The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night, again with The X Factor (results) ep dominating (more than 1.4 million metro and 2.19 million national viewers). Nine fast-tracked some shows from the US with the first ep of the new series of The Big Bang Theory doing as well as expected at 8.30pm (more than 1.1 million metro and over 1.4 million national viewers). But the first new series ep of 2 Broke Girls slumped to 760,000 metro (and 825,000 national viewers), well behind Seven’s Winners & Losers (just over a million metro and 1.6 million nationally). And the new first new series ep of Two and A Half Men at 8.30pm collapsed to 471,000 metro and just 648,000 national viewers. A flop. It would have gotten those figures regardless whether it was fast-tracked or not.

At Ten, the fast-tracked first new series ep of NCIS had a reasonable 805,000 metro and nearly 1.2 million national viewers. But the fast-tracked first new series ep of the Los Angeles spin-off slumped to 611,000 metro and 877,000 national viewers from 9.30pm. Seven fast-tracked the first series fresh ep of Grey’s Anatomy into the 9.45pm slot where it attracted a weak 635,000 metro and 933,000 national viewers.

To rub salt into the hype about fast-tracking and how it’s vital and wonderful, a repeat of QI on the ABC at 9.30pm had 665,000 metro and 906,000 national viewers. That put it in front of those fast-tracked shows for a while and told us that fast-tracking is a load of codswallop. If the first of a new series of a supposedly high-rating series is whipped off the satellite and screened in Australia only hours or a day after going to air, you’d expect it to do better than a repeat of a quaint, fusty program such as QI, wouldn’t you? Don’t believe the hype about fast-tracking from tech heads and bit torrenters. The reality is fast-tracking is done mostly by TV networks with holes in their schedules or looking to fix ratings problems, as Ten and Nine did last night. Seven fast-tracked Grey’s because it’s dying, it’s in its last series in the US and it’s a series the network can afford to blow off  this late in the season.

The fast-tracking of NCIS and the Los Angeles spin off did help Ten move past the ABC into third spot in the ratings for the first time in two months, so in that respect it helped. But it had nothing to do with meeting the demands of viewers. Do you seriously think Ten would have done this if its post-Olympic line-up of new programs had been rating well?

Tonight: Gruen Planet on ABC 1 and the second turn of The Chaser’s Hamster Wheel. Seven returns Highway Patrol and Surveillance (all about closed circuit cameras watching you). Nine has Big Brother and a new series called Big Fat Gypsy Weddings. Ten has the final ep of Puberty Blues.

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

  1. The X Factor (Seven) — 2.193 million.
  2. Seven News — 1.767 million.
  3. Winners & Losers (Seven) — 1.601 million.
  4. Nine News — 1.588 million.
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.560 million.
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.494 million.
  7. 7pm ABC 1 News — 1.475 million.
  8. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.431 million.
  9. Big Brother Live Eviction (Nine) — 1.380 million.
  10. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.240 million

The metro winners:

  1. The X Factor (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.471 million.
  2. Seven 6pm News — 1.219 million.
  3. The Big Bang Theory (Nine, 8.30pm) — 1.122 million.
  4. Nine 6 pm News — 1.059 million.
  5. Winners & Losers (Seven, 8.45pm) — 1.058 million.
  6. Big Brother — Live Eviction (Nine, about 8pm) — 1.056 million.
  7. 7pm ABC 1 News — 1.034 million.
  8. Big Brother (Nine, 7pm) — 1.025 million.
  9. Home and Away (Seven, 7pm) — 1.025 million
  10. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.005 million.

The losers: Some of the fast-tracked programs on Ten and especially Nine (Two and A Half Men, for example). I Will Survive on Ten at 7.30pm, 309,000 metro and just 438,000 national viewers.

Metro news and current affairs: Seven News won Sydney, again, lost Melbourne, again, won the rest. TT and ACA were very weak last night, again. ACA won Melbourne and Brisbane, TT won Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. Fewer viewers cared.

  1. Seven 6pm News — 1.219 million.
  2. Nine 6pm News — 1.059 million.
  3. 7pm ABC 1 News — 1.034 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.005 million.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 976,000.
  6. 7.30 (ABC 1, 7.30pm) — 707,000.
  7. Ten News At Five (Ten, 5pm) — 682,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 520,000.
  9. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 414,000.
  10. Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 256,000.
  11. Insight (SBS ONE, 8.30pm) — 243,000.
  12. Lateline (ABC 1, 10.30pm) — 166,000.
  13. World News Australia (SBS ONE, 6.30pm) — 135,000.
  14. Dateline (SBS ONE, 9.30pm) — 115,000.
  15. The Business (ABC 1, 11.05pm — 89,000.
  16. World News Late (SBS ONE, 10.30pm) — 67,000.
  17. The Drum (News 24, 10pm, rpt) — 54,000.

In the morning: Sunrise and Today were all but neck-and-neck, News Breakfast jumped, Breakfast on Ten didn’t.

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 331,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 328,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 212,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 122,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  7am) — 63,000 + 26,000 on News 24*.
  6. Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 30,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro free to air: Seven (three) won with a share of 33.1%, from Nine (three) on 25.7%, Ten (three) was third with 18.3%, the ABC (three) was fourth on 17.3%, and SBS (two) was on 5.5%. Nine leads the week though with 31.4%, from Seven on 30.7%, the ABC on 18.0% and Ten on 15.5%.

Main channels: Seven won with a share of 25.6%, from Nine on 19.8%, Ten was on 12.9%, ABC 1 was on 12.2% and SBS ONE ended on 4.3%. Nine still leads the week with 24.7%, from Seven on 22.9%, ABC 1 is on 13.8% and Ten is on 10.6%.

Metro digital: TWO won with a share of 4.2%, 7mate on 3.4%, with ABC 2 on 3.3%, GO on 3.0%, Gem was on 2.9%, Eleven was on 2.8%, ONE ended with 2.6%, SBS TWO was on 1.2%, ABC 3, 1.1% and News 24, 0.7%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 25.2%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.5% from GO on 4.0% and 7mate on 3.3%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three) won with a share of 27.5%, from Nine (three) on 21.4%, Ten (three) was third with 15.2%, the ABC (three) was fourth on 14.4%, and SBS (two) was on 4.6%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of 84.9% with the 10 digital channels share totalling 20.8% and the five main channels share, 64.1%. The 200-plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a share of 15.1% last night.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox Sports 3 — 4.2%.
  2. Fox 8 — 3.1%.
  3. LifeStyle, TV1 — 1.9%
  4. Sky News — 1.7%.
  5. A&E — 1.6%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Cricket: Twenty20 Australia v Pakistan (FS3) — 196,000
  2. Storage Wars (A&E) — 81,000.
  3. Cricket: Twenty20 Pre-match (FS3) — 73,000.
  4. The Simpsons (F8) — 73,000.
  5. Family Guy (F8) — 70,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three) won with a share of 36.4%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 24.6%, SC Ten (three) was third with 16.9%, the ABC (three) was fourth on 16.7%, and SBS (two) was on 5.4%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 26.4%, from WIN/NBN on 17.2%, SC Ten was third with 11.8%, and ABC 1 was on 11.5%. 7mate won the digitals with 5.1%, from 7TWO on 4.8% and GO with 3.8%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 29.2%. WIN/NBN still lead the week with 32.7% from Prime/7Qld on 32.3%, the ABC on 17.3% and SC Ten on 13.2%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

 

  1. The X Factor — 722,000.
  2. Seven News — 548,000.
  3. Winners & Losers — 542,000.
  4. Home and Away — 535,000.
  5. Nine News — 519,000.

Major metro markets: Another clean sweep for Seven (overall and the main channels) in all five metro markets. Ten was third everywhere except in Brisbane where the ABC was third overall, and in Perth where Ten was second and Nine third. 7TWO won the digitals everywhere except Perth where 7mate got home. Nine leads the week from Seven and the ABC in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven leads Nine and the ABC in Adelaide and Perth.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data