Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: viewers disengage for the year

A night where the metro-regional split reappeared. Seven and Nine fought themselves in the metros, where Seven won Total People and all but finished in a draw in the main channels, with Ten a clear third and the ABC an average fourth. But in the regions Seven won by the proverbial country kilometre, with the ABC a solid third and Ten a distant fourth. That regional performance will drive Southern Cross (Ten’s regional affiliate) mad with frustration at the continuing weak performance of the network’s programs in regional Australia. Ten had two programs in the national top 10, Modern Family and Scorpion. That was because of support from metro viewers.

Nine’s Gotham continues to slide. It is now half its debut audience and is now approaching turkey territory in Australia (just in time for Thanksgiving). The same applies to Ten’s NCIS New Orleans, while Scorpion did OK, having steadied around its current level. The second series of Seven’s Resurrection has its neck on the block after last night’s effort. Gotham had 960,000 national viewers and Scorpion, 882,000. Resurrection had 734,000 for episode one and 541,000 for episode two. Nine’s movie Batman averaged a derisory 217,000 in the five metro markets (including just 78,000 in Sydney) from 9.30pm. NCIS New Orleans had 733,000 national viewers. These figures for Scorpion, NCIS New Orleans, Resurrection (episode 1 ) and Gotham would be fine, if they were in the metro markets. But nationally?

Seven’s Big Adventure struggled to break the one million national (not metro) audience. It backs up tonight and will be lucky to make that modest level. It is a tiring combination of Survivor, Big Brother, The Biggest Loser and perhaps The Block. Million Dollar Minute is more entertaining.

Network channel share:

Seven (29.4%)
Nine (27.2%)
Ten (20.7%)
ABC (15.9%)
SBS (6.7%)

Network main channels:

Seven (19.8%)
Nine (19.7%)
Ten (12.0%)
ABC (12.0.%)
SBS ONE (5.7%)

Top 5 digital channels:

7TWO (5.8%)
Eleven (4.5%)
GO (4.1%)
ONE (4.0%)
7mate (3.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

Seven News — 1.574 million
60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.530 million
Nine News — 1.353 million
ABC News – 1.263 million
Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.263 million
The Embassy (Nine) — 1.243 million
The Big Adventure (Seven) — 1.094 million
Modern Family (Ten) — 960,000
Gotham (Nine) — 960,000
Scorpion (Ten) — 882,000

Top metro programs:

60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.056 million
Seven News — 1.024 million

Losers: There was a sense last night of viewers finishing their active engagement with TV for the year. A string of new US programs littered the schedules last night, leaving their programmers dazed and confused this morning. The top five programs nationally were all news and current affairs, which tells us the audience knows they are being fed turkey with a lot of sauce to hide the dry, boring, chewy taste.Metro news and current affairs:

60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.056 million
Seven News — 1.024 million
ABC News – 859,000
Sunday Night (Seven) — 781,000
Ten Eyewitness News — 402,000
SBS World News — 174,000

Morning TV:

Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 301,000
Insiders (ABC 182,000, 95,000 on News 24) — 277,000
Landline (ABC) – 274000
Weekend Today (Nine) — 225,000
Financial Review Sunday (Nine) — 142,000
Offsiders (ABC) — 134,000
The Bolt Report (Ten) — 119,000
The Bolt Report repeat (Ten) — 102,000

Top five pay TV channels:

Fox Sports 2 (4.3%)
Fox8 (2.9%)
LifeStyle (2.7%)
TVHITS! (2.1%)
Fox Sports 1 (2.0%)

Top five pay TV programs:

Midsomer Murders (UKTV) – 93,000
Cricket: Pakistan v Australia First test (Fox Sports 2) – 90,000
A League: Adelaide v Perth (Fox Sports 1) – 82,000
The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (Fox Movies Premiere) – 70,000
Top 20 Funniest (Fox8) – 59,000

*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.) and network reports.