The Glenn Dyer breakdown: The Melbourne Cup in the afternoon cast a glow over Seven’s early evening programs (but not the news in Melbourne). But from 6pm, when ratings proper started, it was Seven’s night, as Nine’s penultimate Big Brother episode was battered by the pressure of The X Factor‘s results episode and the elimination of 14-year-old Shiane Hawke. Will her disappearance come back to bite Seven?

In fact, Big Brother‘s audience fell under a million metro viewers, or around 12% lower than Monday night. Not a good look ahead of tonight’s finale. Big Brother didn’t rate in Adelaide and Perth where a weak Ten beat Nine into second place overall and in the main channels. Big Brother also flopped again in regional markets.

The X Factor had more than 1.5 million metro and over 2.3 million national viewers, a strong result seeing how it had been drifting a bit lower in recent nights up to Monday night. Big Brother had 969,000 metro and just under 1.3 million national viewers.

Seven’s Winners and Losers though did much better with more than 1.3 million metro and over 1.8 million nationally, figures Nine could only aspire to for Big Brother. The dominance of The X Factor and Winners & Losers, assisted by Home and Away (990,000 metro and 1.5 million national viewers) meant an easy win for Seven in the end.

Tonight: Big Brother ends on Nine from 7pm. Glee at 7.30 pm and then The Good Wife on Ten, Surveillance Oz and Criminal Minds on Seven. A Moody Christmas (a must watch) at 8.30pm and then The Hamster Wheel on ABC1. And of course US election coverage during today and tonight.

The Cup: The race yesterday had 2.664 million metro and 3.584 million national viewers, which meant a third place behind the 2.707 million metro and 3.663 million national viewers in 2010. Last year it was 2.667 million metro viewers and 3.642 million nationally. Naturally that under-estimated considerably the real viewing audience because it doesn’t include the millions watching in pubs, clubs, race courses and other venues across the country not covered by the ratings system.

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

  1. Melbourne Cup – Race (Seven) — 3.584 million
  2. Melbourne Cup – Presentation — 2.648 million.
  3. The X Factor (Seven) — 2.347 million
  4. Melbourne Cup – Mounting Yard — 2.219 million.
  5. Seven News (6pm) — 1.926 million.
  6. Winners & Losers (Seven) — 1.835 million.
  7. Nine News — 1.652 million.
  8. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.578 million.
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.534 million.
  10. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.510 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. Melbourne Cup – Race (Seven, just after 3 pm) — 2.664 million.
  2. Melbourne Cup – Presentation (Seven, around 3.30 pm)– 1.951 million
  3. Melbourne Cup – Mounting Yard (Seven, 2.20 – 3 pm)– 1631 million.
  4. The X Factor (Seven) — 1.537 million.
  5. Seven News (6pm) — 1.329 million.
  6. Winners & Losers (Seven, 8.40 pm – 9.40 pm ish) — 1.250 million.
  7. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 1.189 million.
  8. Nine News (6pm) — 1.134 million.
  9. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.124 million.
  10. The Big Bang Theory (Nine, 8.30 – 9 pm) — 1.014 million.

The Losers: No one really, ABC1’s Obama special at 9 pm, 470,000 metro and 641,000 national viewers, well down on the 649,000 metro and 949,000 national viewers for Annabel Crabb’s idiosyncratic drift through Florida from 8 to 9pm.Metro News & CA: A Cup halo effect could be seen for Seven News and TT. But it had faded by 7pm. iT didn’t help Seven in Melbourne anyway, where it lost 373,000 to 431,000 for Nine News. There is definitely a problem in Melbourne for Seven News. At 6.30pm in Melbourne, ACA lost ground to 355,000 people and TT eased back to 356,000, meaning TT was a narrow winner.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.329 million.
  2. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 1.189 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.134 million.
  4. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.124 million.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30 – 7 pm) — 982,000.
  6. 7.30 (ABC 1, 7.30pm) — 829,000.
  7. Foreign Correspondent (ABC 1,  8pm) — 649,000.
  8. Ten News (5pm) — 633,000.
  9. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 559,000.
  10. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 392,000.
  11. Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 300,000.
  12. Insight (SBS ONE, 8.30pm) — 260,000.
  13. SBS ONE News (SBS ONE, 6.30pm) 188,000.
  14. Lateline (ABC 1, 10.20pm) — 187,000.
  15. Dateline (SBS ONE, 9.30pm) — 139,000.
  16. The Business (ABC1, 10.55pm, rpt) — 103,000
  17. SBS ONE Late News (10.30pm) — 73,000.
  18. The Drum (News 24, 10pm, rpt) — 49,000.

In the morning: Seven pre-empted The Morning Show from 9am to 11am because of the Melbourne Cup coverage which started at 10am. Seven’s coverage averaged 665,000 until the coverage proper started in the early afternoon.

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 385,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 358,000.
  3. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 200,000.
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) 57,000 + 24,000 News 24.
  5. Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 40,000.

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with 31.9%% from Nine (three) on 23.8%, Ten (three) was on 20.8%, the ABC (four) on 12.4% and SBS (two) on 6.6%. Seven now leads the week on 29.8% from Nine on 27.8%, Ten is on 19.3% and the ABC is on 17.8%. Main channels: Seven won with a share of 25.1% from Nine back on 18.5%, Ten was on 15.3%. ABC1 was on 12.4% and SBS ONE ended on 5.1%

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with 3.4% from 7mate on 3.3%, Gem and Eleven on 2.9% each, ONE and ABC2 on 2.6% each, GO on 2.4%, SBS TWO on 1.5%, ABC3 on 1.2% and News 24 on 0.9%. the 10 digital channels had a FTA viewing share last night 23.7%. GO leads the week with 4.0% from 7TWO on 3.9%, 7mate on 3.3% and Gem on 3.1%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with 26.8%% from Nine (three) on 20.0%, Ten (three) was on 17.5%, the ABC (four) on 14.3% and SBS (two) on 5.5%. The 15 FTA channels had a total viewing share last night of 85.8%. The five main channels had a share of 66.0%, the 10 digital channels had a total share of 19.8%. Pay TV had a share of 14.2%, based on the 200 plus channels on Foxtel.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox 8 — 2.3%.
  2. TV1 — 1.8%.
  3. A&E — 1.6%.
  4. LifeStyle, Cartoon net., Fox Classics — 1.5%.
  5. Sky Racing — 1.4%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. The Walking Dead (FX) — 126,000.
  2. Storage Wars (A&E) — 108,000.
  3. Storage Wars (A&E) — 64,000.
  4. America’s Next Top Model (Fox8) — 62,000.
  5. The Vicar of Dibley (Fox Classics) — 55,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with 36.1% from WIN/NBN (three) on 23.9%, SC Ten (three) was on 19.2%, the ABC (four) on 15.9% and SBS (two) on 4.8%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 26.4%, from WIN/NBN on 17.3%, SC Ten on 13.4% and ABC 1 on 10.8%. 7TWO won the digitals with 5.2%, from 7mate on 4.5% and Gem on 3.8% . The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 28.6%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.4%, from WIN/NBN on 26.7%, SC Ten is on 17.9% and ABC 1 is on 17.5%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Melbourne Cup Race — 921,000.
  2. The X Factor — 810,000.
  3. Melbourne Cup – Presentation — 697,000.
  4. Seven News — 597,000.
  5. Melbourne Cup – Mounting Yard — 589,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep (overall and the main channels) for Seven in all five metro markets. Ten was third behind Nine in most markets, with a couple of exceptions. In Sydney the ABC/ABC1 beat Ten into third spot as the latter’s weakness in that market continues.

And in Adelaide and Perth, Ten beat Nine into second both (overall and the main channels). 7mate won Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. 7TWO won Sydney and tied Perth with Eleven. Seven leads Nine and the ABC in Sydney, Nine still leads Seven and Ten in Melbourne and Seven leads Nine and Ten in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data