The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night thanks to the performance grand final of The X Factor which was watched by more than 1.6 million people in metro markets and over 2.5 million nationally. That pushed Seven to the lead and it will win the week, with tonight’s results episode as a bonus to nail down the week, not only in All People, but in the key demos.

Q&A last night featured Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, pushing the program’s national ratings to close to 1.3 million (including over 900,000 in metro markets). It helped drive the ABC/ABC1 to a clear third in some markets, and the odd second in others (such as Perth). Nine and Ten were left behind by Seven and the ABC respectively.

The ABC’s combination of 7.30 through Q&A was thinking person’s TV. A solid combination and deserved the good audiences: 7.30 had a great final report on a 16-year-old Afghan boy making his way at a Sydney high school. That should be shown every time one of Alan Jones or Ray Hadley’s whackos starts on about refugees. The 7pm ABC News, 7.30, Michael Palin: From Python to Brazil at 8pm, Four Corners, Media Watch and Q&A all had more than one million viewers nationally last night. That’s not the first time that has happened this year. Every program deserved it.

Four Corners (829,000 metro viewers and 1.171 million nationally) ran the Jimmy Savile special from ITV. It deserved to run instead of the BBC Panorama program which was after the event (in terms of the original claims) and looked more at the performance of the BBC than the horrible stories about Savile and his dealings with young girls. The ITV special was the first comprehensive look and triggered the eruption of the scandal and concerns about the BBC’s handling of the story.

It was a powerful program, it was all about the victims and Savile’s behaviour. After watching it last night, you can understand the devastating blows the BBC’s reputation has taken over the Savile stories (from within and outside the BBC), especially when Newsnight, the BBC’s high profile current affairs program, didn’t run its report on the claims about Savile’s behaviour a year ago.

It’s an odd coincidence that Australia and Britain have been gripped by child s-xual abuse stories as 2012 closes. Australia’s is about institutions (and some isolated individuals), Britain’s is about an individual’s depredations that still seem staggering. And of the media in both countries, the Australian media has done far better in reporting the story and forcing change and an inquiry (Fairfax Media, Lateline and 7.30 lately), than the BBC, UK newspapers and other media (with the exception of ITV).

Tonight: Foreign Correspondent on Mongolia’s boom. And then a nice story from World War II. Seven ends The X Factor in two hours, then starts a new series called Grimm. Nine has The Big Bang Theory. Ten has more Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals and then fresh NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles episodes. SBS has the second part of America in Primetime. Watch.

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

  1. The X Factor (Seven) — 2.504 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.736 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.675 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.576 million.
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.567 million.
  6. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.563 million.
  7. Castle (Seven) — 1.450 million.
  8. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.225 million.
  9. Michael Palin: From Python to Brazil (ABC1) — 1.196 million.
  10. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.188 million.

The Metro Winners:

  1. The X Factor (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.667 million.
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.144 million.
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.133 million.
  4. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.092 million.
  5. Home and Away (Seven, 7pm) — 1.049 million.

The Losers: Ten, and Nine, just not strong enough as both took the night off because of The X Factor‘s performance episode on Seven. Can of Worms, 364,000 metro and national viewers. The X Factor made it tough over on Seven, but that is a very weak figure anyway.Metro News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne (the latter by a huge 143,000). Seven News won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth (by 106,00). A Current Affair won Sydney and Melbourne (by 122,000). Today Tonight won the rest.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.144 million.
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.133 million.
  3. ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.092 million.
  4. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 981,000.
  5. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 964,000.
  6. Q&A (ABC1, 9.35pm) — 840,000 + 80,000 on News 24.
  7. Four Corners (ABC1, 8.30pm) — 829,000.
  8. 7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 766,000.
  9. Media Watch (ABC1, 9.20pm) — 757,000.
  10. Ten News (5pm) — 626,000.
  11. The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 561,000.
  12. The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 412,000.
  13. Lateline (ABC1, 10.35pm) — 398,000.
  14. The Business (ABC1, 11.10pm) — 171,000.
  15. SBS News (6.30pm) — 156,000.
  16. Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) — 130,000.
  17. SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 43,000.
  18. The Drum (News 24, 6pm) — 41,000.

In the morning: Another win for Today.

  1. Today (Nine, 7am) — 338,000.
  2. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 315,000.
  3. The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 169,000.
  4. Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 109,000.
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 51,000 + 30,000 on News 24.
  6. Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 50,000

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 36.2% from Nine (three) on 23.5%, the ABC (four) was on 21.5%, Ten (three) was on 15.3% and SBS (two) ended on 3.6%. Seven leads the week with 33.2% from Nine on 27.2%, the ABC is on 19.0% and Ten is on 16.3%. Main Channels: Seven won with 29.2% from Nine on 17.0%, ABC1 was on 16.7%, Ten was on 10.2% and SBS ONE was on 2.8%. Seven leads the week with 25.9% from Nine on 20.8%, ABC1 on 15.0% and Ten on 11.1%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.1%, from GO on 3.3%, Gem and Eleven were on 3.2%, 7mate was on 3.0%, ABC2 was on 2.8%, ONE was on 1.9%, News 24 ended on 1.1%, ABC3 was on 0.9% and SBS TWO was on 0.8%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 24.3%. Meanwhile, 7TWO leads the week with 4.1% from GO on 3.6% and 7mate on 3.2%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 30.6% from Nine (three) on 19.8%, the ABC (four) was on 18.1%, Ten (three) was on 12.9% and SBS (two) ended on 3.0%. The 15 FTA channels had a total share last night of 86.5%. The five main channels share was 66.9% which was after the 10 digital channels share totalled 19.6%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a 13.5% share last night (which was cut by the popularity of The X Factor on Seven, just as The Voice on Nine earlier in the year had an impact on pay TV viewing levels).

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox8 — 3.4%.
  2. TV 1 — 2.2%.
  3. LifeStyle — 2.0%.
  4. UKTV — 1.9%.
  5. A&E — 1.8%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. Family Guy (Fox8) — 99,000.
  2. Futurama (Fox8) — 83,000.
  3. New Tricks (UKTV) — 79,000.
  4. The Simpsons (F8) — 72,000.
  5. Megatruckers (A&E) — 68,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 36.2% from WIN/NBN (three) on 23.5%, the ABC (four) was on 19.1%, SC Ten (three) was on 12.0% and SBS (two) ended on 3.4%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 29.6%, from WIN/NBN on 19.3%, ABC1 was on 13.8% and SC Ten was on 7.2%. Meanwhile, 7TWO won the digitals with 5.2% with GO on 4.7% and Gem on 3.8%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 28.4%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 35.4%, from WIN/NBN on 29.8%, the ABC is on 17.6% and SC Ten ended on 14.1%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. The X Factor — 839,000.
  2. A Current Affair — 604,000.
  3. Seven News — 591,000.
  4. Nine News — 542,000.
  5. Castle — 529,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep (overall and main channels) for Seven last night. The ABC/ABC1 were third behind Nine in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and overall in Adelaide. In the main channels in Adelaide ABC1 was second and Nine third, while in Perth, the ABC/ABC1 were second and Nine third. Meanwhile, 7TWO won the digitals with a clean sweep. Seven leads the week from Nine and the ABC in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine still leads Melbourne from Seven and the ABC.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data