Ten fails again as Seven wins a close night

The Winners: Seven’s night. Not much else to watch, especially on Ten.

The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.355 million
The Celebrity Apprentice (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.351 million
The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (8pm) — 1.346 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.233 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.125 million
The Celebrity Apprentice (Nine) (7pm) — 1.089 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.067 million
Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.013 million

The Losers: Ten, very weak night. Junior MasterChef with a weak 661,000 audience at 7.30pm was the most-watched for the struggling network.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney (by a large 86,000), drew Melbourne, Seven won the rest. A Current Affair won Sydney and Melbourne, lost the rest and now seems to be a two-city program, which can’t be good for advertisers.

In the morning, Today started the week with a win, as it did a fortnight ago.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.233 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.125 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.067 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 982,000
ABC News (7pm) — 892,000
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 800,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 740,000 (+95,000 on News 24 simulcast)
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 734,000 (+28,000 on News 24 simulcast)
Media Watch (ABC) (9.15pm) — 702,000
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 689,000
Ten News (5pm) — 571,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 559,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 320,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 187,000
Lateline Business (ABC) (11,05pm) — 133,000 (+42,000 on News 24 at 8.30pm)
SBS News (9.30pm) — 130,000

In the morning:

Today (Nine) (7am) — 374,000
Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 364,000

The Stats:

FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 31.4% from Nine (three) on 28.4%, the ABC (four) was on 18.6%, Ten (three) was on 16.7% and SBS (two) was on 4.8%. Nine leads the week with 31.2% from Seven on 29.8% and Ten on 17.9%.
Main channel: Seven won with a share of 23.2%, with Nine close by in second on 22.3%, ABC 1 was on 14.7%, Ten was on 11.3% and SBS One was on 3.9%. Nine leads the week with 24.3% from Seven on 21.7% and ABC 1 on 13.0%, with Ten 4th with 12.3%.
Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.5%, from Eleven on 3.9%, 7mate was on 3.8% and GO was on 3.5%. Gem was on 2.6%, ABC 2 was on 2.1%, ONE was on 1.5%, News 24 was on 1.1%, SBS TWO was on 1.0% and ABC 3 was on 0.7%. That’s a total FTA share for the 10 channels of 24.7%, 7TWO with 4.2% leads the week with 7mate on 3.9% and GO and Eleven on 3.6% each.

Pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 26.1% from Nine (three) on 23.6%, the ABC (four) was on 15.4%, pay TV (200-plus channels) was on 14.4%, Ten (three) was on 13.9% and SBS (two) was on 4.0%. The 15 FTA channels had an 85.6% share of TV viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a total of 20.5%, the five main channels, 65.1%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (3.31%)
TV 1 (2.2%)
UKTV (2.14%;)
Lifestyle (2.01%)
Fox Classics (1.99%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Rove LA (Fox 8) — 98,000
Two and a Half Men (Fox 8) — 85,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 82,000
The Guns of Navarone (Fox Classics) — 76,000
Eastenders (UKTV) — 69,000

Regional: A win for Prime/7Qld (three channels) with 33.9% from WIN/NBN (three) on 28.2%, the ABC (four) was on 18.1%, SC Ten (three) was on 15.2% in 4th and SBS (two) ended with 4.6%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 24.5%, from WIN/NBN on 21.1%, ABC 1 was on 13.7% and SC Ten was on 9.5%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.0% from GO on 4.5% and 7mate on 4.3%. The 10 digital channels had a share of 27.2%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.6% from WIN/NBN on 30.0%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

The X Factor — 635,000
Body of Proof — 529,000
Seven News — 511,000
Home and Away — 499,000
Nine News — 482,000

Major Markets: Seven won from Nine and the ABC (ABC 1 in the main channels) everywhere bar Melbourne, where Seven and Nine shared the win overall and Nine won the main channels. In Adelaide, Ten was third overall, but beaten by ABC 1 in the main channels into third slot. 7TWO won Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Eleven won Brisbane, 7mate won Sydney. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. On Adelaide and Perth its Seven leading from Nine and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The Celebrity Apprentice and The Big Bang Theory again were popular for Nine in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven’s The X Factor was more mainstream and that reflected in the performance in the metro and regional markets.

Four Corners final program for the year was OK (it was on the Great Barrier Reef), but why wasn’t it on Qantas? It smacked of a decision made weeks ago for the final program of the year. Q&A was entertaining with Ray Martin showing host Tony Jones how to control and audience and work it to his advantage. Malcolm Turnbull looked shiny in his new leather jacket (and scored a telling blow on Tony Jones). Jessica Rudd was a good surprise and even that old warrior, Peter Reith made sense at times.

But why wasn’t the program on the media, with the media inquiry starting today? It sounds self interested, but Q&A would have been a good forum to raise and discuss the issues, especially in the final program of the year. The contrast between both programs and Media Watch in its final program of the year was telling. Media Watch was still current, and resisted the lazy last episode effort. This year has been Media Watch‘s best year for some years.

The top five programs nationally last night were:

The X Factor — 2 million
Seven News — 1.734 million
The Big Bang Theory — 1.715 million
Nine News — 1.617 million
Home and Away — 1.513 million

Tonight: Beware, Susan Boyle sings on The X Factor on Seven. Turn your TV down! The ABC has Foreign Correspondent. Nine has the 6pm News. Ten has NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles. SBS has the final Insight for the year.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports