The Winners: Angry Boys averaged 805,000 from 9pm on the ABC as the core audience was off watching the thrilling second half of the NRL State of Origin. Spicks and Specks averaged 729,000 at 8.30pm. There was no discernible rush of viewing support after the ABC announced yesterday the series was ending on November 23 because Adam Hills, Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough wanted to finish up.

  1. State of Origin (Nine) (8pm) – 2.227 million
  2. State of Origin (pre-match) (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.471 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.352 million
  4. Australia’s Got Talent (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.286 million
  5. Seven News (6pm) — 1.277 million
  6. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.236 million
  7. Nine News (6pm) — 1.171 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.131 million
  9. State of Origin (post-match) (9.45pm) — 1.108 million
  10. The Oprah Winfrey Show (Ten) (9pm) — 1.006 million

The Losers: Queensland were winners though.

News & CA: Nine News had one of its best nights of the year, winning Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but again losing nationally because of weak efforts in Adelaide and Perth by the WIN affiliate.

But Today Tonight had a clean sweep over ACA whose audiences in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane dropped away from these of the news. ACA shed more than 100,000 viewers from Nine News in Melbourne and 60,000 in Brisbane.

Sunrise was back in front of Today in the morning. Sunrise jumped to 406,000, Today fell back from the winning position of Tuesday morning.

  1. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.352 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.277 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.171 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 956,000
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 895,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 826,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 686,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 512,000
  9. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 460,000
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 229,000
  11. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (11pm) — 228,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 194,000
  13. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11.30pm) — 143,000
  14. Lateline Business (ABC) (11pm) — 108,000
  15. SBS News (9.30pm) — 74,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 406,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 348,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 34.5% from Seven (3) on 26.3%, Ten (3) was on 23.1%, the ABC (4) was on 12.6% and SBS (2) was on 3.5%. Seven still leads the week with 31.0% from Nine on 27.8% and Ten on 23.4%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with 30.1% from Seven on 19.7%, Ten was on 18.1%, ABC 1 was on 9.2% and SBS ONE ended with 3.0%. Seven leads the week on 23.8% from Nine on 21.5% and Ten on 17.8%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with 4.2% from Eleven on 3.3%, 7mate was on 2.4%, Gem was on 2.2%, GO and ABC 2 were on 2.1% each, ONE was on 1.7%, ABC 3, 0.7%, News 24, 0.6% and SBS TWO, 0.5%. That’s a prime time FTA share of 19.8% (a bit low because of the Origin game on Nine’s main channel live in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne). 7TWO leads the week with 4.1% from GO on 3.6% and 7mate on 3.2%.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 29.1%, from Seven (3) on 22.2%, Ten (3) was on 19.5%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 12.2%, the ABC (4) was on 10.7% and SBS (2) ended with 3.0%. The 15 FTA channels had an 87.8% share of TV viewing in prime time last night. that was made up of 16.8% for the digitals and 71.0% for the five main channels, the highest share for a while.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 44.0% from Prime/7Qld (3) on 26.4%, SC Ten (3) was on 15.6%, the ABC (4) was on 10.9% and SBS (2) ended with 3.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels by a country mile because of the success of the Origin game. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.3%, from Eleven on 3.2% and 7mate on 2.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA prime time share last night of 19.7%. WIN/NBN now lead the week with 31.8% from Prime/7Qld on 31.5%.

Major Markets: A split round, so to speak. Nine won easily in Sydney and Brisbane, overall and the main channels because of the Origin game. Ten won Melbourne overall and the main channels. Seven won Adelaide and Perth overall and the main channels. 7TWO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Eleven won in Melbourne. Nine leads Seven in Sydney and Brisbane. Seven leads Ten and Nine in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Angry Boys everywhere, on Nine, on the ABC and possibly elsewhere.

A record for the Origin audience in the capital cities, but if I was Nine I would be worried because the audiences for Australia’s Got Talent and MasterChef weren’t that badly damaged. In fact more than 2.5 million people preferred to watch those programs from 7.30pm to 8.30pm. That resilience is not evident in Nine’s key programs.

TONIGHT: Between The Lines and the AFL and NRL Footy Shows on Nine, good reasons to be on another channel or go to bed after being exhausted by last night’s Origin opener.

Seven has its fleet of female skewing programs. Ten of course has MasterChef.

The ABC has what’s look like a good doco at 8.30pm on Sydney in 1953 called Recipe for Murder and SBS has a fresh foodie series starting, Lyndey & Blair’s Taste of Greece. It’s especially tragic because Blair Milan died recently from leukaemia, only two days after finding out.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports