The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night as the tennis did better. Bernard Tomic helped Seven with a tough four set win as a lead-in to the 6pm “special one hour bulletin” and then a post-game media conference where the questioning was less assured than Tomic’s smart and intelligent answers. He really has changed. Seven’s tennis averaged 930,000 metro and 1.363 million national viewers last night.

That’s because Roger Federer on Seven proved to be more attractive than the first episode of American Idol last night on Ten (for me at least) even though Keith Urban brought a directness to the judging comments in the “wheat from the chaff” round that his fellow (American) judges seemed incapable of making. Idol had 539,000 metro viewers and 704,000 nationally. That was enough to push Ten past the ABC and into third spot in metro markets, but not in the regions where it was watched by just 165,000 people, meaning Ten remained fourth behind the ABC.

Idol did well in the younger demos among female viewers. Interesting though in in the 16 to 39 age group, Big Bang Theory was top (a repeat on Nine) and Seven’s tennis (with Roger Federer) was second and Idol was fourth thanks to solid support from female viewers.

The news from the US isn’t good for Idol, Ten or Fox: last night’s episode showed in the US around midday our time (eastern). According to early ratings data it was watched by 17.9 million people, down 19% from the debut episode for the 2012 season and making it the lowest ever audience for a season opener. The previous low was the season opener in 2012. If this keeps up, Idol will be making its last appearance on US TV this season after the 2012 season saw a 25% fall in viewers.

Looking at much of last night’s first episode, you can see the reasons for the falling audiences, it’s self-indulgent rubbish in many places, especially among judges such as Mariah Carey.

Tonight: More tennis on Seven and American Idol on Ten. ABC1 has a repeat of Hercule Poirot, Nine of course has the third one-day cricket match between Australia and Sri Lanka (from Brisbane).

Saturday: More tennis on Seven, with Tomic playing Federer at night in the big match-up for local viewers. The ABC repeats Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Doc Martin. Nine has movie repeats, as does Ten, after the Graham Norton Show at 8.30pm. The Big Bash final is on pay TV on Fox Sports 2.

Sunday: More tennis on Seven, and ODI cricket on Nine (from Sydney). Ten starts Masterchef Professionals, one of its must-win programs for 2013. It’s a 90-minute episode tonight which will be slow going because it’s an introduction to the contestants. That’s after a trio of repeats of The Simpsons and Modern Family though. ABC1 has Upstairs Downstairs.

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

  1. Seven News — 1.754 million.
  2. Nine News —  1.661 million.
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.460 million.
  4. Tennis Night (Seven) — 1.363 million.
  5. ABC1 News — 1.215 million.
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.180 million.
  7. The Big Bang Theory Ep 2 (Nine) — 1.057 million.
  8. The Big bang Theory Ep 1 (Nine) — 1.024 million.
  9. QI (ABC 1) — 1.014 million.
  10. 7.30 Summer (ABC 1) — 996,000.

The Metro Winners: Seven continues the fiction that Today Tonight is being broadcast from 6.30pm.

  1. Seven News — 1.190 million
  2. Nine News — 1.148 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.011 million.

The Losers: Fans of Today Tonight, still being led up the garden path by Seven.

Metro News & CA: For all the help from Bernie Tomic, Seven’s News from 6pm lost to Nine News in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. As usual a big win in Perth kept Seven in front.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.190 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.148 million.
  3. Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.011 million.
  4. A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30 pm) — 960,000.
  5. ABC1 News (7pm) — 848,000.
  6. 7.30 Summer (ABC 1, 7.30 – 8 pm) — 661,000.
  7. Ten News (Ten, 5 – 6 pm) — 648,000.
  8. The Project (Ten, 6.30 – 7.30 pm) — 467,000.
  9. SBS ONE News (6.30pm) — 155,000.
  10. ABC1 Late News (10.30pm) — 93,000.
  11. SBS ONE Late News (10.30pm) — 118,000.
  12. The Drum (News 24, 10pm,  repeat) — 49,000.

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 360,000.
  2. Today (Nine, 7am) — 337,000.
  3. Mornings Summer (Nine, 9am) — 119,000.
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 50,000 + 37,000 on News 24.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 32.7% from Nine (three) on 23.5%, Ten (three) was on 20.0%, the ABC (four) ended with 16.1% and SBS (three) was on 7.6%. Seven leads the week with 31.6% from Nine on 26.1%, the ABC is on 18.2% and Ten is on 17.1%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 24.5% from, Nine on 17.5%, Ten on 12.4%, ABC1 on 10.7% and SBS ONE on 5.9%. Seven leads the week with 24.2% from Nine on 18.9%, ABC1 is on 12.9% and Ten is on 10.5%.

Metro Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.3% from Eleven on 4.1%, 7mate was on 3.9%, GO was non 3.8%, ONE was on 3.5%, ABC2, 2.8%, Gem, 2.2%, SBS TWO, 1.6%, News 24 and ABC3, 1.3% each and NITV, 0.2%. The 11 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a high 29.0%. 7TWO leads the week with 4.1% from GO on 3.7%, Gem and Eleven on 3.5% and 7mate on 3.4%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 26.1% from Nine (three) on 18.8%, Ten (three) was on 15.9%, the ABC (four) ended with 12.9% and SBS (three) was on 6.1%. The 16 FTA channels had a total share last night of 81.9% with the 11 digital channels share totalling 23.1% and the five main channels share on 58.8%. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel have pay TV a share last night of 18.1%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

  1. Fox8 — 3.2%.
  2. TV1 — 2.3%.
  3. LifeStyle, Cartoon Net. — 2.1%
  4. Disney — 1.9%.
  5. LifeStyle You, Nickelodeon — 1.8%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

  1. The Simpsons (Fox8) — 76,000.
  2. Chicago Fire (Fox8) — 66,000.
  3. Coronation Street (UKTV) — 60,000.
  4. Family Guy (Fox 8) — 60,000.
  5. Grand Designs (LifeStyle) — 56,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 36.7% from WIN/NBN (three) on 27.5%, the ABC (four) was on 15.8%, SC Ten (three) was fourth with 13.8% and SBS (three) was on 6.4%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 24.6% from WIN/NBN on 20.3%, ABC1 was on 9.7% and SC Ten ended on 8.4%. 7mate won the digitals with 6.2% from 7TWO on 5.9% and GO on 4.8%. The 11 digital channels had an FTA share last night of a high 31.2%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 33.6% from WIN/NBN on 30.1%, the ABC on 16.5% and SC Ten on 13.9%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

  1. Seven News — 557,000.
  2. Nine News — 511,000.
  3. ACA — 500,000.
  4. Tennis Night — 433,000.
  5. WIN News — 357,000.

Major Metro Markets: It was Seven Nine and Ten (Overall and the main channels) in all five metro markets , bar the main channels in Perth where the ABC again pushed Ten back to fourth as American Idol didn’t really hit the right note with local viewers. 7mate won the digitals in Brisbane and Adelaide, Eleven won Sydney and Melbourne, but 7TWO scored a huge win in Perth which won the night nationally. Seven leads the week everywhere, from Nine and the ABC, except in Brisbane where Ten remains third.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data