The Winners: Ten’s night easily. Seven’s No Ordinary Family held up well against MasterChef and the first hour of The Biggest Loser finale. Nine got creamed, as it knew it would. It goes without saying that Ten won the demos.

  1. The Biggest Loser: Families (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.682 million
  2. MasterChef (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.656 million
  3. The Biggest Loser: Families (winner announced) (Ten) (10pm) — 1.555 million
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.520 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.433 million
  6. Nine News (6pm) — 1.375 million
  7. ABC News (7pm) — 1.224 million
  8. No Ordinary Family (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.137 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.118 million
  10. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 1.096 million
  11. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.093 million
  12. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.041 million

The Losers: No one really. Such a big night for Ten.

News & CA: Seven News won Sydney, lost Melbourne and Brisbane to Nine, Seven won Adelaide and Perth very easily. TT won all five metro markets. ACA had a weak night, although it averaged more than a million viewers.

6.30 with George Negus had a red letter evening thanks to Osama Bin Laden’s death and the final of The Biggest Loser: Families. The 6.30pm broadcast averaged 629,000, an all time high and 60% of ACA‘s audience. ACA didn’t even mention Bin Laden and his death. Was Tracy Grimshaw and ACA‘s producers at sea on a big international story? Looked like it. A ten minute backstage pass report on the Logies was pride of place on ACA.

Certainly Negus and the crew at 6.30pm stood out with solid coverage. The 10.30pm repeat averaged 561,000 and was no doubt helped by coming after the winner announcement of The Biggest Loser: Families.

In the morning Today won with the Gold Logie winner Karl Stefanovic strutting his stuff and reminding us that he is the best Gold Logie that money could buy.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.520 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.433 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.375 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 1.224 million
  5. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 1.096 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.093 million
  7. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 880,000
  8. Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 831,000
  9. Ten News (5pm) — 792,000
  10. Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 691,000
  11. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 629,000
  12. Media Watch (ABC) (9.15pm) — 606,000
  13. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (10.30pm) — 561,000
  14. Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 527,000
  15. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 313,000
  16. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 246,000
  17. SBS News (6.30pm) — 213,000
  18. Lateline Business (ABC, 11.05 – 11.35 pm, replay) — 137,000
  19. SBS News (9.30 – 10 pm) — 104,000

In the morning:

  1. Today (Nine) (7am) — 441,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 396,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Ten (3 channels) won with a share of 30.9% from Seven (3) on 26.1%, Nine (3, was on 22.3%, the ABC (4) ended with 16.1% and SBS was on 4.5%. Nine leads the week with 28.8% from Ten on 26.9% and Seven on 25.2%.
  • Main Channel: Ten won with 27.1% from Seven with 18.7%, Nine was on 17.3%, ABC 1, 13.2% and SBS ONE, 4.0%. Ten leads the week with 22.9% from Nine on 22.8% and Seven on 18.7%.
  • Digital: A low night for the digitals with so much on Ten. 7TWO won with 4.6%, from Eleven on 3.0%, 7mate was on 2.9%, GO ended with 2.6%, Gem, 2.4%, ABC 2, 1.4%, ONE and News 24, 0.9%, and SBS TWO and ABC 3 ended with 0.6% each. That’s a total FTA viewing share last night of 19.9%. 7TWO leads the week with 3.6% from GO on 3.1% and 7mate on 3.0%.
  • Pay TV: Ten (3 channels) won with 26.2% from Seven (3) on 22.2%, Nine (3) was on 18.9%, the ABC (4, 13.7%; Pay TV, 12.3% for its 100 plus channels and low by recent comparisons. SBS (2) was on 3.9%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share of viewing last night of 87.7%, made up of 16.7% for the digital channels and 71% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: A different result in regional areas as Ten’s programs were not quite as successful, especially TBL. Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won overall with 27.8% from SC Ten (3) on 27.0%, with WIN/NBN on 23.4%, the ABC (4) was on 17.3% and SBS (2) ended with 4.4%. The main channels though were won by SC Ten on 22.8% from Prime/7 Qld with 19.6% and WIN/NBN on 19.0%. The digital channels were won by 7TWO with 4.8%, with 7mate and Eleven on 3.4% each. WIN/NBN leads the week with 28.7% from Prime/7Qld on 26.9% and SC Ten on 23.8%.

Major Markets: A curious night. Ten wasn’t as dominant in Adelaide and Perth as it was on the east coast. Nor was The Biggest Loser: Families as well viewed in regional areas as in the metro markets. The winner’s announcement didn’t out rate the finale. Being after 10 pm, that was probably half an hour too late.

In regional areas the finale averaged 572,000 for a total national audience of 2.254 million. The winner announced averaged 516,000 in regional areas, with the total national audience 2.06 million. MasterChef averaged 604,000 in regional areas and topped the night, as it did nationally with 2.260 million viewers.

  • Sydney: Ten beat Seven and Nine overall and in the main channels, 7TWO won the digitals and Nine leads Ten and Seven
  • Melbourne: Ten beat Seven and Nine overall, but in the main channels it was Ten from Nine and Seven. 7TWO won the digitals and Nine leads the week from Ten and Seven.
  • Brisbane: Ten won from Nine and Seven overall and in the main channels. 7TWO won the digitals and Nine leads the week from Ten and Seven.
  • Adelaide: Ten beat Seven and Nine overall, but in the main channels Ten beat Nine and Seven. 7TWO won the digitals and Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.
  • Perth: Seven won overall from Ten and Nine, but Ten won the main channels from Seven and Nine. 7TWO won the digitals and Seven leads the week from Ten and Nine.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The best night of the year so far for Ten with the revitalised The Biggest Loser: Families concept paying off. But wasn’t it odd that 127,000 viewers from the finale night audience of 1.682 million, didn’t stay around for the announcement of the winner (1.555 million). But the concept has been revived for Ten and will be back next year.

MasterChef Australia, which is the antitheses of The Biggest Loser, was again solid with 1.656 million. Am I wrong but gee there are some early tearing up and crook cooks? A dud scone is a recipe for indigestion, off with the heads, I say! The selection panel assessing them mustn’t have much to work with.

Its Ten’s gloating time today after last night. But unless it can find some other gold amongst the non-MasterChef programs, it will be a lonely success for the network.

TONIGHT: Winners & Losers on Seven at 9pm, after the returning Australia’s Got Talent. Is it past its use by date, despite a new judge? It’s up against a new NCIS on Ten which is after MasterChef and The 7pm Project. Nine has the second episode of AFP: Australian Federal Police at 8pm and then Sea Patrol. A tough night. The ABC has Foreign Correspondent and SBS has Insight.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports