The Winners: We always know it’s been a pretty average night when only two shows average more than one million viewers after 7pm, and they were both at 7pm. The bottom line was last night was dull and pretty boring TV. Nine’s Getaway should have done better than the 987,000 at 7.30pm. Is this a program running out of ideas?

  1. Seven News (6pm) –1.412 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.291 million
  3. ABC News (6pm) — 1.144 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.134 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.130 million
  6. Bond Vet (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.064 million
  7. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.022 million.

The Losers: Ten’s Rush at 8.30pm. Last night it was an improbable train hijacking and averaged 788,000. And it wasn’t good news for Nine’s Cops L.A.C, 926,000, down 200,000 from its debut last week. Nine will say it won the slot, which it did, but it is just hanging on in the major demos.

News & CA: Sunrise fell back under 400,000 viewers and Today narrowed the gap. But at 6pm it was a weak night for Nine with the ABC 7pm News edging in front of the news ratings nationally.

In Sydney, Nine News with 313,000 viewers finished behind Seven (386,000) and the 7pm ABC News (327,000). The $10,000 a night on offer is failing to have any impact.

In Melbourne, Seven News beat Nine News by just 1000 viewers, 387,000 to 386,000. ACA won Melbourne with the highest audience in any market last night of 402,000. TT beat it comfortably elsewhere.

  1. Seven News (6pm) –1.412 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.291 million
  3. ABC News (6pm) — 1.144 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.134 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.130 million
  6. The 7PM Project (Ten) (7pm) — 826,000
  7. The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 821,000
  8. Ten News (Ten) (5pm) — 774,000
  9. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) –266,000
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 237,000
  11. SBS News (9.30pm) — 221,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 197,000
  13. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 84,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 384,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 347,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine won with a share of 31.6%, from Seven with 25.0%, Ten on 19.5% , the ABC with 17.4% and SBS with 6.5%. Nine now leads the week with 28.9% from Seven with 27.7% and Ten with 19.3%. The ABC is sitting on 19.0%. Nine should win the week with an NRL final tonight and two tomorrow night which will give big wins in Sydney and Brisbane. That will offset Seven’s AFL final tonight.
  • Main Channel: A win to Nine with a share of 24.8%, from Seven with 21.6%, Ten on 18.5%, ABC 1 on 14.0% and SBS ONE with 5.9%. Seven leads the week with 24.5% from Nine on 24.0%, Ten on 18.4% and the ABC with 16.4%.
  • Digital: A big win to Nine’s GO which averaged 6.8%, from 7TWO with 3.3%, ABC 2 with 2.1%, ONE with 0.9%, News 24 on 0.7% and ABC 3 and SBS TWO on 0.6% each. That’s a total share of 15.0% for the seven digitals last night. Adelaide was the peak market with a 17.2% total share, but Brisbane with 16.8%, Perth with 16.6% and Melbourne with 14.3%, told us that viewers new that there was a lot of rubbish on the main channels and went looking elsewhere. GO leads the week with 4.9%, from 7TWO with 3.1% and ABC 2 on 1.6%.
  • Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 25.8%, from Seven on 20.4%, Pay TV was third (with its 100 plus channels) with 16.0%, Ten was 4th with 15.9% the ABC was on 14.2% and SBS, 5.3%. The 12 FTA channels had a share of 84.0%, made up of 12.4% for the seven digital channels and 71.6% for the five main channels. It’s no wonder Pay TV did well last night given the paucity of interesting programming on FTA TV.
  • Regional: An easy win for WIN/NBN with 31.8% from Seven on 21.3%, SC Ten on 21.1%, the ABC on 16.6% and SBS with 6.5%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN with 26.0%, from SC Ten with 20.0% and Prime/7Qld with 19.1%. GO won the digitals with a share of 5.8% from 7TWO with 2.1% and ABC 2 on 1.8%. WIN/NBN leads the week with 30.5% from Prime/7Qld with 25.5%. WIN/NBN will go further ahead with the NRL finals starting tonight.

Major Markets: In Sydney overall it was Nine from Seven and the ABC third, but in the main channels it was Nine from Seven and Ten. And that was the order everywhere else but the main channels in Adelaide where it was Nine from Ten and Seven. GO won the digitals everywhere, from 7TWO everywhere bar Perth where ABC 2 was second. ABC 2 finished third in the other metro markets. For the week. Seven leads Nine and the ABC in Sydney, while in Perth it’s Seven from Nine and Ten. Everywhere else its Nine from Seven and Ten, except in Adelaide where its Nine, Seven and the ABC.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The battle of the footy shows continues. Seven’s The Matty Johns Show at 7.30pm in Sydney (272,000, 9th in market) and in Brisbane (151,000, 13th) had more viewers than the Nine’s NRL Footy Show at 9.30pm (114,000 in Sydney and 87,000 in Brisbane). Nine’s AFL Footy Show averaged 366,000 in Melbourne, 4th in market and one of the reasons why Nine won last night nationally and of course in Melbourne. Seven’s Game Day went to 7.30pm in Melbourne and averaged 220,000. It didn’t do as well in Adelaide or Perth and that was another reason why Nine won last night.

TONIGHT: An AFL final on Seven. Could be national, then again it might not be. The NRL final on Nine is just in Sydney and Brisbane and regional areas in both states. Waking the Dead on the ABC. Ten has The 7pm Project and another episode of a Jamie Oliver food walkabout, Jamie Does.

SATURDAY: How much football is enough? Two NRL finals, a day and night final in the AFL on Ten, an A-League soccer game or two and the Wallabies play the Kiwis in the Rugby Test in Sydney, which is live on Seven and Foxtel. The ABC’s repeat of New Tricks though should get a solid audience.

SUNDAY: The last NRL final of the round on Nine, Sunday Night and The X Factor on Seven. 60 Minutes on Nine plus a movie (Iron Man, which is fairly recent).

Ten starts Junior MasterChef for an hour from 7.30pm. From the promos its looks OK, but I wonder about introducing young kids to the concepts of intense competition, perfection and crying over split milk, hot ovens or dud food. Ten has staked all over the next six weeks or so on this program.

SBS has Dateline. The ABC has Midsomer Murders, which will again do well.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports