The Winners: MasterChef was on top again with 1.785 million viewers, followed by Glee with 1.424 million, which was good news for Ten. Third was Seven News with 1.415 million and 4th was Today Tonight with 1.325 million. Nine News was 5th with 1.207 million and Sea Patrol was next for Nine at 8.30pm with 1.180 million. A Current Affair was 7th with 1.146 million and the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.089 million. Home and Away was 9th with 1.044 million and the 7pm ABC News was next with 1.021 million.
The Losers: On the face of it no one, even Seven’s patchwork schedule did OK, but more than 11% of the audience was watching the digital channels, which is always a sign that a lot of viewers found the main channels boring. The Amazing Race on Seven at 9.30pm, 632,000.
News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Today Tonight won everywhere but lost Melbourne to ACA. The 7.30 Report averaged 638,000. Lateline, 241,000, Lateline business, 129,000. Nine’s Nightline, 266,000. Ten News averaged 830,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 281,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 165,000, 160,000 for the late edition. 7am Sunrise, 342,000, 7am Today, 317,000.
The Stats:
FTA: A win to Nine with 29.8%, from Seven with 25.9%, Ten on 24.5%, the ABC with 15.3% and SBS, 4.4%. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and drew Perth with Seven. Ten won Adelaide. Seven leads the week, 28.0% from 27.8% for Nine.
Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 25.1%, from Ten on 23.5% and Seven on 23.1%, ABC ONE with 12.8% and SBS ONE, 4.1%. Seven won Sydney, Nine won Melbourne and Brisbane, Ten won Adelaide, Seven won Perth. Seven leads with a share of 25.4% from Nine with 24.7% and 23.5% for Ten.
Digital: A good night for the digitals. GO won with a share of 4.7% (more than SBS’s combined overnight share of 4.4%), from 7TWO with 2.8%, ABC 2, 2.0%, ONE, 1.0%, ABC 3, 0.5% and SBS TWO, 0.4%. That’s a total share of 11.4% for the six FTA digital channels. The peak share was 14.4% in Perth, followed by 13.3% in Adelaide. GO leads the week with 3.1%, from 7TWO with 2.6%.
Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 24.7%, from Seven on 21.5%, Ten on 20.4%, Pay TV, 14.2%, the ABC, 12.7% and SBS, 3.7%. That’s a total share of 85.8% for the 11 FTA channels. Pay TV’s 100 channels shared the 14.2%.
Regional: A win to WIN/NBN with a share of 31.7%, from Prime/7Qld with 24.9%, Pay TV on 23.4%, the ABC 15.3% and SBS on 4.7%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 27.7%, from Prime/7Qld on 22.8% and Prime/7Qld with 22.7%. GO won the digital channels with a share of 4.0%, with 7TWO on 2.1%, ABC 2 on 1.6% and ABC 3 on a high 1.1%. WIN/NBN lead the week on 29.2% from prime/7Qld with 28.3%.
(ALL shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)
Glenn Dyer’s comments: MasterChef and Glee stood out, as they should have last night. Glee had its highest audience so far.
Italian Food Safari and Costa’s Garden Odyssey finished on SBS last night and will leave a hole in my weekly viewing. Italian Food Safari was the best of these foodie programs because there was some attempt to portray the Italian life in an Australian context. It wasn’t the usual hand wringing effort you get from SBS and the ABC. It celebrated the positive because that’s the way so many Italians see their life (and other migrants).
Watching this series, you got a better feeling and understanding for Australia’s food heritage than anything MasterChef has to offer. Sometimes MasterChef presents food ideas with no understanding or acknowledgement of the past. This lack of any acknowledgement of the history of Australian food is a drawback, and one of the program’s judges is part of that heritage.
In the battle of the footy shows in Sydney and Brisbane another win to Seven’s entrant, the Matty Johns Show. It averaged 298,000 in Sydney at 7.30pm, against Nine’s 161,000 from 9.30pm. In Brisbane the Seven program averaged 164,000 (it was broadcast from Brisbane last night) and Nine’s NRL show averaged 108,000.
TONIGHT: The Queen’s Birthday long weekend (sorry Perth) and a TV viewers fancy is turned towards sport (either voluntary or involuntary). This year there a bit more. The World Cup of soccer starts tonight on SBS from 8.30pm. Nine has NRL, Ten has MasterChef’s master class and Seven has Better Homes and Gardens and AFL in the south, and the movie, Bend it Like Beckham (yes, again), in the north.
SATURDAY: World Cup continues in the morning, then at night from 8.30pm. The ABC has a new series of Doc Martin and Midsomer Murders at 9.20pm. Ten has the Swans vs. Port Adelaide. Nine has movies and movies. Seven has Australia vs. England in the Rugby Union from 7pm. On 7TWO, A Touch of Frost at 8.30pm, GO has movies, ONE has the AFL. NRL and AFL on Foxtel.
SUNDAY: More soccer on SBS in the morning and night and got to bed early and get up early to watch Australia vs. Germany at 4.20am Monday. NRL on Nine and Foxtel, AFL on Seven. Seven has Sunday Night, and a movie at 8.30pm. Nine has Underbelly at 8.30pm and the fading CSI at 9.30pm. Ten has MasterChef and The Good Wife from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. The ABC has a new Hercule Poirot from 8.35pm. Dr Who at 7.30pm.
MONDAY: Lots of soccer; in the morning (Australia-Germany finishes around 6am) and then at night from 8.30pm. There’s an AFL Game on Ten in the afternoon. Nine has lots of repeats of programs like The Mentalist. MasterChef and Good News Week are new on Ten. So is Desperate Housewives on Seven. The ABC has Australian Story, Four Corners, Media Watch and Q&A, then Lateline and Lateline Business. Wall to wall talk!
Note there are lots of World Cup Games on SBS TWO, especially ones that will not be shown on ONE at good times (well, a lot then).
Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports
Why will the ABC not purchase any of the Inspector Lewis series? It was commissioned to follow the Inspector Morse success story and has immediately taken on a huge following not only in the UK but in 22 other countries. The ABC allowed the Nine network to out bid it for Morse and we were subjected to parts of series, no flowing on episode to episode, commercials every 12 mins resulting in the Nine editors chopping each episode they did show back by 20 mins.
On asking the ABC if they were going to pick up the Lewis series which has Kevin Whateley promoted to Inspector and joined by the brilliant Laurence Fox(yes from the great Fox acting family in the UK) as his new DS. I was told they, the ABC, were considering it. Well 4 series have now been filmed and shown and theratings are booming, yet the ABC in its wisdom!!! do nothing.
It is no wonder people resort to illegal downloading from the internet, we are treated like plebs in this country by the free to air channels. Even the Public Broadcasting Service channels
throughout the US pick up all the major British shows. This ABC continues to wallow in its own importance and forgets it is NOT THEIR ABC.