.30pm had more viewers than Idol — 397,000 metro and 501,000 nationally.

Nine’s The Block All Stars saw its audience dip to 842,000 metro and 1.265 million nationally as it was beaten by both Home and Away (880,000 metro and over 1.33 million national viewers) and the 7pm ABC1 News (840,000 metro and 1.29 million national viewers). The Block All Stars was still very solid in the main demos for Nine, but female viewers in 16 to 39 and 18 to 49 prefer Home and Away.

But it was My Kitchen Rules that stood out with nearly 1.9 metro and over 2.7 million national viewers. Seven has won the first week of ratings convincingly.

Nine News won Sydney by a massive 97,000 viewers, 300,000 to 203,000 for Seven. And Nine won Melbourne, 372,000 to 274,000, a win by 98,000. Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth (by 94,000). Today Tonight beat A Current Affair nationally, but lost Sydney, 253,000 to 200,000 and Melbourne, 275,000 to 234,000. Again, take a look at the 5.30pm lead battle between Hot Seat on Nine, 544,000 and Deal or No Deal on Seven, 403,000.

And I have to say the programs on 7mate last night were among the most unappealing on TV. But they did well in the digital ratings. Despite that success, they were horrid.

Tonight: Better Homes and Gardens on Seven. The Doctor Blake Mysteries on ABC1 (the night’s highlight). Nine has an episode of The Block All Stars. Ten has more American Idol, not many people will notice. For Ten a fresh Living Room on return stands out in comparison, as does The Project.

Saturday: Black Caviar runs around Melbourne on 7TWO in the afternoon. ABC1 has The Paradise (it’s not) at 7.30pm. Nine has movies and other nonsense, including Australia’s Funniest Home Videos. Ten has David Attenborough’s Africa (which has been heavily promoted) and then fresh Bondi Vet on return.

Sunday: Morning chats, including the return of the new look Meet The Press on Ten at 10.30am for an hour. It’s produced by News Ltd, watch with caution. ABC1 has another fresh murder from Midsomer at 8.30pm. Seven has Sunday Night, then Border Security and The Force, followed by Downton Abbey. Nine has The Block All Stars at 6.30pm, then 60 Minutes returns at 7.30pm, and then fresh episodes of The Mentalist and CSI from 8.30pm in a reprise of Thursday night’s weak programming of both programs. Ten has fresh Bondi Rescue, and then a fresh Modern Family and then MasterChef: The Professionals. The first two appeal, the latter is off my menu. SBS ONE has Tropfest 2013 at 8.30pm.

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

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) –2.751 million.
  2. Nine News –1.587 million.
  3. Seven News — 1.528 million.
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.528 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.289 million.
  6. The Block All Stars (Nine) — 1.265 million.
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.174 million.
  8. Bones (minus Melbourne and Victoria, Seven) — 1.123 million.
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.060 million.
  10. 7.30 (ABC1) — 976,000.

The Metro Winners:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven, 7.30pm)
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.078 million.

The Losers: Apart from viewers of My Kitchen Rules, the rest of audience. Ten’s American Idol. Another ratings flop for Ten from the News Corp/Fox empire of chairman Lachlan Murdoch.

Metro News & CA: A weak night all round, but weaker for Seven News.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.078 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 988,000.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 886,000.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm)
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 840,000.
  6. Ten News (Ten, 5pm) — 619,000.
  7. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 613,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 417,000.
  9. Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 211,000.
  10. Lateline (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 157,000.
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 149,000.
  12. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 110,000.
  13. The Business (ABC1, 11.05pm) — 88,000 + 49,000 on News 24.
  14. The Drum (ABC News 24, 6pm) — 48,000.

In the morning: The Sunrise v Today battle is getting tighter again.

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 349,000
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 342,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 154,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 126,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 63,000 + 23,000 on News 24*

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 34.7% from Nine (three) on 25.7%, Ten (three) was third with 16.8%, the ABC (four) was on 16.4% and SBS (three) was on 6.3%. Seven leads the week and has it won with 34.9% from Nine on 27.6%, the ABC is on 16.5% and Ten is on 16.4%.

Metro Digital: GO won narrowly from 7TWO, 4.0% to 3.9%. Eleven was next with 3.5%, as was stablemate ONE. Meanwhile, 7mate was on 3.2%, Gem was on 2.6%, ABC2 ended with 2.5%, News 24 was on 1.0%, SBS TWO was on 0.9%, ABC3 was on 0.8% and NITV ended with 0.1%. The 11 channels had an FTA share last night of a moderate 26.05%. 7TWO still leads the week with 3.7% from GO on 3.3% and 7mate on 3.2%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 28.6% from Nine (three) on 21.2%, Ten (three) was third with 13.8%, the ABC (four) was on 13.5% and SBS (three) was on 5.2%. The 16 FTA channels’ viewing share last night was 84.7%, the lowest so far. The five main channels had a share of 63.2% and the 11 digital channels share was 21.5%. Pay TV’s share for the 200 plus channels on Foxtel jumped to 15.3%, the highest of the week so far (and will go higher in the next two nights).

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox8 — 3.1%.
  2. TV 1 — 2.8%.
  3. LifeStyle — 2.4%.
  4. UKTV — 2.0%.
  5. Fox Sports 3 — 1.7%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Family Guy (Fox8) — 80,000.
  2. The Simpsons (Fox8) — 74,000.
  3. Futurama (Fox8) — 67,000.
  4. Kings Cross ER (Crime & Investigation) — 66,000.
  5. Seinfeld (TV1) — 63,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 38.7% from WIN/NBN (three) on 26.3%, The ABC (four) was on 16.3%, SC Ten (three) was on 15.3% and SBS (three) was on 5.6%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 28.2%, from WIN/NBN on 19.9%, ABC1 was on 11.5% and SC Ten was on a very low 6.9%. The digitals were won by 7TWO with 5.7%% from 7mate on 4.7% and GO with 4.3%. The 11 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a moderate28.7%. Prime/7Qld has the week won with 36.7% from WIN/NBN on 30.1%, the ABC is on 15.5% and SC Ten is on 13.4%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. My Kitchen Rules — 875,000.
  2. Seven News — 539,000.
  3. Nine News — 512,000.
  4. Bones — 485,000.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 446,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep (overall and main channels) for Seven, as expected. Nine was second in all five metro markets. Ten was third overall in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. The ABC was third overall in Brisbane and third in the main channels in all five metro markets. GO won Melbourne and shared Sydney with 7mate and Adelaide with 7TWO which won Brisbane and Perth outright. Seven leads in all five markets, Nine’s second, Ten’s third in Brisbane and Adelaide, the ABC is third in the rest.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data