Night two of My Kitchen’s Voice, the great fusion battle between Nine and Seven for ratings supremacy. And the result? Another win for Nine that was solely due to strong showings in just Sydney and Melbourne for The Voice (2.564 million national/ 1.874 million metro/ 690,000 regional), over My Kitchen Rules (2.392 million national/ 1.586 million metro/ 807,000 regional), which was again a more national program. The result on the night was that Nine won Sydney and Melbourne by big margins and Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and in regional areas, where MKR clearly beat The Voice, 807,000 to 690,000, and it also scored small wins in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The Voice’s national audience last night was steady on Sunday’s opening, MKR’s was around 300,000 higher.

That is big turnaround from a year ago when by night two of The Voice’s first series, it was clear it was a ratings monster. Last night’s national audience of 2.564 million was about 700,000 fewer than this time last year. That is a serious loss and equates to a fall of around 25% — it’s still a big hit, but no longer a monster.

Nine will no doubt boast about the result last bright and its lead for the week so far, but Seven has definitely succeeded in blunting the return of The Voice for season two, which is the name of the game over the rest of the 2013 ratings battle. The question now is how long can Seven keep squeezing MKR without destroying its cred with viewers (and the longer MKR goes, the tougher it will be for Ten’s MasterChef Australia< , which is due to return soon)?

House Husbands on Nine (1.642 million national/ 1.135 million metro/ 507,000 regional) after The Voice did well for Nine and pushed Seven’s Revenge down to 1.1451 million national/ 971,000 metro/ 480,000 metro (for episode one), which is a lot lower than before Easter. Ten was badly squeezed by Nine, Seven and the usual strong ABC1 line-up of news and current affairs programming. The Biggest Loser (965,000 national/ 552,000 metro/ 413,000 regional) was pushed lower, but the support in regional areas was a bit higher than expected. Still, Ten was squeezed in both metro and regional markets.

Network channel shares:

  1. Nine (33.5%)
  2. Seven (31.9%)
  3. ABC (17.3%)
  4. Ten (14.1%)
  5. SBS (3.1%)

Main channels: 

  1. Nine (28.9%)
  2. Seven (25.3%)
  3. ABC1 (13.8%)
  4. Ten (8.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (2.4%)

Top five digital channels:

  1. 7TWO (3.7%)
  2. GO (3.5%)
  3. 7mate (2.9%)
  4. ONE (2.7%)
  5. Eleven (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Voice (Nine) – 2.564 million
  2. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 2.392 million
  3. Seven News — 1.930 million
  4. Nine News — 1.882 million
  5. House Husbands (Nine) — 1.642 million
  6. Revenge (Seven) — 1.451 million
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.447 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.440 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.390 million
  10. ABC1 News — 1.233 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The Voice (Nine) — 1.874 million
  2. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 1.586 million
  3. Nine News — 1.306 million
  4. Seven News –– 1.261 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.185 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.185 million
  7. House Husbands (Nine) — 1.135 million

Losers: Ten, as was expected.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News –- 1.306 million
  2.  Seven News – 1.261 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.185 million
  4.  Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.185 million
  5. ABC1 News — 905,000
  6. Ten News — 758,000
  7. Media Watch  (ABC1) – 733,000
  8. Four Corners (ABC1) — 717,000
  9. Australian Story (ABC1) — 700,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC1) — 629,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Today (Seven) – 439,000
  2. Sunrise (Nine) – 376,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 54,000 + 35,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox  Sports 1 – 3.8%
  2. Fox 8 – 2.4%
  3. Fox Footy — 1.9%
  4. LifeStyle — 1.8%
  5. Crime & Investigation, Cartoon Net, TV1 — 1.7

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Melb. v Wests (Fox Sports 1) – 268,000
  2. Monday Night With Matty Johns (Fox Sports 1) – 136,000
  3. AFL: Open Mike (Fox Footy) – 117,000
  4. Game of Thrones (Showcase) – 116,000
  5. AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy ) – 108,000
Tonight: Singing and/or eating on Nine and Seven, and Packed To The Rafters on Seven. Nine starts its new high-profile US series called The Following (with Six Degrees Kevin Bacon starring). It’s just another serial killer effort (Why do all crime shows, US and UK especially, gravitate or focus almost exclusively on serial killers. We’ve all seen Silence of The Lambs?). Ten has The Biggest Loser and then a fresh NCIS (any serial killers? No, it’s a hacker and terrorist). ABC1 has Foreign Correspondent. SBS has Insight (what to do with cats? Cuddle them, I say) and then Dateline.

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) Plus network reports.