The Winners

  1. MasterChef Australia (Ten, 7.30pm) — 1.691 million.
  2. The Block (Nine, 7pm) — 1.353 million.
  3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.324 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.197 million.
  5. Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year (Nine, 8.30pm) — 1.069 million.
  6. The Renovators (Ten, 8.40pm) — 1.056 million.
  7. Hot Property (Nine, 8pm) — 1.036 million.
  8. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.034 million.
  9. Nine News (6pm) — 1.024 million.

Finally some of the MasterChef audience stuck around for The Renovators and pushed it over a million viewers for the first night since it started. It still remains a sad, soulless copy of MasterChef now, let alone MasterChef when it first appeared in 2009.

The AFL Footy Show in Melbourne, 363,000: 50% of the 726,000 national audience. And 145,000 in Sydney and 86,000 in Brisbane for the NRL version.

The Losers

Seven, another weak night with a black hole. WWII Lost Films: The Air War at 7.30 pm averaged 614,000 and is only meant as spakfilla while MasterChef winds up, and The Block continues. Crownies on the ABC at 8.30pm, 567,000. Lots of deep looks last night in some scenes. Law and Order LA on Seven at 8.30pm: 633,000, it’s not New York, geddit? Hawaii Five O in edgy suits? Law and Order SVU at 9.10pm on Ten, 712,000. Should have been higher.

News and Current Affairs

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.324 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.197 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 1.034 million.
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.024 million.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 826,000.
  6. The 7PM Project (Ten, 7 – 7.30 pm) — 726,000.
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 623,000.
  8. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 490,000 + 23,000 on News 24 simulcast,
  9. 6.30 With George Negus (Ten, 6.30pm) — 448,000.
  10. Ten late News/Sports Tonight (11pm) — 266,000.
  11. Lateline (ABC1, 10.25pm) — 208,000.
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 163,000.
  13. SBS News (9.30pm) — 141,000.
  14. Lateline Business (ABC 1, 11 – 11.30pm) — 122,000 + 39,000 at 8.30pm on News 24.

In the morning

  1. Today (Nine, 7am) — 379,000.
  2. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 378,000.

Seven News won all five metro markets, Sydney by 1000. That made up for the early morning loss by Seven’s Sunrise to Nine’s Today. A Current Affair won Sydney and Brisbane. Today Tonight won the rest. Lateline Business with 39,000 viewers at 8.30pm was the most watched program on ABC News 24 yesterday. Something about those markets!

The Stats

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 31.0% from Ten (3) on 26.0%, Seven (3) was on 25.4%, the ABC (4) was on 13.3% and SBS (2) ended on 4.4%. Seven now leads the week on 31.0% from Nine on 25.4 and Ten on 25.3%. Nine will move further in front of Ten with the NRL in Sydney and Brisbane tonight.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with 24.7% from Ten on 20.4%, with Seven on 16.8% and ABC1 on 9.7%. SBS One ended on 3.5. Seven leads the week with 23.5% from Nine on 19.6% and Ten on 19.5%. Nine moves ahead of Ten tonight.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with 4.6%, from 7mate on 4.1%, GO on 4.0%, Eleven on 3.9%, Gem on 2.3%, ABC2 was on 1.9%, ONE finished with 1.7%, ABC3 was on 0.9%, SBS TWO was on 0.8%, and News 24 ended on 0.7%. The 10 channels had a total FTA viewing share of 24.9%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.2% from 7mate, GO and Eleven on 3.3% each.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 25.8%, from Ten (3) on 21.6%, Seven (3) was on 21.1%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) was on 14.1%, the ABC (4) finished with 11.0% and SBS (2) was on 3.6%. The 15 FTA channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 85.9%, with the 10 digital channels on 20.9% and the five main channels with 65.0%.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) ended with 31.3% with Prime/7Qld (3) on 28.9%, SC Ten (3) was on 21.7%, the ABC (4), 13.2% and SBS (2) ended on 4.8%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 24.3% from Prime/7Qld on 18.2% and SC Ten on 16.7%. 7mate won the digitals on 5.5%, with 7TWO on 5.2% and GO on 4.3%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA viewing share last night of 27.8%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 31.5% from WIN/NBN on 27.9%.
  • Major Markets: Nine was dominant, winning all five metro market overall and the main channels. Ten and Seven fought out the minors, with Ten dominating those in the end. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne and shared Adelaide with 7mate, which in turn was Perth. Eleven won Brisbane. Seven leads the week everywhere, with Ten second in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine is second in Melbourne. The AFL will push Seven ahead. Nine will do well from the NRL tonight and will move to second in Sydney and Brisbane.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: I didn’t know Hamish and Andy could manage to transmogrify themselves on air to become David Letterman, but that’s what the second episode of their gap year special for Nine seemed like. And viewers fled like fleas: 385,000 fewer people tuned in for their second gap year special last night on Nine, that’s a drop of 26%.

Ten had a small gloat about The Renovators cracking the million viewer mark last night. It has to seeing each episode costs $500,000, for a weekly cost of $2.5 million. That’s an awful lot of freebie ads to give back if the ratings aren’t up to what was promised.

MasterChef had a national audience of 2.242 million viewers with 551,000 in regional areas (Number 1) and 1.691 million in the five metro markets. The Block had a national audience of 1.837 million with 484,000 regional viewers and 1.353 million metro viewers. Not bad for a Thursday night in winter with football and other sport, school and shopping.

Tonight: AFL and NRL as the seasons head for the pointy end. Seven for AFL, Nine for NRL. Seven also has Better Homes and Gardens. Ten has MasterChef’s masterclass (teaching them how to make a gingerbread house after last night’s very odd elimination). The ABC has Silent Witness (which is getting stranger). Tonight’s As It Happened on SBS is Azorian: The Raising of the K-129, about the Cold War. Ten also has The Renovators. Will anyone care?

Saturday: More AFL, on Ten this time (Swans v Bombers at night), NRL on Foxtel, and some AFL. Nine has the rugby from Auckland, Wallabies vs the All Blacks. ABC has Kingdom. Seven has nothing, Nine, after the rugby test has nothing. Inspector Morse on 7TWO is a highlight, and it’s a repeat.

Sunday: More AFL on Seven, NRL on Nine, Foxtel for both. The morning chats earlier. Landline at midday on the ABC. The Block on Nine, then 60 Minutes, then two repeat episodes of The Mentalist from 9pm. The Block runs for an hour and a half up against the start of the MasterChef grand final, which starts at 8.30pm. Ten has The Renovators at 7.30pm. Anything to give this flop some chance of surviving! Seven has Bones, the last Great Migration and Sunday Night. The ABC has Midsomer Murders after Grand Design, which is doing very well.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports