The Winners: Seven had the easiest of wins. Nine was terrible and Ten held up thanks to The Biggest Loser: Families and the AFL game in southern markets. Better Homes and Gardens was moved to 7.30pm by Seven last night because of the AFL and the royal wedding tonight — it averaged 979,000.

Ten’s AFL coverage averaged 470,000 on the main channels and 150,000 on ONE. Just 20,000 watched the delayed telecast in Sydney.

  1. Seven News (6pm ) — 1.269 million
  2. The Biggest Loser: Families (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.158 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.094 million
  4. ABC News (7pm)  — 1.051 million
  5. Nine News (6pm)  — 1.047 million

The Losers: Nine, an appalling night of TV. 4th behind the ABC on the main channels, which is where all the action is in mainstream TV in this country. The royal special at 7.30pm, William and Kate: The Royal Wedding Countdown, flopped (see below). The NRL Footy Show, 203,000, 144,000 in Sydney and just 59,000 in Brisbane. At this rate Nine will have to start paying viewers to watch this stuff.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney, lost the rest. TT beat ACA everywhere. ACA again weak and 6.30 with George Negus again had more than half its audience at 6.30pm. The 7pm Project had more viewers than ACA did half an hour earlier and will do well from next week while MasterChef is on and starting at 7.30pm. ACA is under increasing pressure.

  1. Seven News (6pm ) — 1.269 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.094 million
  3. ABC News (7pm)  — 1.051 million
  4. Nine News (6pm)  — 1.047 million
  5. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 844,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 834,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 775,000
  8. Q&A (ABC) (8.30pm) — 676,000
  9. Ten News (Ten) (5pm) — 613,000
  10. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 455,000
  11. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 247,000
  12. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 209,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 180,000
  14. SBS News (9.30pm) — 105,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 94,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 396,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 369,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 28.2% from Ten (3), on 26.9%, Nine (3) was on 21.1%, the ABC (4) ended with 18.4% and SBS (2) was on 5.5%. Seven leads the week with 29.5% from Nine on 25.1% and Ten with 23.0%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 20.8% from Ten with 19.3%, ABC 1 was on 14.7% and Nine ended with 14.1%. SBS ONE was on 4.7%. Seven leads the week with 21.3% from Nine on 17.5% and Ten on 16.9%.
  • Digital: Eleven won with a share of 4.5%, from 7TWO with 3.8%, 7mate was on 3.6%, GO and Gem ended with 3.5% each; ONE was on 3.0% (boosted by the AFL in some markets), ABC 2 was on 2.3%, ABC 3 was on 0.9%, SBS TWO, 0.8% and News 24 ended with 0.5%. That’s an FTA prime time share last night of 27.4%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.2% from 7mate on 4.1% and Gem and Eleven on 3.9%, with GO on 3.7%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 23.0% from Ten (3) on 21.9%, Nine, (3) was on 17.2%, Pay TV (100 plus channels)  was on 15.5%, the ABC (4) ended with 15.0% and SBS (2) was on 4.5%. That left the 15 FTA channels with a total share of viewing last night of 84.5%. The 10 digital channels had a share of 21.5%, leaving the five main channels with a share of 63.0%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 31.3% from WIN/NBN (3) with 24.8%, SC Ten (3) was on 21.4%, the ABC (4) was on 16.8% and SBS (2) ended with 5.7%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels from WIN/NBN. Eleven won the digitals with 4.7% from 7mate with 5.0%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share of 27.4% in prime time last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 30.7% from WIN/NBN on 27.8%.

Major Markets: A mixed night, thanks to the AFL on Ten. Seven won clearly. It won Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide overall and the main channels. The ABC pushed Ten out of third in the main channels in Sydney and Nine in Adelaide. Ten won Melbourne and Perth overall and in the main channels. The ABC pushed Nine out of third in the main channels in Melbourne and in Perth. Eleven won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. 7TWO won Adelaide and 7mate won the digitals in Perth. Seven leads the week everywhere from Nine and Ten and will end up with an easy win.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Score one for the ABC. It’s treatment of the royal wedding last night with a set up one hour special from 8.30pm and then an hour long Q&A averaged 661,000 until 10.30pm. Which wasn’t bad for the usually low viewing Thursday evening. It was grown up TV, unlike what Nine showed us last night.

Nine’s half hour stinker entitled William and Kate: The Royal Wedding Countdown and was hosted by Karl Stefanovic, Lisa Wilkinson, Leila McKinnon and Kathy Lette. It went all but unwatched, just 431,000 viewers. It pushed Getaway — which had a royal honeymoon special — down to 465,000. Both were beaten by 7.30 and Catalyst on the ABC, as well as Seven and The Biggest Loser: Families.  Not the sort of figures Nine would have wanted. Perhaps overkill in London?

Viewers aren’t stupid, despite what Nine thinks. And ACA was again weak last night.

TONIGHT: You’re on your own tonight. There’s AFL on Seven main and 7mate (Carlton vs. Swans). NRL on Nine, other stuff on Ten. And of course a certain function from London. View at your own risk. It’s one or both of the footy games for me, or go out and avoid TV.

Saturday: Today and Sunrise full of royal gush. AFL on Ten and Foxtel and NRL on Foxtel. There’s not much on Ten in non-AFL markets. Dr Who returns to the ABC at 7.30pm. Spooks at 8.30pm is the highlight for the night.

Sunday: Morning chats with more royal gush and some politics. AFL on Seven, NRL on Nine and of course ratings proper restart so we get the start of 2011 MasterChef Australia on Ten, the return of Sunday Night on Seven and the Logies on Nine. The ABC has a repeat of Midsomer Murders at 8.30pm for those tired of the circuses.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports