The Block rates well but Seven wins the night

The Winners: Seven’s night, easily, on another night of average offerings. Seven won All People and the major demos in what ended up a strong win.

The final of the final New Inventors on the ABC averaged 615,000 at 8pm.

The Block (Nine) (7pm) — 1.302 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.255 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.240 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.230 million
World Strictest Parents (Seven) (7.30pm) –1.134 million
The Gruen Transfer (ABC) (9pm) — 1.120 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.104 million
Spicks & Specks (ABC) (8.30pm) — 1.021 million

The Losers: Top Design, Nine, 7.30pm, 610,000. The Renovators, Ten, 7.30pm, 782,000.

Ten replaced The Defenders with an NCIS repeat at 9.40pm and it averaged a moderate 422,000. More than the program it replaced, but that’s no great shakes.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Brisbane, Seven won the rest. TT won everywhere bar Sydney.

The all-important news lead-in: Deal or No Deal on Seven at 5.30pm, 558,000. Hot Seat on Nine at 5.30pm, 675,000. The gap is opening in favour of Eddie McGuire. That gap is starting to have a real impact in favour of Nine News at 6pm, especially in Sydney, where Deal or No Deal had 121,000 viewers and Hot Seat 205,000.

As a result, Seven News, with 254,000 lost Sydney heavily to Nine with 374,000 last night. The 120,000 loss is one of the biggest Seven has had at 6pm in Sydney for quite a while. Crisis Time?

Seven News (6pm) — 1.255 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.240 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.230 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.104 million
ABC News (7pm) — 924,000
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 697,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 683,000
Ten News (5pm) — 630,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 241,000
Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.40pm) — 212,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 189,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 123,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 97,000

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 396,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 338,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 32.0%, from Nine (3) on 23.6%, Ten (3) was on 21.5%, the ABC (4) was on 17.9% and SBS (2) ended with 5.0%. Seven leads the week on 29.9% from Nine on 28.0% and Ten on 19.4%.
Main Channel: Seven won with 22.2%, from Nine on 18.1%, ABC 1 was on 14.1% Ten again 4th was on 13.5% and SBS ONE was on 3.8%. Seven leads the week with 21.8% from Nine on 21.4% and the ABC on 14.2% and Ten on 13.5%.
Digital: 7TWO won with 5.5%, from Eleven on 4.6%, 7mate was on 4.2%, GO was on 3.3%, ABC 2 was on 2.6%, ONE was on 2.4%, Gem was on 2.1%, SBS TWO was on 1.1%, ABC 3 was on 0.7% and News 24 was on 0.6%. that’s a total FTA viewing share of a high 27.1%. 7TWO now leads the week on 4.2%, with GO on 4.0% and Eleven and 7mate on 3.9%, a close week.
Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 26.5%, from Nine (3) on 19.6%, Ten (3) was on 17.9%, the ABC (4) ended with 14.6%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) ended with 14.3% and SBS (4) was on 4.1%. The 15 FTA channels had an 85.7% share of TV viewing last night. the 10 digital channels had a share of 22.8% and the five main channels were on 62.9%. 37.1% of viewers last night were not watching the main channel offerings of the five FTA networks.
Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 32.7% from WIN/NBN (3) on 27.2%, SC Ten (3) was on 17.5%, the ABC (4) ended on 16.1% and SBS (2) was on 6.5%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 22.1%, from WIN/NBN on 21.5%, ABC 1 was 3rd with 12.5%, ahead of Ten with 11.3%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.6% from 7TWO on 5.1% and Eleven on 4.5%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share in regional areas of 28.2%. WIN/NBN with 30.9% still lead the week from Prime/7Qld on 29.6%.

Major Markets: Seven from Nine and Ten everywhere, overall and the main channels, except in Adelaide and Perth where the ABC again pushed Ten out of third on the main channels. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. 7mate won Perth. Eleven again was the most popular digital channel in Brisbane. Seven leads Nine and the ABC in Sydney; in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth its Seven from Nine and Ten. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Melbourne.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven’s night as The Block couldn’t do it for Nine for another night. It’s starting to wear out its welcome, judging by the weak figures last night.

The Block was again the most watched program with a national audience of 1.845 million viewers, with 543,000 in regional areas (top) and 1.302 million in the five metro markets.

Ten update: Well, unlike some lucky souls, Ten left me off their invite list (again) for the 2012 launch. Yes, The Renovators will be back in 2012. That’s what head programmer Dave Mott said. Others say you could use $25 million far more efficiently, like giving some to shareholders. And there are more losses on top of that wasted $25 million, such as the opportunity cost of giving away all those free ads to sponsors in coming weeks and months.

Yes, Ten is doing a breakfast program. So how is that going to be aimed at under 40s (16 to 39s), Ten’s rediscovered aspirational ratings target demo? Ten is going to have to spend a lot of money and be very patient to make inroads on Seven and Nine. That is not a low-cost strategy.

Meanwhile, Lisa McCune has resurfaced on Ten’s Reef Doctors. Can of Worms is said to be back.

Young Talent Time is back from 1988. Ten made a big point of how Young Talent Time would help turn Sunday night into a family night. Well that used to be the way TV was programmed 20 years ago. Judging by the ratings this year for MasterChef, Dancing With The Stars and The Block, family Sunday nights are alive and well.

Desperate Ten has pinched the rotten Graham Norton Show from the ABC (it’s on ABC 2) for Saturday nights next year when it won’t have the AFL. Does Ten have a fondness for Michael Parkinson, whose UK chat show used to hold up a Saturday night for the ABC? Norton isn’t even in the same class as Parkinson’s chair as an interviewer. Another black hole for Ten to grapple with in 2012.

Finally, Ten does program and year launches brilliantly. I can remember a MasterChef launch that was wonderful and a year launch that was very encouraging: both were in 2010.

This year everything has been weak or not so strong, except The Biggest Loser: Couples. Next year it’s The Biggest Loser: Singles. I know Ten has a stake in the Oasis dating site, but this is ridiculous.

Tonight: Seven has flicked Pawn Store from 8.30pm and put Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior into the slot. It also starts a new series, Drug Bust and has Crash Investigations Unit in at 8pm. That is a better line-up to go up against Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year on Nine, after The Block and The Big Bang Theory repeat.

Ten has The Renovators and a fresh and a repeat episode of Law and Order SVU.

The ABC has Crownies and SBS has the last journey in the French Food Safari.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports