The Winners: With Australia’s Got Talent and then Winners & Losers in the line up, Seven was always going to win, which it did, easily.

  1. Australia’s Got Talent (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.807 million
  2. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.611 million
  3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.439 million
  4. The Block (Nine) (7pm) — 1.354 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.289 million
  6. Winners & Losers (Seven) (9.25pm) — 1.236 million
  7. Nine  News (6pm) — 1.136 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.106 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.006 million

The Losers: Again, not a bad night. Sea Patrol has battled manfully this series and finished with 843,000 last night. It was perhaps one series too many, but Nine needs the local content points and it was cheaper to invest in a final series of Sea Patrol than develop a new series. Nine has to find one next year.

Ten’s NCIS repeat, 775,000 at 8.30pm, still a while before the new series starts in the US, so Tuesdays at 8.30pm are going to be weak for Ten until then.

News & CA: Seven News had a clean sweep in the metro markets. ACA won Sydney, TT won the rest. Foreign Correspondent‘s coverage of the News of the World/Murdoch hacking story was OK, but rushed. Could have been better.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.439 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.289 million
  3. Nine  News (6pm) — 1.136 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.106 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 956,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 808,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 645,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 538,000
  9. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 484,000
  10. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 429,000
  11. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (10.30pm) — 271,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 194,000
  13. Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 170,000
  14. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 153,000
  15. SBS News (9.30pm) — 127,000
  16. Lateline Business (ABC) (11pm) — 86,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 362,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 286,000.

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 33.9%, from Nine (3) on 23.6%, Ten (3) was on 22.7%, the ABC (4) was on 13.2% and SBS (2) was on 6.6%. Seven leads the week with 30.7% from Ten on 25.1% and Nine on 24.6%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 28.1%, from Nine and Ten tied on 17.6% each, with ABC 1 on 9.5% and SBS ONE on 6.2%. (That’s a solid two thirds of ABC 1’s share. In Perth SBS 1 had a share of 9.1% to ABC 1’s 9.3%!). Seven leads the week with 23.8% from Ten on 18.8% and Nine on 18.5%.
  • Digital: GO won with 3.6% from Eleven on 3.5%, 7mate was on 3.0%, 7TWO was on 2.8%, Gem was on 2.4%, ABC 2 ended with 2.3%, ONE was on 1.6%, ABC 3 was on 0.8%, News 24, 0.6% and SBS TWO ended with 0.4%. That’s an FTA viewing share of 21.0%. GO leads the week with 3.8% from Eleven on 3.5% and 7TWO and 7mate on 3.4% each.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 28.7% from Nine (3) on 19.9%, Ten (3) on 19.2%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 13.2%, the ABC (4) ended with 11.2% and SBS (2) was on 5.6%. The 15 FTA channels had a TV viewing share last night of 86.8%. The 10 digitals had a total of 17.8% and the five main channels, 69.0%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with 36.0% from WIN/NBN (3) on 25.2%, with SC Ten (3) on 20.4%, the ABC (4) was on 12.9% and SBS (2) was on 5.6%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 27.8% from WIN/NBN on 19.1%. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.6% from GO on 4.2% and 7mate on 3.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share of 23.7% last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week on 31.8%, from WIN/NBN on 27.2%.

Major Markets: Seven everywhere, overall and the main channels. Nine and Ten fought out the minors, with Ten stronger again in Perth, but not Adelaide. GO won Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Eleven won Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven leads Nine and Ten in Sydney and Brisbane. In Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth it’s Seven from Ten and Nine.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven’s programming drew a million or more viewers from 6pm to well past 10pm. The Block allowed Nine to finish second instead of a weak third. MasterChef‘s hour length allowed Ten to remain in touch. But it is the best night on TV with solid, attractive programs which was reflected in the metro, regional and national figures.

  • Australia’s Got Talent had a national audience of 2.511 million with 704,000 regional viewers and 1.807 million in the metro markets.
  • MasterChef had 2.136 million viewers across the country, with 525,000 in regional areas and 1.611 million in the five metro markets.
  • The Block had 1.757 million national viewers (403,000 in the regions and 1.354 million in the metro markets).
  • Winners & Losers had 1.739 million national viewers made up of 503,000 regional viewers and 1.236 million metro viewers.

TONIGHT: MasterChef and Offspring on Ten, Criminal Minds on Seven, the Tour de France on SBS, Nine has The Block and starts Top Design, the localised US format hosted by Jamie Durie. It will be a high cost night for Nine. The ABC has Spicks and Specks and Angry Boys, which is 2011’s biggest disappointment.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports