The Winners: Nine’s night with a second strong result in a row, thanks to good figures in Sydney and Melbourne.

  1. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) (8pm) — 1.387 million
  2. The Celebrity Apprentice (Nine) (7.30pm) — 1.229 million
  3. The X Factor (Seven) (7.30pm) — 1.205 million
  4. Seven News (6pm) — 1.166 million
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.099 million
  6. Nine News (6pm) — 1.082 million
  7. The Mentalist (Nine) (8.30pm) — 1.077 million

The Losers:  Ten again (the sound of broken record in the background!). Junior MasterChef at 7.30pm, 599,000: it was Ten’s most watched program last night, which says how bad the others were.

News & CA: Seven News lost Sydney and Melbourne to Nine News, but won the rest. A Current Affair won Sydney, but lost the rest. It only averaged 159,000 in Brisbane, while Today Tonight was 102,000 ahead on 261,000. TT won the three other metro markets.

Sunrise had a stronger start to the week than last week, beating Today nationally. 7.30 did well last night with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce pulling out of an interview after accepting. Host Leigh Sales said it was the second time in a year the Qantas CEO had pulled out from a committed interview.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.166 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.099 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.082 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 911,000
  5. Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 851,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 847,000
  7. Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 812,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 777,000 (+36,000 on News 24 simulcast)
  9. Media Watch (ABC) (9.15pm) — 748,000
  10. Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 648,000 (+70,000 on News 24 simulcast)
  11. The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 571,000
  12. Ten News (5pm) — 552,000
  13. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 392,000
  14. SBS  News (6.30pm) — 210,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 178,000 (+23,000 on News 24 at 8.30pm)
  16. SBS News (9.30pm) — 83,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 388,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 334,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 30.5% from Seven (3) on 29.2%, the ABC (4) was third with 19.5%, Ten (3) was 4th with 16.8% and SBS (2) was on 4.0%. Nine leads the week on 32.0% from Seven on 28.4%, with Ten on 18.2% and the ABC on 17.2%.
  • Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 24.1% from Seven on 21.8%, ABC 1 was on 15.3%, Ten was on 11.6% and SBS ONE was on 3.3%. Nine leads the week on 24.6% from Seven on 21.2%, ABC 1 on 13.4% and Ten on 11.5%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.2%, from Eleven and GO on 3.7%, 7mate was on 3.2%, Gem was on 2.6%, ABC 2 was on 2.5%, ONE was on 1.4%, News 24 was on 1.0%, SBS TWO and ABC 3 ended with 0.7% each. That’s an FTA share of 23.7%. GO and 7TWO lead the week on 3.9% each, from Eleven on 3.7%.

Pay TV: Nine (3 channels) won with a share of 25.4% from Seven (3) on 24.3%, the ABC (4) was third with 16.2%, Pay TV was on 14.2% for its 200 plus channels. Ten (3) was 5th with 14.0% and SBS (2) was on 3.3%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 85.8%. The 10 digital channels had a share of 18.9% and the five main channels had a share of 63.1%.

The five most watched Pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox 8 (3.36%)
  2. Sky News (2.11%)
  3. TV 1 (2.1%)
  4. UKTV (2.03%)
  5. Lifestyle (2%)

The five most watched Pay TV programs were:

  1. The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 106,000
  2. The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 98,000
  3. Futurama (Fox 8) — 96,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox 8) — 92,000
  5. Rove LA (Fox 8) — 74,000

Regional: A solid win to Seven with Prime/7Qld (3 channels) on 32.9% from WIN/NBN (3) on 28.5%, the ABC (4) was on 19.1%, SC Ten (3) was on 15.2% and SBS (2) was on 4.3%. The main channels were easily won by Prime/7Qld with 24.7% from WIN/NBN on 21.7%, ABC 1 was on 14.2% and SC Ten was on 10.4%. 7TWO won the digitals with 4.9% from GO on 3.9% and 7mate on 3.7%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 25.8% last night. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.5% from WIN/NBN on 30.8%.

The five most watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. The X Factor — 628,000
  2. Seven News — 549,000
  3. Home and Away — 528,000
  4. Body of Proof — 491,000
  5. The Mentalist — 475,000

Major Markets: Nine won Sydney and Melbourne, overall and the main channels. It was Seven second and the ABC third in both cities. In Brisbane it was Seven from Nine and Ten overall, and Seven from Nine and ABC 1 in the main channels. In Adelaide and Perth it was Seven from Nine and the ABC, both overall and in the main channels. In the digitals GO won Sydney, Eleven won Brisbane and 7TWO won the rest. Nine leads Seven and Ten in Melbourne and Brisbane. In Sydney it was Nine, Seven and the ABC. In Brisbane. Adelaide and Perth it was Nine from Seven and Ten.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine’s night and the Seven Network could be heading for its toughest week so far this year, after just two nights of ratings. Nine really appealed to audiences in Sydney and Melbourne, but that’s all. Nine’s offering just didn’t work in Adelaide and Perth (and to a lesser extent in Brisbane where Seven prevailed narrowly). And it didn’t work in the regional markets where The Celebrity Apprentice didn’t make into the top 10 in the regions and The Big Bang Theory only cracked 10th spot against the second in the metro markets.

WIN again confused by showing The Celebrity Apprentice in one market and The Big Bang Theory in others, but didn’t broadcast both in all regional markets. Not having Packed to the Rafters tonight means Seven will be relying on The X Factor, which is tiring and a recut of the Australia You’ve Got Talent program from earlier in the year. Nine has some pretty weak stuff tonight, so Seven will catch up, but the week will be closer than last week was.

The Project started OK last night on Ten at 6.30pm. Ten said The Project‘s audience for the 6.30pm to 7pm slot was up 32% on 6.30pm with George Negus‘ average for the past four weeks, 363,000 v 480,000 viewers. We will see how the new look The Project goes next week, once the novelty has worn off. On Pay TV, Sky News did well for a second night thanks to the Qantas story, as did the ABC’s News 24 which had its third 1%-plus share night in a row.

The five most watched programs from last night were:

  1. The X Factor — 1.834 million
  2. The Big Bang Theory — 1.767 million
  3. Seven News — 1.713 million
  4. Nine News — 1.555 million
  5. The Mentalist — 1.548 million

The Big Bang Theory would have been number one nationally except WIN didn’t show it in northern NSW and instead showed both episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice, which didn’t make it to air, it seems in other regional markets.

Tonight: The ABC has Foreign Correspondent. Nine has Two and a Half Men. Seven has The X Factor. Ten has a new NCIS and a fresh Modern Family episode.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports