The Winners

  1. MasterChef (Ten) (7.30pm) –2.188 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.660 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.631 million.
  4. Hawke (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.606 million.
  5. RBT (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.448 million.
  6. Dancing with the Stars (Seven) (6.30pm) –1.327 million.
  7. Send in the Dogs (Nine) (7pm) –1.237 million.
  8. Merlin (Ten) (6.30pm) — 1.140 million.
  9. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.006 million.

The difference in audience numbers between MasterChef and the rest says it all. Ten however showed up the other networks with the gamble to pick up the idea of a biopic on Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. Hawke was more dominant over the two hours than MasterChef was on its hour. Hawke had a commercial share of around 53% vs. MasterChef‘s 49%

The Losers

Nothing really. MasterChef was too dominant.

News & CA

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.660 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.631 million.
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30 pm).
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 792,000.
  5. Ten News (5pm) — 689,000.
  6. Inside Business (ABC) (10am) — 259,000.
  7. Landline (ABC)(12pm) — 237,000.
  8. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 208,000.
  9. SBS News (6.30pm) — 190,000.

Mornings:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (7am) –328,000.
  2. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 281,000.
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) (7 amam) –270,000.
  4. Meet The Press (Ten) (8am ) — 43,000.

Charles Woolley on 60 Minutes interviewed Julia Gillard. That was odd given 60 Minutes was always going to be swamped by a rampant MasterChef, so only rusted on Nine viewers watched. Either strange or very devious media handling. Insiders had their highest ever non-election day after audience. It’s a good thing that Nine puts the Laurie Oakes interview (Wayne Swan yesterday), before Insiders starts at 9 am. That’s a win to Barry Cassidy and his team who got the biggest boost from the poll yesterday. Today, Sunrise and Meet The Press were all about normal, or near normal. Insiders added 80-100,000 viewers on recent Sundays.

The Stats:

  • FTA: Ten, easily, 33.4%, from Nine with 25.0%, Seven on 24.9%, the ABC, 11.3% and SBS on 5.3%.
  • Main Channel: Ten with a share of 31.4%, from Seven with 21.9%, Nine on 20.4%, ABC1, 10.5 and SBS TWO, 5.0%.
  • Digital: GO with 4.7%, from 7TWO on 3.0%, ONE on 2.0%, ABC2, 0.5%, SBS TWO, 0.4% and ABC3, 0.3%. That’s a total share for the six digital FTA channels of 10.9%. The highest total shares were in Adelaide with 13.4% and Brisbane with 12.6%.
  • Pay TV: Ten won with a share of 27.7%, from Nine and Seven on 20.7% each, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels shared the 14.5% reported, the ABC was on 9.4% and SBS, 4.4%.
  • Regional: Nine won the overall through WIN/NBN and GO. Ten won the Main channels through SC Ten, which was a better indication of the night’s viewing, as always. So WIN/NBN averaged 29.5%, from SC Ten on 29.3%, Prime/7Qld on 23.7%, the ABC, 12.1% and SBS, 5.4%. SC Ten won the main channels with 27.3%, from WIN/NBN on 23.7% and Prime/7Qld with 21.1%. GO won the digitals with a share of 5.8%, from 7TWO on 2.5% and ONE on 2.0%.

Major Markets:

  • Sydney: It was Ten winning overall and the main channels Seven was second and Nine was third. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ONE
  • Melbourne: Ten won from Nine and Seven overall, but in the main channels it was Ten from Seven and Nine. In the digitals it was GO, 7TWO and ONE.
  • Brisbane: It was the same in Brisbane except that the digital line up went, GO, ONE and 7TWO.
  • Adelaide: In Adelaide the same again, Ten, Nine and Seven overall, with the main channels, Ten, Seven and No and GO, 7TWO and One in the digitals.
  • Perth: Here it was Ten, Seven and Nine overall and the main channels, and GO, 7TWO and ONE in the digitals.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week Nine won all people, Seven won the main channels. But Ten was the real winner. More viewers in the 18 to 54 group, all better quality viewers for the advertisers, all off the back of MasterChef. Nine’s GO won the digitals and WIN/NBN won the week in regional areas off the back of a number of strong showings, but especially the Friday night Rugby League in NSW and Qld.

Last night was the final of MasterChef in 2009. So in 2010 Ten has got an extra two weeks (it started a week earlier than in 2009 in April) and millions of dollars in extra revenue out of extending it.

LAST NIGHT: MasterChef had 2.188 million tuned in, just short of the season record of 2.206 million last Thursday night. Adding the regional average of 672,000 for MasterChef, the combined national audience last night was 2.860 million.

Ten backed up with Hawke (1.606 million). Ten has aired programs covering the most important post war political events such as The Dismissal and now Hawke. Ten is obviously more of a risk-taking network than Nine or Seven, or the ABC have been for years.

SATURDAY: Seven had Mark Riley fronting Saturday’s coverage in Canberra to counter Nine’s push to sell its election coverage on the shrinking shoulders of Laurie Oakes, who, unlike his press club appearance on Wednesday, only made fleeting appearances during the day.

Seven and Nine had wall to wall coverage and did well and went national. The ABC was studio based out of Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne and was grey. Barry Cassidy had the touch of the veteran expert and stood out. If that is going to be the standard of the coverage we will get on ABC News 24 from next Thursday, when Sky News won’t have a worry.

And, remember the $250 million rebate off their licensing fees that the Federal Government is giving to the commercial TV networks to ‘help them’? Well another bit of help for our struggling networks (which will report ad growth of around 2% to 15% for the first half on Wednesday), now kicks in with the election campaign called. There’s an extra minute of advertising time for the networks in prime time (6pm to midnight), or 18 minutes for the three networks, or 126 minutes a week. Over the five weeks of the campaign, that’s more than 850 minutes. At say, $20,000 a minute, it could mean an extra $16 million for our struggling networks. Say thank you to ACMA, the regulator.

Will the Ten Network stick political ads in the final week this week (and next Sunday’s grand final) of MasterChef? And with Rove off air, where can Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott go to appear cool (as Kevin Rudd did in 07). Ten’s The 7 PM Project would be the only place. It has 16 to 39 and 18 to 49 viewers locked up at that time of night.

TONIGHT: Oh, dear, there is an election. So Q & A will be full of political claptrap tonight, as will be The 7.30 Report and Lateline, and no doubt Lateline Business. Today Tonight and A Current Affair will discover that they are indeed current affairs programs, and chase our pollies. But tonight MasterChef rules on Ten, and nothing else gets a look in. The ABC also has Media Watch and Australian Story. For those not enamoured of the way the rush to election day will dominate our screens, Seven has fresh Criminal Minds at 8.3 pm when Nine also has a fresh episode of Rescue: Special Ops. and the Tour de France is into the Pyrenees.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports