The Winners: The X Factor started last night on Seven — it did well in Sydney, beaten in Melbourne and not so hot elsewhere. The ABC’s four and a half hours of News and Current Affairs did well, especially in Sydney.

  1. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.748 million
  2. Seven News (6pm)  — 1.427 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.367 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.238 million
  5. The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) (debut) — 1.186 million
  6. ABC News (7pm) — 1.145 million
  7. Two and a Half Men (Nine) (7pm) (repeat) — 1.144 million
  8. Undercover Boss (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.126 million
  9. Two and a Half Men (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.074 million
  10. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 1.029 million
  11. Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 1.018 million
  12. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.013 million

The Losers: Hot in Cleveland on Nine had 839,000 viewers last night. It’s cooling. That was 4th in the slot. No good.

News & CA: The Bert and Patti Newton interview on ACA did it last night. It was very hard not to sympathise with them. Four Corners did very well with its tie up with Fairfax (it will be interesting to see if there is a follow up further down the track or in 2011 on this story to tell us what has happened).

Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne. The 7pm ABC News in Sydney finished third behind Nine and pushed Seven News into third in the news rankings. ACA won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, TT won Adelaide and Perth. Seven News won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

  1. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.748 million
  2. Seven News (6pm)  — 1.427 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.367 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.238 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 1.145 million
  6. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 1.029 million
  7. Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 1.018 million
  8. Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 982,000
  9. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 958,000
  10. Media Watch (ABC) (9.20pm) — 886,000
  11. Ten News (5pm) — 811,000
  12. Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 741,000
  13. Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 364,000
  14. SBS News (6.30pm) — 199,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 178,000
  16. SBS News (9.30pm) — 161,000

In the mornings:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 388,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 307,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven won with a share of 28.0% from Nine on 25.8%, Ten with 20.2%, the ABC with 20.0% and SBS with 6.0%. Seven leads the week with 30.2% from Nine on 27.0% and Ten with 21.2% and SBS on 5.0%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won here with a share of 23.9%, from Nine on 22.6%, Ten with 19.1%, ABC 1 with 17.1% and SBS ONE with 5.5%. Seven also leads with a share of 26.7%, from Nine with 23.1% and Ten on 18.3%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.2%, from GO on 3.2%, ABC 2 with 2.1%, ONE with 1.1%, SBS TWO on 0.6%, ABC 3 on 0.5% and News 24 on 0.3%. That’s a total share of 12.0% for the seven digital networks. GO leads the week with 3.9% from 7TWO on 3.5% and ONE on 2.9%. Adelaide was the best market with 15% total for the seven digital channels.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with a share of 23.3%, from Nine on 21.4%, Ten on 16.8%, the ABC was on 16.6%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels shared 14.5% and SBS was on 5.0%. The 12 FTA channels shared a total of 85.5%, made up of 10.0% for the digital channels, leaving the five main channels to share 75.5%.
  • Regional: A win to Prime/7Qld with 29.3% from WIN/NBN with 27.2%, SC Ten on 20.2%, the ABC with 17.3% and SBS on 5.9%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels from WIN/NBN and SC Ten. 7TWO won the digitals with 3.6%, from GO on 3.5% and ABC 2 on 1.6%. Prime/7Qld lead the week with 30.2%, from WIN/NBN on 28.6%.

Major Markets: 7TWO won the digitals from GO and ABC 2 in all metro markets. Seven leads Nine and Ten in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. In Brisbane it’s Nine from Seven and Ten. In Perth it’s Seven from Ten and Nine.

  • Sydney: Seven won overall and in the main channels from Nine and the ABC.
  • Melbourne: Nine won from Seven and Ten overall and main channels.
  • Brisbane: Nine won here overall and in the main channels from Seven and Ten.
  • Adelaide: Seven won overall from Nine and the ABC. In the main channels it was Seven from Nine and Ten.
  • Perth: It was Seven from Nine and Ten overall, while in the main channel it was Seven from Ten and Nine.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Oh, dear, that wasn’t supposed to happen, was it? Just 1.186 million watching the most heavily promoted show on Seven this year. The X Factor is a flop on what we saw last night and the audience reaction.

It did well with women viewers in the 16 to 54 age group, not so well with males. That’s the same skew we saw with Australian Idol, The Biggest Loser and So You Think You Can Dance Australia. But whoever conceived of the intro of the luxury launches taking the judges up Sydney Harbour needs to be made to walk the plank today.

Seven will argue that it did better than RSPCA Animal Rescue and Under The Hammer in the previous four weeks or so. It did and it also won the timeslot.

But viewers are awake to these types of reality programs, they know the early rounds are boring, the middle ones, slightly more interesting, but all that matters is the last couple and especially the final. But a lot of time and money has to be spent to get to that point. Ten’s Undercover Boss beat The X Factor in all the main demos and won 16 to 39.

It will do passable numbers for Seven but The X Factor doesn’t have an “X factor” to speak of.

TONIGHT: The X Factor and Packed to the Rafters on Seven. The last Baroque and  Foreign Correspondent on the ABC. Top Gear on Nine. The 7pm Project and doubled episodes of Modern Family on Ten from 7.30pm to 8.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports