Yes, it’s now happened, My Kitchen Rules has left the TV studios, and we can all return to our takeaways and microwaved meals without the attendant guilt, until Ten’s MasterChef Australia limps onto our TV sets later in the year. Of course, Nine’s The Voice is still in the room and set to dominate nightly ratings this week.

Seven won last night in metro and regional markets and won it very well as MKR left with a bang — more than 4.2 million viewers across the country for the winner’s announcement and around 2.9 million for the grand final itself. MKR’s winner’s announcement had 4.272 million national/ 2.952 million metro/ 1.320 million regional viewers. The grand final had 3.107 million national/ 2.154 million metro/ 953,000 regional viewers. Seven would have been encouraged how 1.1 million extra people tuned in for the winner who were not watching the grand final — unlike MasterChef: The Professionals on Ten earlier in the year.

Failing another “Comeback Kitchen” effort from Seven, MKR will now rest until early 2014, clearing the way for The Voice to dominate — in fact Nine will take great heart from The Voice’s performance last night. It withstood the surge in MKR’s audience to average 2.715 million national/1.975 million metro/ 740,000 regional viewers.  The Voice had more viewers in Melbourne than the grand final of MKR.

And that really was the night, as the ABC was badly squeezed as many of its core viewers in older demographics headed and stayed with Seven for the successful launch of its new drama series, A Place To Call Home, which averaged 2.615 million national/ 1.768 million metro/ 847,000 regional viewers (who gave the new program very solid support). Last night’s debut episode was slow, because it was the introductory episode — from next week you’s want to see a faster pace and a bit more action.

Ten’s line-up was squeezed somewhat, but not by as much as you would have thought — The Biggest Loser averaged 808,000 national/ 581,000 metro/ 227,000 regional viewers (but was lower than that in previous weeks) and Elementary at 8.30pm held up reasonably well with 924,000 national/ 685,000 metro/ 239,000 regional viewers.

For much of the hour from 7.30 to 8.30pm. well over 7.5 million people were watched Seven, Nine, Ten and ABC1 last night, which is a pretty fair audience.

Last Week: Seven won in metro and regional markets, with ABC/ABC1 third and Ten fourth. The Voice and MKR dominated the week, but Seven won because its second-tier programs like Revenge, Packed To the Rafters, Criminal Minds, Mrs Brown’s Boys, Home and Away and the AFL were more popular than Nine’s second tier, of which House Husbands again stood out.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (39.9%)
  2. Nine (30.4%)
  3. Ten (13.1%)
  4. ABC (11.6%)
  5. SBS (5.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (32.9%)
  2. Nine (25.3%)
  3. Ten (10.0%)
  4. ABC1 (9.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.6%)

Top five metro digital channels:

  1. 7mate (3.9%)
  2. GO (3.1%)
  3. 7TWO (3.0%)
  4. Gem (2.0%)
  5. ONE (1.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. My Kitchen Rules winner (Seven) — 4.272 million
  2. My Kitchen Rules grand final (Seven) — 3.107 million
  3. The Voice (Nine) — 2.715 million
  4. A Place To Call Home (Seven)  –2.615 million
  5. Seven News — 2.296 million
  6. Nine News — 2.175 million
  7. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.988 million
  8. ABC 1 News — 1.147 million
  9. The Mentalist (Nine) — 1.074 million
  10. Dr Who (ABC1) — 1.004 million

Metro top programs: 

  1. My Kitchen Rules winner (Seven) — 2.952 million
  2. My Kitchen Rules grand final (Seven) — 2.154 million
  3. The Voice (Nine) — 1.975 million
  4. A Place To Call Home (Seven) — 1.768 million
  5. Seven News — 1.542 million
  6. Nine News — 1.480 million
  7. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.330 million
Losers: None.

News and current affairs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.542 million
  2. Nine News – 1.480 million
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) – 1.330 million
  4. ABC1 News — 758,000
  5. Ten News — 499,000
  6. SBS ONE News — 177,000

Morning TV:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 330,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) – 297,000
  3. Insiders (ABC1) — 142,000 + 83,000 on News 24
  4. The Bolt Report (Ten) — 146,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC1)  – 129,000
  6. Inside Business  (ABC1) – 100,000
  7. Meet The Press (Ten, 4.30 pm repeat) — 95,000
  8. Meet the Press (Ten, 10.30 am) — 89,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Footy -3.8%
  2. Fox Sports 1 — 3.0%
  3. Fox 8 – 2.8%
  4. TV1 – 2.4%
  5. Fox Sports 3 — 1.9%.

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: Hawthorn v North Melbourne (Fox Footy) –- 245,000
  2. NRL: Gold Coast v Newcastle (Fox Sports 1) — 201,000
  3. AFL: After The Bounce (Fox Footy ) — 133,000
  4. AFL: Brisbane v Melbourne  (Fox Footy) –130,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 84,000

Tonight: The Voice and House Husbands on Nine. Celebrity Splash starts on Seven, the most contrived bit of nonsense TV to be seen here for years — well, since Celebrity Apprentice on Nine (about to the inflicted on us for another year after Nine delayed it return this week) and Celebrity MasterChef. Ten has nothing much and will be squeezed. The ABC has its usual long line-up of news and current affairs programs — try Australian Story’s effort tonight on Inspector Peter Fox, the NSW copper who triggered the big Royal Commission on s-xual abuse.

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