Are US crime shows losing their appeal?

Are thrills of watching American crime dramas might be waning a touch in Australia?

The Winners: A widely spread night, but nothing really stunning to top Seven News and Today Tonight on the most watched list.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.494 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.385 million
Two and a Half Men (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.316 million
Undercover Boss Australia (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.268 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.250 million
Junior MasterChef (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.205 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.192 million
Two and a Half Men (Nine) (8pm) (repeat) — 1.137 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.102 million
Two and a Half Men (Nine) (7pm) (repeat) — 1.065 million
The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.033 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.028 million
The Mentalist (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.008 million

The Losers: A reasonably attractive night, though the 1.008 million for The Mentalist in Nine at 8.30pm and the 980,000 for Seven’s Criminal Minds in the same slot suggests the thrills of watching American crime dramas might be waning a touch in Australia.

News & CA: Seven News won nationally and in every market, including Sydney where Sundays lowish audience became a very large 408,000 last night, 68,000 ahead of Nine. Strange indeed. ACA beat TT in Melbourne. TT won nationally and in other metro markets, winning Sydney by 79,000. Strange again. The ABC’s line up was solid.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.494 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.385 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.250 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.192 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.028 million
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 952,000
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 885,000
Ten News (5pm) — 879,000
The 7.30 Report (ABC) (7.30pm) — 846,000
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 819,000
Media Watch (ABC) (9.20pm) — 763,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 622,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 306,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.40pm) — 298,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 190,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.10pm) (replay) — 160,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 123,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 386,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 336,000

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won with a share of 27.7%, from Seven with 26.9%, Ten on 22.1%, the ABC, 17.9% and SBS, 5.5%. Nine leads the week with 28.8%, from Seven with 28.3% and Ten on 21.1%.
Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 22.7%, from Seven on 22.6%, Ten was on 21.4%, ABC 1, 15.5%, and SBS One was on 4.9%. Seven leads the week with 23.9% from Nine on 23.2% and Ten on 20.3%.
Digital: GO won with 2.9%, from 7TWO on 2.2%, 7Mate on 2.1%, Gem on 2.0% (recovered from Sunday night’s low), ABC 2 on 1.6%, ONE with 0.7%, SBS TWO on 0.6% and News 24 and ABC 3 with 0.4% each. That’s a total share of 12.9% for the FTA digital channels.
Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 23.1% for its three channels, from 22.4% for Seven and its trio, 18.4% for Ten’s two channels, 14.9% for the ABC’s quartet, 14.4% for Pay TV and its 100 plus channels and SBS was on a total of 4.6% for its duo. That left the 14 FTA channels to share 85.6%, made up of 9.9% for the digitals and 74.7% for the five main channels. Pay TV’s shares ranged from the usual Sydney high of 18.2%, to the usual Adelaide low of 9.3%.
Regional: WIN/NBN won here with a share of 28.67% from Prime/7Qld with 26.5%, SC Ten with 20.6%, the ABC with 18.1% and SBS on 6.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 23.6% from Prime/7Qld with 21.8% and SC Ten on 19.9%. GO won the digitals with 3.9%, from 7Mate on 2.8% and 7TWO with 2.1% and ABC 2 with 1.8%. The nine digital channels had an FTA share of 14.3%. WIN/NBN lead the week with 31.7% to Prime/7Qld on 28.6%.

Major Markets: A weaker night for the FTA digitals, but Pay TV was again solid. Nine won because of big audiences in Melbourne for Two And A Half Men, compared to Sydney where it didn’t do as well.

Sydney: Seven won overall and in the main channels from Nine and Ten. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and 7Mate. Nine leads Seven and Ten for the week so far. The FTA share for the nine digitals was a weak 10.4%.
Melbourne: Nine won overall from Seven and Ten, and won the main channels from Ten and Seven. GO won the digitals, with Gem, 7Mate and 7TWO all tied for second. Nine leads the week from Seven and Ten. The FTA share for the digital channels was 13.4%.
Brisbane: Nine won from Seven and Ten overall, but Seven won from Nine and Ten on the main channels. GO won the digitals from Gem and 7Mate. Nine leads the week from Seven and Ten. The FTA digitals totalled 12.9%.
Adelaide: Seven won both the overall and the main channels, from Nine and Ten. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and Gem. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten. The nine digital channels shared a total of 15.9%.
Perth: A win to Seven overall from Nine and Ten and a win for Seven in the main channels, with Ten second and Nine third. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and Gem. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten and the digital channels had a total FTA share of 14.6%.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A fairly standard night of TV. Ten won the demos, as on Sunday night.

TONIGHT: Packed to the Rafters on Seven tonight at 8.30pm. Ratings have drifted in the last two months, so there’s a death in the family, or so the promos have been telling us. Nine reinserts Warnie into Top Gear Australia to give it some relevance for viewers. Ten has NCIS; the ABC has Foreign Correspondent, SBS has Insight. Oh, there’s a horse race in Melbourne this afternoon, soon, on Seven.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports