Viewers switch off a poor night of TV

Nearly 40% of the audience wasn't watching the main channels and were on either the digitals or watching Pay TV.

The Winners: A mixed night. Ten was certainly weak, as were Nine and Seven in patches. But Seven still won overall main channels, digital and the main demographics.

Seven’s The One: Australia’s Most Gifted Psychic had 825,000 viewers at 7.30pm.

The Hamster Wheel at 9.30pm, 815,000, down a touch, but still the clear 9.30pm winner.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.159 million
Gruen Planet (ABC) (9pm) — 1.119 million
Spicks & Specks (ABC) (8.30pm) — 1.084 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.057 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.008 million

The Losers: Law and Order: Los Angeles on Seven at 9.30pm, 475,000. That was after Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour, 545,000 and fading with a bullet.

CSI on Nine at 8.30pm, 751,000.

Ten’s Hawaii Five O at 8.30pm, 497,000. A distant fourth in the timeslot.

A collection of losers from the three commercial networks at 8.30pm.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven news won the rest.

A Current Affair won Sydney, drew Melbourne with Today Tonight. TT won the rest.

Leigh Sales did an excellent job in her interview with Alan Jones last night. Jones knew he was on a hiding and still turned up. I just couldn’t see what Sales was getting at in some of her questions. His willful avoidance of the issues and points she made was just like listening to his radio program each morning. It was one of those rare occasions where watching a journalist interview another person in the media was actually illuminating.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.159 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.057 million
Nine News (6pm) — 949,000
ABC News (7pm) — 876,000
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 837,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 678,000 (+34,000 on News 24 simulcast)
The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 670,000
Ten News (5pm) — 477,000
6.30 with George Negus (Ten, 6.30pm) — 357,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 219,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 183,000
SBS News (9.30pm) — 158,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 99,000 (+26,000 on News 24 at 8.30pm)

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven, 7 – 9 am) — 365,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 336,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 29.1% from Nine (3) on 25.9%, the ABC (4) was third with 21.7%, Ten (3) was fourth with 17.9% and SBS (2) was on 5.4%. Seven leads the week with 31.3% from Nine on 28.5% and Ten on 19.1%.
Main Channel: Seven won with 19.6%, from Nine on 18.7%, ABC 1 was on 16.8%, the ABC was on 11.3% and SBS ONE was on 4.5%. Seven leads the week with 23.5% from Nine on 22.6% and Ten on 13.5%.
Digital: A big night for the digital channels. 7TWO won with a share of 4.9%, from 7mate on 4.7%, GO was on 4.6%, Eleven was on 4.3%, ABC 2 was on 3.4%, Gem ended with 2.7%, ONE was on 2.3%, News 24 and SBS TWO were on 0.9% each and ABC 3 finished with 0.6%. That’s a total FTA share of a high 28.3%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.4% from GO in 3.6%, Eleven on 3.5% and 7mate on 3.4%.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 23.8% from Nine (3) on 21.2%, the ABC (4) was third with 17.8%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 15.9%, Ten (3) was fifth with 17.9% and SBS (2) was on 4.4%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.1% viewing share last night. The 10 digital channels had a high 23.8% share, the five main channels a low 60.3%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (3.69%)
Lifestyle (2.53%;)
TV1 (2.14%)
UKTV (1.99%
Sky News (1.99%)

The top five pay TV programs were:

Relocation, Relocation Australia (Lifestyle) — 71,000
WWE Raw (Fox 8) — 71,000
The Simpsons — (Fox 8) — 69,000
Jersey Shore (MTV) — 66,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 65,000

Regional: a win to Prime/7Qld (3 channels) with a share of 33.2% from WIN/NBN (3) on 27.1%, the ABC (4) was on 19.5%, SC Ten (3) was on 15.8% and BS (2) ended on 4.4%. The main channels were won by Prime/7Qld with 22.3%, from WIN/NBN on 19.0%, ABC 1 was on 13.9% and SC Ten was on 19.0%. The digital channels were won by 7mate on 5.5%, with 7TWO on 5.4% and GO was third on 5.0%. The 10 digital channels had a very high FTA share last night of 30.3%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.4% from WIN/NBN on 29.3%.

The five most watched programs in regional markets last night were:

Seven News — 503,000
Home and Away — 490,000
Spicks and Specks — 444,000
Gruen Planet — 424,000
ACA — 436,000

Major Markets: It was Seven from Nine and Ten in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. In Sydney it was Nine from Seven and Ten. GO won the digitals in Sydney, 7TWO won the rest. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Sydney for the week so far, Seven leads Nine and Ten in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Viewers voted with remotes and decamped. Nearly 40% of the audience wasn’t watching the main channels and were on either the digitals or watching pay TV.

The top five programs nationally last night were:

Seven News — 1.661 million
Gruen Planet — 1.543 million
Spicks and Specks — 1.527 million
Home and Away — 1.499 million
Nine News — 1.348 million

Tonight: Seven and its female friendly line-up, which includes Home and Away, Four Weddings and Beauty and The Geek Australia plus the US version of The Amazing Race if you are still awake. Nine has a repeat of RBT, a fresh episode of Unforgettable and a repeat of CSI Miami.

Ten has Recruits and returns Keeping up With The Joneses at 8pm. It also has Rush at 8.30pm and then a repeat of Law and Order SVU.

The ABC has QI at 8pm, The Slap, then Crownies at 9.30pm. SBS has a fresh Gourmet Farmer at 8pm.

Source: Ostend, TV Networks reports