The Winners: Nine’s night, easily, as Seven went AWOL and Ten saw The Renovators fall to a new low. Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year slipped 12,000 last night from the previous week’s 1.069 million. The Footy Shows, 848,000 nationally, thanks to jump in the Sydney audience to 247,000 and a rise in Brisbane to 100,000. The AFL Footy Show was watched by 313,000 in Melbourne.

  1. The Block (Nine, 7 – 8 pm) — 1.424 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.224 million
  3. Hot Property (Nine) (8pm) — 1.145 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.133 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.130 million
  6. Hamish and Andy’s Gap Year (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.057 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.051 million

The Losers: Seven’s schedule WWII Lost Films: The Air War at 7.30pm, 598,000. Beaten into 4th by the ABC and Ten. Ten’s poor performance was largely driven by The Renovators, which had just 661,000 viewers  — its worst audience so far. It got worse for Seven. Pawn Stars, promoted from the second division on 7TWO has just 533,000 viewers at 8.30pm. Weak.

News & CA: Lateline Business was the most watched program on News 24 last night by a mile and has had its best week for more than a year, thanks to the markets’ turmoil. 220,000 was its total audience last night from its two broadcasts.

Seven News and TT lost Sydney easily to Nine News and ACA, but won the rest of the metro markets.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.224 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.133 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.130 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.051 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 815,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 679,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 634,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 565,000
  9. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 278,000
  10. Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 251,000
  11. SBS News (6.30pm) — 201,000
  12. Lateline Business (11pm) — 149,000
  13. SBS News (9.30pm) — 139,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 380,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 323,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 33.3%, from Seven (3) on 26.2%, Ten (3) was on 20.8%, the ABC (4) ended with 14.9% and SBS (2) finished with 4.7%. Nine now leads the week by the narrowest of margins from Seven, 28.1% to 28.0%. Ten is on 23.1%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with 26.8% from Seven on 16.5%, Ten was on 14.8%, ABC 1 ended with 10.9% and SBS ONE was on 4.1%. Nine now leads the week with 21.4% from Seven on 20.4% and Ten on 17.2%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with 6.1%, from GO on 4.3%, Eleven on 4.1%, 7mate on 3.6%, Gem was on 2.3%, ABC2 was on 2.1%, ONE ended with 1.8%, News 24 was on 1.0%, ABC3 was on 0.9% and SBS TWO ended with 0.7%. That’s an FTA viewing total of 28.4%. 7TWO now leads the week with 4.2% from GO on 4.1% and Eleven on 3.8%.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 27.2%, from Seven (3) on 21.4%, Ten (3) was on 16.9%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) finished with 15.4%, the ABC (4) ended with 12.2% and SBS (2) finished on 3.9%. The 15 FTA channels had a TV viewing share last night of 84.6%. The 10 digital channels had a total share of 22.1%, the five main channels, 64.5%.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 33.3% from Prime/7Qld (3) on 28.0% from SC Ten (3) on 17.7%, the ABC (4) was on 15.9% and SBS (3) finished with 5.2%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 26.0%, daylight was next, then Prime/7Qld on 17.8% and SC Ten back on 12.3%. 7TWO won the main channels with 5.4% from 7mate on 4.8% and GO on 4.4%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 28.8%. WIN/NBN lead the week with 29.8%, from Prime/7Qld on 29.5%, and should win the week with the NRL in Qld and NSW regional areas tonight.

Major Markets: Nine’s night everywhere except in Perth where Seven won overall thanks to the strength of 7TWO. Nine won the main channels. Seven was second and Ten was third, both well off the pace. 7TWO won the digitals everywhere bar Adelaide where GO got up. Seven leads Nine and Ten in Brisbane (Nine will win with the NRL tonight), Adelaide and Perth, which Seven will retain with the AFL. Nine will win Sydney where it leads, even if it didn’t have the NRL tonight. Nine leads Seven in Melbourne by a handy margin. Will St Kilda vs. Collingwood tonight be enough for Seven to get up?

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven completely trashed its night by running programs that viewers barely wanted to watch. A real loss of touch for a network that has managed to tap dance its way through some tough opposition from Nine and Ten in the past three months. Seven’s Thursday night black hole is back to haunt it.

And news from London that the producers of Spooks (ABC) will end the series after the 10th and final series later this year. Harry Pearce will be the only original character left in that series.

Tonight: NRL and AFL on Nine and Seven. Silent Witness on the ABC. Nothing much on Ten, especially Law & Order: UK, which is debuting on a Friday night! Must be weak. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven. The AFL game on Seven is St Kilda vs. Collingwood, which is the replay of the 2010 Grand Finals.

Tomorrow: NRL and AFL on Foxtel, AFL on Ten. Kingdom on ABC1, Inspector Morse repeat on 7TWO.

Sunday: The morning chats. AFL and NRL on Foxtel, Nine and Seven. Sunday Night on Seven and Bones. The Block on Nine and 60 Minutes for the unadventurous. The final Midsomer Murder for this series on the ABC. Grand Designs on the ABC at 7.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports