A big win to Seven in metro and regional markets and a weak night for Nine (for the second Tuesday night in a row) which saw the network’s main channel in Perth run a distant fourth behind Seven, Ten and ABC1.

Big Brother (1.172 million national/ 88o,000 metro/ 292,000 regional viewers) is now about where it belongs, but it will probably dip lower  in the next week or so. It didn’t help The Great Australian Bake Off at 8.30pm, which averaged (988,000 national/ 675,000 metro/ 313,000 regional viewers). And The Bible at 9.30pm(633,000 national/ 425,000 metro/ 208,000 regional viewers) which remains the most un-Australian commercial TV program of the year. In fact from around 8.30pm, Nine ran a very weak fourth behind Seven, Ten and ABC1. The baking program would be more competitive if it had a better lead-in or was at a better timeslot, say a Sunday night at 6.30pm.

Big Brother just doesn’t grab viewers outside of the east coast. Many viewers in its demographic — 16 to 49 — hate it and preferred Home and Away and The X Factor, or Under The Dome (and New Tricks nationally) last night. Big Brother’s best market is Brisbane (that’s because it’s a Gold Coast-based production), but is on the nose in Adelaide and Perth and in regional markets (which are a bit more traditional). And looking at the audience figures for Sydney and Melbourne, Big Brother is looking a bit weaker than its starting levels. Viewers know the format very well and realise there’s not much interest until the last couple of weeks. Even the eviction episodes no longer resonate as much as they did years ago with core viewers.  The X Factor, Winners & Losers, Home and Away and MasterChef Australia all did better than Big Brother in some or most demographics (16 to 49s) last night. And core viewers can and do do their browsing of Big Brother on smartphones and tablets which are not measured.

Seven won thanks to Home and Away at 7pm (1.564 million national/ 1.015 million metro/ 549,000 regional viewers), then The X Factor with 2.318 million national/ 1.480 million metro/ 838,000 regional viewers, and then Winners & Losers (1.540 million national/ 1.015 million metro/ 525,000 regional viewers) which dominated prime time viewing. Home and Away (in the Big Brother demographic) and ABC News (out of the Big Brother demographic) had more viewers than Big Brother.

Ten had its best night of the week so far with The Project (846,000 national/ 632,000 metro/ 214,000 regional viewers) a bit higher than normal, MasterChef Australia’s soufflé rose a bit to 1.093 million national/ 803,000 metro/ 290,000 regional  and kept viewers who remain interested in Under The Dome at 8.30pm — 1.285 million national/ 881,000 metro/ 404,000 regional viewers. No room for the Gold Coast refugees from Big Brother then?

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (32.0%)
  2. Nine (24.7%)
  3. Ten (30.3%)
  4. ABC (18.3%)
  5. SBS (4.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (25.4%)
  2. Nine (18.1%)
  3. Ten (15.4%)
  4. ABC1 (13.2%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.2%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.3%)
  2. GO (4.1%)
  3. ABC2 (3.4%)
  4. Eleven (2.8%)
  5. Gem (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The X Factor (Seven) – 2.318 million
  2. Seven News — 1.973 million
  3. Nine News — 1.861 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) – 1.564 million
  5. Winners & Losers (Seven) — 1.540 million
  6. ABC News — 1.460 million
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.358 million
  8. Under The Dome (Ten) — 1.285 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.259 million
  10. New Tricks repeat (ABC 1) — 1.186 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The X Factor (Seven) — 1.480 million
  2. Seven News — 1.305 million
  3. Nine News — 1.249 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.082 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.036 million
  6. Home and Away (Nine) — 1.015 million
  7. Winners & Losers (Seven) — 1.015 million
  8. ABC News — 1.002 million

Losers: Nine’s line-up last night. No rhyme or reason to it. The Bible is a joke bit of TV.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.305 million
  2. Nine News — 1.249 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.082 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.036 million
  5. ABC News — 1.002 million
  6. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 729,000
  7. Ten News — 690,000
  8. The Project (Ten) – 632,000
  9. Insight (SBS ONE) — 267,000
  10. Ten Late News — 198,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 390,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 335,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1, 68,000 + 38,000 on News 24) — 106,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8, TV 1  (2.8%)
  2. LifeStyle  (2.0%)
  3. Fox Classics, UKTV  (1.7%)
  4. Sky News  (1.6%)
  5. Crime & Investigation (1.4%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Australia’s Next Top Model (FX) – 80,000
  2. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 73,000
  3. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 69,000
  4. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 67,000
  5. Futurama (Fox 8) – 65,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) Plus network reports.