Kerplunk — that’s the sound of Seven’s prime-time schedule flopping last night as Celebrity Splash lost thousands of viewers, dragging Packed To The Rafters back to reality. Not quite a belly flop (Ten’s more expert at that), more an inward somersault with tuck and pike that failed to straighten on entry. Celebrity Splash did help to knock some of the ratings froth off The Voice, which is Seven’s intention with it anyway.

Nine also won regional markets more narrowly than in the five metro areas. The Voice was the top program, but the margin was nowhere as great as in metro markets.

The Voice  with 2.777 million/ 2.024 million metro/ 753,000 regional viewers reigned supreme, again, but Celebrity Splash is a TV curiosity at best and is familiar to viewers because it is really is a watered-down version of the fading Seven hit Dancing With The Stars.

Splash averaged 1.589 million national/1.045 million metro/ 544,000 regional viewers — down from Monday night’s 1.864 million national/ 1.315 million metro/ 549,000. Splash enjoyed  solid support from regional markets last night, compared with the 270,000 drop in metro markets. That dragged Rafters back to 1.703 million national/1.081 million metro/ 682,000 regional — after it enjoyed a premiere run with My Kitchen Rules as the lead-in — and up to 300,000 extra viewers. Rafters also enjoyed stronger support in regional markets last night than from metro viewers — its audience in regional areas was a higher proportion than in the metro markets.

But while The Voice dominated, it wasn’t enough for Nine to win all five metro markets — we again saw an east coast win for Nine — Adelaide and Perth viewers were not big fans, and Seven won these easily. Apart from Sydney, where Celebrity Apprentice had more viewers (it’s based in the city), Celebrity Splash finished in front of Celebrity Apprentice in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide (second to The Voice) and Perth.

National top 10 national programs:

  1. The Voice  (Nine) – 2.777 million
  2. Seven News — 1.937 million
  3. Nine News –– 1.844 million
  4. Packed To The Rafters (Seven) – 1.703 million
  5. Celebrity Splash (Seven) — 1.589 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.425 million
  7. ABC1 News — 1.400 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.381 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.240 million
  10. New Tricks repeat (ABC 1) — 1.099 million.
  11. Celebrity Apprentice (Nine) — 1.218 million*

* Not broadcast at the same time in metro and regional markets, so an average of two separate timselots.

Top metro programs: 

  1. The Voice (Nine) — 2.024 million
  2. Seven News — 1.269 million
  3. Nine News — 1.267 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.154 million
  5. Packed To The Rafters (Seven) — 1.081 million
  6. Celebrity Splash (Seven) — 1.045 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.034 million 

Losers: Celebrity Apprentice’s return at 8.40pm  on Nine — 866,000 for the challenge, 808,000 for the boardroom for the 110 minutes from 8.40pm in metro markets. (It wasn’t broadcast in regional markets as two programs,  it was combined for an average 371,000 viewers for the 110 minutes from 9.10pm to give a national average of 1.218 million). Truth be known they weren’t bad figures, but the program is such confected nonsense that Celebrity Splash looks like brain food by comparison. Some 1.2 million metro viewers didn’t like the look of the program and said “goodnight” to Nine. 

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News– 1.269 million
  2. Nine News – 1.267 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.154 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) – 1.034 million
  5. ABC News – 956,000
  6. Ten News — 710,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 705,000
  8. Foreign Correspondent (ABC1) — 662,000
  9. The Project (Ten) — 493,000
  10. Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 268,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 387,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 366,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 56,000 + 28,000 on News 24 

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8 – 2.4%
  2. TV1, LifeStyle – 2.3%
  3. Sky news — 1.8%
  4. UKTV – 1.8%.
  5. Fox Classics, Discovery — 1.4% 

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Simpsons (F ox 8) – 83,000
  2. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 80,000
  3. Family Guy (Fox 8) — 76,000
  4. The Simpsons (Fox) – 70,000
  5. Futurama (Fox) – 66,000 
Tonight: Well, the print TV guides all said Nine had The Voice slotted in for tonight from 7pm, but now online sources say no Voice, just two repeats of The Big Bang Theory and a fresh episode at 7.30pm ahead of the debut of the hyped new US program Arrow. That means The Following is gone without a trace after dying (or did it end last week? Hard to tell with Nine these days). Arrow will probably go the same way, judging by the promos. Seven has doubled episodes of Criminal Minds from 8.30pm. Ten has Mr and Mrs Murder and The Good Wife. and ABC1 has the night’s highlight — Shaun Micallef ‘s Mad As Hell at 8pm and then The Thick of It at 10 pm.

*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.