There was life in dem ol’ bones last night for Seven, thanks to the grand final of Dancing With The Stars. It surprised by producing an unexpected winner — Cosentino (Seven’s in-house magician and a former Australia’s Got Talent contestant) beat the favoured Tina Arena (a judge this year on The X Factor) and Rhiannon Fish (Home and Away).  Dancing With The Stars (2.177 million national/ 1.384 million metro/ 733,000 regional viewers) provided a bit of colour in a rather dull night and final week of ratings. Last night’s grand final figures were up 18% on 2012’s national and metro figures.

In other words, Seven won coming and going — solid ratings, all the finalists associated with the network and a good winner (Although Ms Arena got my vote). But for Ms Fish, what a month. She was married on Home and Away earlier this month, tonight there’s the bomb at Summer Bay. Will 2014 bring a gap in the cast? Surely will because she’s off to Hollywood for fame and fortune, so kaboom tonight and no more April? Or will she be disfigured or missing, just in case?

Life must have been really dull in Perth last night (isn’t it all the time, except when the cricket, rugby and AFL are on?) because Seven had a 45 share in prime time among FTA networks. Seven won easily in metro and regional markets and the combination of Home and Away and Dancing With The Stars scooped up the demographics as well. Last night means Seven will win the last week of official ratings and tonight will add the icing on top of the cake. The only other program of interest last night was ABC1’s Keating (1.146 million national/ 772,000 metro/ 374,000 regional viewers). What’s Old Silver going to say in response?

Disaster update: Ten’s Wake Up — 24,000 metro viewers and 43,000 nationally yesterday morning (24,000 and 49,000 on Monday), while Studio 10 “zoomed” to 35,000 from 25,000, and its national audience “climbed” to 55,000 from 46,000. In metro areas Ten and ABC1 were close for third, with Ten probably a short nose in front. In regional areas ABC1 was again a dominant third, leaving Ten ( through its affiliate Southern Cross) behind in fourth and still not very happy.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (39.2%)
  2. Nine (20.4%)
  3. Ten (19.0%)
  4. ABC (17.7%)
  5. SBS (3.8%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (30.9%)
  2. Nine (16.0%)
  3. ABC1 (12.7%)
  4. Ten (12.6%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.1%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.7%)
  2. 7mate, Eleven (3.5%)
  3. ABC 2 (3.2%)
  4. ONE (2.8%)
  5. GO (2.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Dancing With The Stars (Seven) — 2.117 million
  2. Seven News — 1.675 million
  3. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.602 million
  4. Nine News — 1.542 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.277 million
  6. ABC News — 1.209 million
  7. Keating (ABC1) — 1.146 million
  8. The Big Bang Theory repeat episode 2 (Nine) — 1.091 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 997,000
  10. Body of Proof (Seven) — 996,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Dancing With The Stars (Seven) — 1.384 million
  2. Seven News — 1.085 million
  3. Nine News — 1.058 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.027 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.022 million

Losers: Well, for viewers of Seven and ABC1 it wasn’t a bad night. For the rest, forget it!Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.085 million
  2. Nine News — 1.058 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.027 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) – 810,000
  5. ABC News — 799,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 631,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News — 608,000
  8. Foreign Correspondent (ABC1) – 601,000
  9. The Project (Ten) — 511,000
  10. Lateline (ABC1) — 162,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 391,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 315,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 169,000
  4. Mornings (Nine) — 118,000
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1 had 78,000 + 35,000 on News 24) — 113,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 35,000
  7. Wake Up (Ten) — 24,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8 – (3.1%)
  2. TV1 – (2.6%)
  3. LifeStyle – (2.4%)
  4. Disney Jr, A&E, LifeStyle You  – (1.9%)
  5. Sky News – (1.7%)

Top pay TV programs:

  1. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 98,000
  2. America’s Next Top Model (Fox 8) — 78,000
  3. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 77,000
  4. The Carrie Diaries (Fox 8), Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) — 60,000
  5. Storage Wars Australia (A&E)) – 55,000

Tonight: Just as Dancing With The Stars brightened what was a seriously dull night last night, tonight will be lit up by the final appearance of Ja’mie: Primary School Girl. She’s leaving us because Christopher Pyne and Tony Abbott are abandoning Gonski and the lass can’t afford to repeat Year 12, again. But under the new Pyne funding model, school lad Jonah is furthering his life experiences on Tonga in 2014 where he will attempt to turn back the boats for that nice Mr Morrison, and buy a boat so he can return to school in Australia and flee the rising waters of the Pacific.

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