Excess Baggage passes directly to GO!, Nine forfeits $20m

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: It might be the last week of summer ratings, but for Nine and Ten it’s hell.

Seven is winning too easily with just two proven winners, Monday to Thursday in My Kitchen Rules and Home and Away — that meant Seven was an easy winner nationally, metro and regionally last night.

Meanwhile, Excess Baggage won’t make the line up for next week on the network’s main channel. From next Monday it’s on GO as $20 million dollars disappears down the drain — just the thing to please the private equity owners, CVC, the banks and the hedge funds agitating for some action over the billions of dollars in unpaid debt.

Foreign Correspondent returned to the ABC at 8pm with another solid report on a part of China we don’t see. The reporter was the excellent Stephen McDonnell. And if you want to see a good documentary that explains a difficult story, go and catch up with Then The Wind Changed which the ABC screened last night on its main channel at 8.30pm. It’s about the aftermath of the February 7, 2009 fires in one small town. High class, personal, revealing and confronting, but deeply moving and warm. It will be one of the best programs on TV this year.

Tonight: Ignore Nine’s main channel with two repeats of The Big Bang Theory and one on GO! Seven has My Kitchen Rules. The ABC has the first of the anniversary episodes of Absolutely Fabulous at 8 pm. Outland‘s premiere at 9.30pm will be worth a look.

Ten has The Biggest Loser and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (a big test for it tonight) and The Good Wife. Seven (Legally Blonde) and Nine (Bride Wars) have repeat movies. Weak.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 2.361 million
Seven News — 1.708 million
Nine News — 1.588 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.436 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.435 million
Movie: The Proposal (Seven) — 1.435 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.310 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.271 million
The Biggest Loser (Ten) — 1.011 million
Ten News — 990,000

The Metro Winners:

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.658 million
Seven News (6pm ) — 1.144 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.103 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.038 million
Movie: The Proposal (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.008 million

The Losers: The Biggest Loser, 697,000 and Bondi Vet, 546,000 — both on Ten.

Nine’s entire schedule from 7pm onwards.

Metro News & CA: 7.30 is no longer being simulcasted on News 24 because the ABC has started a sports program called Grandstand in the slot on News 24. Nine News and A Current Affair won Sydney and Melbourne. Seven News and Today Tonight won the rest.

Seven News (6pm ) — 1.144 million
Nine News (6pm) — 1.103 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.038 million
ABC News (7pm) — 932,000
Ten News (5pm) — 717,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 599,000
Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 568,000
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 505,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 204,000
The Drum (ABC) (6pm) — 157,000 (+51,000)*
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 155,000
The Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 126,000
SBS News (10.30pm) — 77,000

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: Nine’s new morning with Sonia Kruger boosted its second morning audience by nearly 50% (51,000).

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 373,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 333,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 176,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) – 155,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 56,000

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with 36.1% from Nine (3) on 22.3%, Ten (3) was on 20.5%, the ABC (4) was on 14.9% and SBS (2) ended with 6.2%. Seven leads the week with 31.5% from Nine on 26.5% and Ten on 21.4%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 29.6% from Nine on 15.0%, just in front of Ten on 14.1%. ABC 1 was on 10.7% and SBS ONE was on 4.5%.

Metro Digital: GO won with a share of 3.9% from Eleven on 3.7%, Gem was on 3.5%, 7mate was on 3.4%, 7TWO was on 3.1%, ABC 2 was on 2.7%, ONE was on 2.0%, SBS TWO finished with 1.7%, News 24, 0.9% and ABC 3, 0.6%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 24.5%. GO leads the week on 3.7% with 7TWO on 3.5% and Eleven on 3.1%.

Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with 29.6% from Nine (3) on 18.3%, Ten (3) was on 16.8%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) was on 15.7%, the ABC (4) was on 12.2% and SBS (2) ended with 5.1%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of viewing of 84.3%. The 10 digitals’ total share was 20.8% and the five main channels, 63.5%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox 8 (2.55%)
TV 1 (2.39%)
Lifestyle (2.15%)
Crime & Investigation (1.98 %)
111 Hits (1.84%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Family Guy (Fox 8) — 100,800
iCarly (Nickelodeon) (5.30pm) — 93,500
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 84,000
iCarly (Nickelodeon) (4pm) — 71,400
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Arena) — 64,800

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 34.7% from WIN/NBN (3) on 25.3%, SC Ten (3) was next with 21.5%, the ABC (4) ended on 13.1% and SBS (2) finished with 5.5%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 27.9% from WIN/NBN on 17.2%. 7TWO won the digitals with a share of 4.3%, from GO on 4.2% and Gem on 3.9%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share of 27.1%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 31.4% from WIN/NBN on 29.5%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

My Kitchen Rules — 701,000
Seven News — 563,000
A Current Affair — 486,000
Nine News — 484,000
Home and Away — 461,000

Major Markets: A clean sweep for Seven, overall and the main channels, in all five metro markets. Nine was weak, especially in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth where it finished third with Ten in second place. Eleven won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Adelaide was won by GO and Perth was won by Gem. Seven leads everywhere so far this week. Ten is now second in Perth and Nine third.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports