The Winners

  1. MasterChef (Ten) (7.30pm) — 2.467 million (new season record).
  2. Seven News (6pm)– 1.468 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.435 million.
  4. The Gruen Transfer (ABC) (9 pm) — 1.280 million.
  5. Nine News (6pm) — 1.271 million.
  6. Hey Hey Its Saturday (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.174 million.
  7. Lie To Me (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.171 million.
  8. Spicks and Specks (ABC) (8.30pm) — 1.170 million.
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.141 million.
  10. ABC News (7pm) — 1.070 million.
  11. The 7 PM Project (Ten) 1.022 million.

The 7 PM Project continues to do well, thanks to the boost coming from the end from The Monster (AKA MasterChef). But discounting that, its still doing well and looking and sounding solid.

The Losers

City Homicide, Seven, 8.30pm, 808,000. We will see next week if it has legs to last another season. MasterChef is running over past 8.30pm, holding viewers from other networks. That ends next week. Kylie Minogue and Tony Abbott were on Hey Hey it’s Saturday, and Lie to Me was helped by the afterglow of MasterChef.

News & CA

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.468 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.435 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.271 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.141 million.
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 1.070 million.
  6. The 7 PM Project (Ten) — 1.022 million.
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 839,000.
  8. The 7.30 Report (ABC) — 714,000.
  9. Ten late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 358,000.
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 230,000.
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 222,000.
  12. SBS late News (9.30pm) — 158,000.
  13. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 115,000.

Mornings:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 402,000.
  2. Today (Nine) (7 am) — 288,000.

Close in Sydney at 6pm, Seven by around 1,000 viewers, but Nine won bigger in Melbourne. ACA won Melbourne as well, weak elsewhere. Today continues to drop viewers and the gap is widening between it and Sunrise. The 114,000 difference yesterday morning is large by the levels seen in the past year.

The Stats:

  • FTA: Ten’s night in All People, 16 to 39, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54s. Ten had a share of 28.1%, Nine, 27.3%, Seven, 21.7%, the ABC, 18.4% and SBS, 4.4%. Ten leads the week with 28.7% from Seven with 25.5% and Nine on 25.0%.
  • Main Channel: A win for Ten with 27.6%, from Nine on 24.7% and Seven with 20.1%, ABC1, 16.4% and SBS ONE, 4.1%. Ten leads the week with 27.7%, from Seven on 23.0% and Nine with 22.1%.
  • Digital: GO won with a share of 2.6%, from 7TWO with 1.6%, ABC2, 1.4%, ONE and ABC3 on 0.6% each and SBS TWO with 0.3%. That’s a total share for the six FTA digital channels of 7.1%. GO leads the week on 3.0% from 7TWO with 2.5%. Adelaide with a total share of 8.7% and Perth, with 8.6%, were the best markets for digital last night.
  • Pay TV: Ten won with a share of 23.5%, from Nine on 22.7%, Seven on 18.1%, the ABC, 15.4%, Pay TV 14.1% for the 100 -plus channels to share and SBS, 3.7%. That’s a total share of 85.9% for the 11 FTA channels.
  • Regional: A win to WIN/NBN with 27.4%, from SC Ten on 26.0%, Prime/7Qld with 25.7%, the ABC, 16.2% and SBS, 4.6%. SC Ten won the main channels with 25.4%, from WIN/NBN with 25.2% and Prime/7Qld with 23.8%. GO won the digitals with 2.2%, from 7TWO with 1.9% and ABC2, 1.4%. WIN/NBN lead the week with 27.5% from Prime/7Qld with 27.1% and SC Ten on 25.9%.

Major Markets:

  • Sydney: the same order for the overall and the main channels, Ten from Nine and a weak Seven. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC2. Ten leads the week from Seven and Nine.
  • Melbourne: Kylie boosted Nine to a win from Ten and a distant Seven overall and in the main channels. GO won the digitals from ABC 2 and 7TWO. Ten leads the week from Nine and Seven.
  • Brisbane: Ten, Nine and Seven here as well for the overall and the main channels. GO won the digitals with 7TWO and ABC2 tied for second. Nine leads the week from Ten and Seven.
  • Adelaide: It was Ten from Seven and Nine in both the overall and the main channels. GO won from ABC2 and 7TWO. Ten leads the week from Seven and Nine,
  • Perth: Ten from Seven and Nine in both the overall and the main channels, while it was GO, 7TWO and ONE for the digitals. Seven leads from Ten and Nine.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: And now we have three left in MasterChef, with one to go tonight. And while Australia was watching Jimmy get flicked for cooking what seemed to be a very tasty number, there was Tony Abbott, with Kylie Minogue on Hey Hey its Saturday on Nine. Someone in Abbott’s office obviously thought appearing on Hey Hey in 2010 was as cool as Kevin Rudd appearing on Rove in 07. Kylie Minogue was the big attraction on Hey Hey.

Red Faces started at 8.36 pm, just as MasterChef was ending (around six minutes to go) with over 2.4 million people watching Ten in the metro markets and well over 800,000 in regional areas. So, basically Tony Abbott went missing for a few minutes, but when MasterChef ended, viewers switched to Hey Hey and discovered Kylie and Tony. They started switching off from around 8.45 to 9 pm.

While there was plenty of publicity, higher figures for Hey Hey’s final program (for however long), it wasn’t good enough for a win anywhere, but Melbourne, on the night. Melbourne supported Hey Hey to the end, 514,000 watched, or rather tuned in for home town girl Kylie Minogue. That’s closing in on half the national audience.

Spicks and Specks beat Hey Hey in Sydney and Brisbane, Lie to Me did better in Sydney.

Apart from MasterChef, Spicks and Specks and The Gruen Transfer, it was an average night on TV. Seven was squeezed last night and will be again under pressure tonight as the last elimination will get a huge audience for MasterChef and Ten.

TONIGHT: Blackhole anyone? Seven has one it’s willing to give away, 8. 30pm onwards in Sydney and Brisbane, 7.30pm elsewhere. MasterChef (Monday’s black hole for Ten). Sea Patrol on Nine. The launch of the ABC’s 24 hour news channel from 7.30pm with Kerry O’Brien getting the kiss from management to do the introducing. The Tour de France on SBS.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports