The Winners: An average night of TV. Nine continues to flog The Block. Seven’s Winners & Losers stood out again because it’s an original bit of TV.

  1. The Block (Nine) (7pm) — 1.391 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.317 million
  3. Winners & Losers (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.274 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.172 million
  5. Nine News (6pm) — 1.156 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.120 million
  7. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.064 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) (7pm) — 1.045 million

The Losers: Dinner Date, 745,000. That’s not very good, and the program is terrible. How grown adults could agree to it and to put it to air?

Top Gear on Nine at 8.30pm, 712,000.

The Renovators on Ten at 8pm, 710,000. Modern Family ran on Ten at 7.30pm this week and averaged 858,000, 148,000 people then switched from Ten to another channel than watch The Renovators. That says it all.

News & CA: Nine News and ACA won Sydney and Melbourne by solid margins, lost the rest to Seven News and TT.

But Seven News (280,000) and TT (253,000), had very low audience levels in Sydney.

In the morning Today is getting closer to Sunrise.

The 7pm Project continues to shed viewers. Last night was Steve Price’s turn in the chair. This week I didn’t mind him, but the program is now a very comfortable format. It’s lost the edge it had a year ago. It may get more viewers at 7pm than 6.30 with George Negus, but that program at least isn’t suffering a worrying slide in viewers that Ten has so far failed to stop.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.317 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.172 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.156 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.120 million
  5. ABC News (7pm) — 852,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 667,000
  7. Ten News (5pm) — 619,000
  8. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 615,000
  9. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) (8pm) — 556,000
  10. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 441,000
  11. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (10.30pm) — 317,000
  12. Insight (SBS) (7.30pm) — 248,000
  13. Lateline (ABC) (10.25pm) — 213,000
  14. SBS News (6.30pm) — 188,000
  15. SBS News (9.30pm) — 138,000
  16. Lateline Business (ABC) (11pm) — 136,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 377,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 356,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 29.7%, from Nine (3) on 27.7%, Ten (3) was third with 20.8%, the ABC (4) was on 16.2% and SBS (2) ended with 5.7%. Nine still leads the week with 29.5% from Seven on 29.2%, Ten on 18.8% and the ABC on 17.6%
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 23.1% from Nine on 14.8%, Ten on 14.8%, ABC 1 on 12.4% and SBS ONE on 4.7%. Nine leads the week with 22.4% from Seven on 21.6%, ABC 1 on 14.3% and Ten on 13.1%.
  • Digital: GO won with 4.3%, from Eleven on 3.9%, 7mate on 3.7%, Gem on 3.6%, 7TWO on 2.9%, ONE on 2.1%, ABC 2 on 2.0%, SBS TWO and ABC 3 on 1.0% each and News 24 on 0.8% each. That’s an FTA share of last night’s viewing 24.3%. GO leads the week with 4.2%, from 7TWO on 3.8% and 7mate and Eleven on 3.7% each.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 24.5%, from Nine (3) on 22.8%, with Ten (3) on 17.1%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) was on 15.2%, the ABC (4) finished on 13.3% and SBS (2) was on 4.7%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.8% share of prime time TV viewing last night. The 10 digital channels had a total share of 20.9%, the five main channels were on 63.9%.
  • Regional: WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 32.2% from Prime/7Qld (3) on 27.4%, SC Ten (3) was on 18.1%, the ABC (4) ended on 15.8%, while SBS finished on 6.5% (2 channels). WIN/NBN with 22.7% won the main channels from Prime/7Qld on 21.1%. Gem won the digitals with 4.8%, from GO on 4.6% and 7mate on 3.4%. The 10 digital channels had a total FTA share last night of 26.3%. WIN/NBN lead the week with 32.1% from Prime/7Qld on 28.5%.

Major Markets: Another mixed night. Seven won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, with Nine second and Ten third. Nine won Brisbane overall, Seven won the main channels. GO won Sydney and Melbourne, Eleven won Brisbane and Adelaide and 7mate won Perth. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven leads Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Ten is back in third having overtaken the ABC which led for two nights.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won, but it was a weak win compared to previous Tuesdays. Seven still won the major demos as well as All People. Next Tuesday, Packed to The Rafters returns at 8.30pm and Winners & Losers moves to 9.30pm, which will extend Seven’s grip on the night.

And it wasn’t a big night in any market for big audiences. Not one program had a national audience of 2 million or more. The first time that has happened outside Sunday to Thursday for weeks.

  • The Block had a national audience of 1.974 million with 583,000 in regional areas and 1.391 million in the five metro markets.
  • Winners & Losers had a total national audience of 1.713 million with 439,000 in the regions and 1.279 million in metro areas.

The ABC’s UK documentary, Japan Tsunami: How it Happened, at 8.30pm averaged 858,000 viewers and ran second in the timeslot. It was very good, but raises the question, why couldn’t the ABC have organised something like that? After all, it has a very good correspondent in Japan in Mark Willacy and access to seismologists and others here and in Japan and the US. Obviously it was cheaper to buy it in than make it, which is where criticism of the ABC cost-cutting should be directed. There are some stories that Australians should tell and given the close links with Japan, that was really the ABC’s responsibility.

Tonight: The ABC is the place to be with the final New Inventors, or rather the grand final of the final series ever. That’s at 8pm. Spicks and Specks is at 8.30pm and The Gruen Transfer at 9pm.

Nine has The Block, or, rather, continues to milk The Block for an extra week of viewers. Avoid Top Design straight after. Seven had Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior. Ten has The Renovators and then Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation at 8.30pm. SBS has The Hotel.

Speaking of Ten, it launches its 2012 season tonight in Sydney. Will all programs be approved by new CEO James Warburton, who doesn’t start until January 1? Will The Renovators be in next year’s line-up? Will Can of Worms? What will be said about changes to MasterChef? And will an updated Young Talent Time be flagged? Also, what will happen to the extra half hour of news five days a week from 6pm and the extra half hour of news on weekends? And will Ten make a move into a longer, early-morning program from 6am or 7am, in addition to the 6am news?

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports