The Winners: Astute readers might notice than Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year didn’t get a million viewers last night: it was 6th with 993,000, enough to win the timeslot for Nine from 8.30pm.

  1. The Block (Nine) (7pm) — 1.307 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.172 million
  3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.168 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.052 million
  5. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (8pm) — 1.042 million

The Losers: The Renovators on Ten, 774,000.

Drug Bust on Seven at 7.30pm, 607,000 — and that was too many.

Crownies on ABC at 8.30pm, 580,000. If anything, this series proves that the antics of the clients of the Crownies are more interesting that the lives of the lawyers.

The NRL Footy Show on Nine at 9.30pm, back to earth after last week’s ratings bump, 142,000 in Sydney and 97,000 in Brisbane. The AFL version averaged 295,000, not a losing effort, but quite weak compared with a month ago.

News & CA: Another solid loss for Seven News at the hands of Nine in Sydney. Nine News also won Melbourne. Seven News had a big win in Brisbane over Nine and won the rest. ACA won Sydney, TT won the rest.

TT had a heavily promoted petrol insiders story last night. So as a spoiler, ACA recycled “a how far can you drive on different types of petrol report” from the brief Sunday night edition of ACA that was hosted by Karl Stefanovic earlier this year. No mention in it though if petrol could be recycled and used to drive your story further!

  1. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.172 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.168 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.052 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 992,000
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 878,000
  6. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 631,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 594,000
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 550,000
  9. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten)( 6.30pm) — 364,000
  10. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 223,000
  11. Lateline (ABC 1, 10.25 – 11.00 pm) — 217,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 158,000
  13. SBS News (9.30pm) — 155,000
  14. Lateline Business (ABC) (11pm) — 98,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 368,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 320,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels won overall with a share of 29.9%, from Seven (3 channels) on 29.5%, Ten (3) was on 20.8%, the ABC (4) ended with 14.7% and SBS (2) finished on 5.2%. Seven leads the week with 29.8%, from Nine on 28.4% and Ten on 19.7%, having shaken off the ABC.
  • Main Channel: Nine was the clear winner with 25.1% from Seven on 18.3%, Ten was on 14.4%, ABC1 was on 10.9% and SBS One ended with 4.4%. Nine leads the week on 22.0%, from Seven on 21.1%, with Ten and ABC1 tied on 13.6% each.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with 6.2%, from 7mate on 5.1%, Eleven was on 4.3%, ABC2 was on 2.6%, Gem was on 2.5%, GO was on 2.3%, ONE was on 2.1%, SBS TWO was on 0.8%, News 24 was on 0.6% and ABC3 ended with 0.5%. That’s an FTA viewing total of 27.0%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.6% from 7mate on 4.1% and Eleven on 4.0%.
  • Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with 24.4%, from Seven on 24.1%, Ten was on 17.0%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) was on 15.3%, the ABC (4) was on 12.0% and SBS (2) ended on 4.3%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.7% share of TV viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a share of 22.0%, and the five main channels were on 62.75.
  • Regional: A win to Prime/7Qld (3 channels) with a share of 32.4%, from WIN/NBN (3) on 30.8%, with SC Ten (3) on 18.6%, the ABC (4) was on 13.6% and SBS (2) ended with 4.8%. WIN/NBN easily won the main channels with 25.8% from Prime/7Qld on 19.5%. 7mate won the digitals with 6.9%, with 7TWO on 6.0% and Eleven on 4.9%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share last night of a high 29.5%. WIN/NBN on 30.8% leads the week from Prime/7Qld on 30.1%.

Major Markets: A mixed night. Nine did well on the main channels, Seven easily won the digitals (a 1,2 finish in most markets). So Nine won Sydney and Melbourne overall and in the main channels. In Brisbane and Adelaide, Seven won overall, but Nine easily won the main channels. In Perth it was Seven overall and the main channels. 7TWO won the digitals everywhere, usually followed by 7mate. Seven leads the week from Nine in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Melbourne.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A typically quiet Thursday night. Seven did very well in the digital channels, Nine did very well in the main channels. Ten languished, but wasn’t as weak as earlier in the week.

  • The Block had the biggest national audience again last night of 1.815 million, with 508,000 in regional markets and 1.307 million in the metro areas.

Tonight: AFL (Carlton vs. Hawthorn) on Seven. The NRL game is the Storm vs. St George in Melbourne on Nine. Seven also had Better Homes and Gardens. Ten has The Renovators. Silent Witness on the ABC.

Saturday: AFL on Ten at various times. Seven and Nine have a night dominated by old movies, so go out. The ABC has Kingdom (double episodes). Foxtel has NRL and AFL. Inspector Morse in a repeat on 7TWO at 8.40pm is again the highlight.

Sunday: NRL and AFL on Seven, Nine and Foxtel/Austar. Sunday Night on Seven and Bones. Ten has The Renovators and fresh episodes of Bondi Rescue and Bondi Vet from 6.30pm to try and give The Renovators a lift at 7.30pm. It also has the movie of Star Trek.

Nine has a big night. The final episode of The Block and the start of Underbelly Razor (hopefully not brought to you by Gillette or any similar company). The ABC has Grand Designs at 7.30pm and a documentary retracing a legendary climb on Mount Everest called The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest.

On a personal note: A sad day for journalism, and especially TV journalism. Having worked at the Nine Network with Paul Lockyer (I was on Business Sunday, he was on Midday, Sunday, ACA, and worked on Sports Sunday and other programs) the news of the helicopter crash that has apparently killed him and two other well known ABC professionals is an enormous shock.

A proper, professional journalist and a very nice person who was always generous. And he knew how to make and tell stories of any length for TV. Everybody who watched his reports on Nine and the ABC over the years will know that.

We are all losers with his death.

Also, it is just over a year since another journalist I worked with at Nine, Michael Meagher, died in a skiing accident. He and Paul Lockyer shared a talent for telling good stories well. Both will be missed.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports