The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven won easily as My Kitchen Rules again blitzed the night — more than 2.1 million metro viewers and 3.011 million nationally. As a result, Seven widened its lead over Nine in both the metro and regional markets where MKR was again dominant. Revenge averaged 1.295 million metro viewers and over 1.8 million nationally, which is more than OK, but down from those fabulous highs of a year ago.

Ten was again squeezed into a distant fourth spot. MasterChef: The Professionals had 528,000 metro viewers and 704,000 nationally. That’s its “normal” level with MKR on Seven (it’s double that on Sundays when MKR isn’t on air). Nine’s The Block All Stars ran for an hour and a half last night. It averaged 1.080 million for the 90 minutes (and 1.6 million nationally), while the fresh episode of Big Bang Theory averaged 1.140 million (1.86 million nationally). That’s OK, but it was nowhere near enough to topple Seven. Ten should do better tonight with NCIS in the schedule.

But it could have been better for Seven if Melbourne had done better last night. Seven had solid winning margins everywhere bar Melbourne where it got home ahead of Nine by less that a point overall and in the main channels.

Australian Story‘s yarn on singer Stevie Wright was tremendous. It was the sort of life story A Current Affair, Today Tonight or 7.30 would have dismissed in a few minutes. Instead we got nearly half an hour to watch a tragedy enlivened by human optimism; 809,000 metro and 1.215 million national viewers approved.

Tonight: MKR on Seven and then Packed To the Rafters. Foreign Correspondent on ABC1 (it’s off to Italy tonight after last week’s scoop in Israel). At The Movies returns for 2013 to tonight instead of Wednesdays at 9.30pm. Ten has NCIS after MasterChef: The Professionals at 7.30pm. Nine has The Block All Stars. SBS has Insight and Dateline.

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

  1. MKR (Seven) — 3.011 million.
  2. Seven News — 1.928 million.
  3. Nine News — 1.901 million.
  4. Revenge (Seven) — 1.867 million.
  5. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.686 million.
  6. The Block All Stars (Nine) — 1.582 million.
  7. ABC1 News — 1.478 million.
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.462 million.
  9. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.363 million.
  10. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.286 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven, 7.30pm) — 2.118 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.342 million.
  3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.304 million.
  4. Revenge (Seven, 8.45pm) — 1.295 million.
  5. The Big Bang Theory (Nine, 8.30pm) — 1.140 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.102 million.
  7. The Block All Stars (Nine, 7pm) — 1.080 million.
  8. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.067 million.
  9. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.028 million.

The Losers: Ten. Just doesn’t have the ratings fire power. Can of Worms at 8.30pm, 392,000 metro and 563,000 national viewers. Hawaii Five O at 9.30pm, 283,000 metro and just 390,000 national viewers. Both figures are getting close to fade to black territory.

Metro News & CA: Seven News lost Sydney and Melbourne (by 170,000) and Brisbane to Nine. Seven News won Adelaide and Perth (by 145,000). Today Tonight easily beat A Current Affair which won Melbourne, but lost the rest. Both were very tabloid TV.

  1. Nine News (6pm) — 1.342 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.304 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) –1.104 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.067 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.028 million.
  6. Australian Story (ABC1, 8pm) — 809,000.
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 803,000.
  8. Four Corners (ABC1, 8.30pm) — 753,000.
  9. 7.30 (ABC1) — 737,000.
  10. Media Watch (ABC1, 9.20pm) — 718,000.
  11. Q&A (ABC1, 9.35pm) — 700,000 + 74,000 on News 24.
  12. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 471,000.
  13. Lateline (ABC1, 10.35pm) — 312,000.
  14. Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 171,000.\
  15. SBS News (6.30pm) — 162,000.
  16. The Business (ABC1, 11.10pm) — 146,000 + 15,000 on News 24.
  17. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 68,000.
  18. The Drum (News 24, 6pm) — 52,000.

In the morning: Today slipped in front of Sunrise in a close one.

  1. Today (Nine, 7am) — 348,000.
  2. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 347,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 7am) — 196,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 7am) — 133,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 50,000 + 27,000 on News 24

Metro free to air: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 34.8% from Nine (three) on 27.4%, the ABC (four) was on 19.7%, Ten (three) was back on 14.3% and SBS (three) ended on 3.8%. Seven leads the week with 33.1% from Nine on 27.2%, the ABC is on 18.0%, Ten is on 17.0% and SBS is on 4.6%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 27.8% from Nine on 21.4%, ABC1 was on 15.0%, Ten was on a low 9.2% and SBS ONE was on 2.9%. Seven leads the week with 25.7% from Nine on 20.9%, ABC 1 is on 14.0% and Ten is on 12.0%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 3.8%, from 7mate and GO on 3.2% each, Eleven was on 3.0%, ABC2 was on 2.9%, Gem was on 2.7%, ONE ended with 2.1%. News 24 was on 1.0%, SBS TWO and ABC3 were on 0.7% each and NITV ended with 0.1%. The 11 channels had an FTA share last night of a low 23.4%. Meanwhile, 7mate leads the week with 3.9% from 7TWO on 3.5%, GO on 3.2% and Gem on 3.1%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 29.4% from Nine (3) on 23.1%, the ABC (4) was on 16.6%, Ten (3) was on 12.1% and SBS (3) ended on 3.2%. The 16 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 86.5%, made up of a low 19.9% for the digitals and 66.6% for the five main channels. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a total share last night of 13.5%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1.  Fox8 — 2.5%.
  2. TV 1 — 2.3%.
  3. LifeStyle — 2.2%.
  4. Foxtel Movie Premiere — 1.9%.
  5. Sky News — 1.8%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. The Simpsons (Fox8) — 78,000.
  2. Coronation Street (UKTV) — 70,000.
  3. Eastenders (UKTV) — 68,000.
  4. Family Guy (Fox8) — 66,000.
  5. Secret Millionaire (LifeStyle) — 63,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 34.6% from WIN/NBN (three) on 29.5%, the ABC (four) was on 19.3%, SC Ten (three) was weak on 13.6% and SBS (three) ended on 3.0%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 26.3%, from WIN/NBN on 22.1%, ABC1 on 14.5% and SC Ten back on a low 8.3%. Meanwhile, 7TWO won the main channels with 4.6%, from GO on 4.0% and 7mate on 3.7%. The 11 digital channels had an FTA share of 26.5%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.8%, from WIN/NBN on 29.0%, the ABC is on 17.8% and SC Ten is on 15.4%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. MKR — 893,000.
  2. Seven News — 624,000.
  3. Revenge — 571,000.
  4. Nine News — 551,000.
  5. The Block All Stars — 501,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep for Seven (overall and the main channels) with Nine second and the ABC and ABC1 third. Meanwhile, 7TWO won the digitals in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth and shared Brisbane with Eleven and 7mate won Melbourne. Seven leads the week everywhere and has it won from this far out. Nine is second and the ABC is third in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. in Brisbane and Adelaide Nine is second and Ten is third.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data