First night of official summer ratings — or unofficial summer ratings, however you look at it — and it was little different from late last week. Solid, interesting programs were few and far between. Cilla on ABC1 stood out with its final part which averaged 989,000 national viewers — which was more than any program on the Ten Network yesterday. Seven won overall and main channels in the metro and regionals. The ABC was third  overall in the regionals (Ten was third in the metros overall), but won the main channels easily.

In the morning, Insiders national audience lifted by around 40,000 to 557,000 for the 9am broadcast on ABC 1 and News24. Ten’s The Bolt Report saw its audience rise 10,000 for the 10am broadcast and 30,000 for the 4pm repeat. Add the two together and Bolt had 396,000 national viewers. Add the late repeat of Insiders on News24 and the total national audience jumps to 636,000.

There was a small bounce from the Victorian election for both programs, but Insiders had more than two and half times Bolt’s audience, based on the original broadcast and excluding the repeats. It was a triumph of down the middle political analysis and chat instead of the partisan, pro-Liberal chat on Bolt. No wonder it continues to lag behind Insiders. The message is there for the host and the program’s producers, News Corp (and the broadcaster, Ten). Bolt’s TV influence is now as useful as the editorials late last week from The Australian Financial Review, The Age and The Herald Sun which all urged a vote for the Liberal Party. Victorian voters, as newspaper readers and TV viewers are, ignored all that.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (28.2%)
  2. Nine (26.3%)
  3. Ten (19.3%)
  4. ABC (19.0%)
  5. SBS (7.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (20.5%)
  2. Nine (17.7%)
  3. ABC (13.4%)
  4. Ten (11.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.0%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. GO (4.5%)
  2. 7TWO (4.2%)
  3. Gem (4.1%)
  4. ONE, Eleven (3.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.688 million
  2. Nine News — 1.461 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) – 1.434 million
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.216 million
  5. ABC News  – 1.164 million
  6. Christmas With The Australian Women’s Weekly (Nine) — 1.094 million
  7. Coastwatch OZ (Seven) — 1.075 million
  8. Bones (Seven) — 1.027 million
  9. Cilla (ABC) — 989,000
  10. Bones (Seven) — 920,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.082 million
  2. Nine News — 1.066 million

Losers: Its summer, so few “losers”, but even fewer winners. The Bolt Report in the morning. Didn’t quite understand what has happened in Victoria.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.082 million
  2. Nine News — 1.066 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) – 875,000
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 848,000
  5. ABC News – 775,000
  6. Ten Eyewitness News — 558,000
  7. SBS World News — 195.00

Morning TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC 1, 221,000, News 24, 142,000) — 363,000
  2. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 322,000
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) – 256,000
  4. Offsiders (ABC) — 166,000
  5. The Bolt Report (Ten) — 155,000
  6. Financial Review Sunday (Nine) — 143,000
  7. The Bolt Report repeat (Ten) — 130,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (3.3%)
  2. LifeStyle  (2.6%)
  3. TV1  (2.1%)
  4. Fox Sports 4  (2.0%)
  5. Foxtel Movies Premiere (1.9%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Doc Martin (UKTV) – 79,000
  2. The Big Bang Theory (Comedy) – 63,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 60,000
  4. Top 20 Funniest (Fox8) – 59,000
  5. Crimes that Shook Australia (Crime & Investigation) – 59,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) and network reports.