The Winners: A weak night. The AFL Footy Show was on Nine in southern markets last night: 497,000 viewers all up, with 374,000 in Melbourne, which was the second highest national audience for any market.

Nine dropped The Million Dollar Drop into the schedule late at 8.30pm. It didn’t work, 648,000 viewers. Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight on the ABC beat it with 728,000 with the repeat of Criminal Minds winning the slot for Seven with 869,000.

East West 101, 259,000 last night. SBS’s most watched program, just in front of Inspector Rex with 257,000 for the repeat at 7.30pm.

  1. The Biggest Loser: Families (Ten) (7.30pm) –1.165 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.162 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.115 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.101 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 1.019 million

The Losers: Viewers generally, it’s getting close to the big break and no one is much interested in screening really interesting material.

Air Crash Investigations on Seven at 7.30pm. I am sure I’ve seen something about this crash before in this series. Perhaps that’s why it only averaged 710,000 viewers. Lie To Me on Ten at 8.30pm, 523,000, the 9.30pm second episode, 465,000.

News & CA: 6.30 With George Negus was very solid last night. Over 700,000 people watched the program last night all up. Not far behind ACA‘s single broadcast. Seven News and Today Tonight won everywhere, bar Melbourne where Nine and ACA got up.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.162 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.115 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.101 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 1.019 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 939,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 781,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 780,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 623,000
  9. Hungry Beast (ABC) (9.30pm) — 496,000
  10. 6.30 With George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 467,000
  11. 6.30 With George Negus (Ten) (10.30pm) — 240,000
  12. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 227,000
  13. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 188,000
  14. SBS News (6.30pm) — 148,000
  15. SBS News (9.30pm) — 124,000
  16. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 115,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 367,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 326,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 27.9% from Nine (3) on 26.2%, Ten (3) was on 23.1%, the ABC (4) was on 17.5% and SBS (2) was on 5.2%. Seven leads the week on 30.0%, from Nine on 24.2% and Ten on 21.7%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 19.8% from Nine on 18.8%, Ten was on 16.0%, ABC 1, 13.6% and SBS ONE was on 4.5%. Seven leads the week with 22.5% from Nine on 17.4, Ten on 15.8% and the ABC on 15.6%.
  • Digital: 7TWO and Eleven tied for top with 4.6% each, from GO with 4.2%, 7mate was on 3.6%, Gem was on 3.3%, ONE was 2.5%, ABC 2, 2.3%, ABC 3 was on 1.0%. News 24 and SBS TWO finished with 0.7% each. That’s a total FTA prime time viewing share last night of 27.5%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.1% from Eleven and GO on 3.8%,
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 22.8%, from Nine (3) on 21.4%, Ten (3) was on 18.9%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 15.9%, the ABC (4) was on 14.3% and SBS (2) ended with 4.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of 84.1%, made up of 22.3% for the digital channels and 61.8% for the five main channels. That means 38.2% of the audience last night chose to watch something than the average fare offered by the networks on their main channels.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 29.3% from Prime/7Qld (3) on 27.9%, SC Ten (3) was on 21.3%, the ABC (4) was on 16.3% and SBS (2) was on 5.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels from prime/7Qld. Eleven won the digitals with 5.4% from 7TWO on 5.0% and GO on 4.0%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA prime time share of 28.6% last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 30.6% from WIN/NBN on 28.0%.

Major Markets: Seven won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine won overall and the main channels because of the AFL Footy Show. In Perth interestingly, Nine was third overall, but 4th on the main channels, with the ABC up to third. The ABC was also third in the main channels in Adelaide. Eleven won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. 7TWO won Adelaide and Perth. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A night to ignore, many did, some suffered, or found their own ways to enjoy life.

News that the Nine Network has grabbed the rights to the Kerry packer life story (AKA Paper Giants, which was part 1) from the ABC, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Nine seems to have run out of good ideas three years ago after committing itself to the Underbelly story.

The World Cricket version of Kerry Packer’s life appeals to Nine boss David Gyngell and his good mate, James Packer. It’s very easy grabbing someone else’s success. Perhaps that’s why Nine has lost ground this year in the ratings. You can bet that if James Packer hadn’t liked his dad’s portrayal in Paper Giants, then Gyngell would not have moved to grab the series.

TONIGHT: And the weekend… Lots of sport (AFL, NRL, IPL, horses, running), news and weather. Nine has not only AFP starting on Tuesday but the last series of Sea Patrol is also back that night.

Watch out for the networks going all royal from next week. Tuesday night Seven is full of it. It will be nauseating. The ABC, Ten and Nine also contribute and avoid Sunrise and Today. They are from London.

There’s AFL tonight on Seven in the south and NRL on Friday night. The best advice is to go, eat a few buns, much on an egg or 30 and ignore the box. According to various calendars, the conjunction of Easter and Anzac Day won’t happen until 2038. So enjoy the break and not the TV. Damn inconvenient of the royals to be marrying out of official ratings, isn’t it? Pass me another egg and call give me a bun as well, I’m out of here.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports