Seven won metro markets narrowly from Nine, but was an easier winner in the regions where Hamish and Andy’s Asia Gap Year didn’t rate well at all for its final episode (nor did Big Brother), but The X Factor did, again.

There was no help for Big Brother from Hamish and Andy, which averaged 1.871 million national/ 1.299 million metro/ 572,000 regional viewers and Big Brother averaged 1.282 million national/910,000 metro/ 372,000 regional viewers for a double eviction episode (will they return, as usual?) Over 500,000 of the core audience from Hamish And Andy didn’t bother with Big Brother which droned on from 8pm to 9.30pm.

Seven’s X Factor ruled the night with 2.265 million national/ 1.495 million metro/ 770,000 regional viewer, and Mr Selfridge averaged 1.223 million national/ 789,000 metro/ 434,000 regional viewers and was beaten by Big Brother (but not in the regions). Ten’s MasterChef averaged 1.008 million national/ 742,000 metro/ 266,000 regional viewers. It’s marking time really, a sort of reworking of that old adage ‘ a watched pot never boils’. In this case, it’s ‘a watched cooking show never rates on Ten’. Tonight we have a semi-final of The Great Australian Bake Off on Nine — it has been suffering from a similar syndrome because Big Brother is the lead in and there’s no one in the Big Brother audience really interested in learning how to make a cake, an eclair or brandy snap or strudel (which is one of tonight’s tasks). Nine hasn’t given Bake Off a sympathetic lead-in.

The ABC was solid last night with its usual news and current affairs line up — Q&A had 1.058 million national/ 731,000 metro/ 327,000 regional viewers (On ABC1 and News 24) with Joe Hockey and Chris Bowen going on about economic policy — that was the furthest we have been from economic policy discussion on prime time TV for a while.

Seven started an expanded late after news from 4pm for 90 minutes with Mel Doyle (ex-Sunrise) and Matt White (ex-Today Tonight) hosting — it had 354,000 national/ 217,000 metro/ 137,000 regional viewers. But Nine whipped up a 90 minute version of its news and started it at 4pm as well (without an ex-anything in sight) and averaged 416,000 national/ 266,000 metro/ 150,000 metro. There are now two-and-a-half hours of news on Seven and Nine from 3pm to 5.30pm, then another hour of news and current affairs from 6 to 7pm and then another half hour of news from 7pm on their digital channels, 7TWO and Gem. Who says news is expensive to produce? It’s all about using the same story and vision and scripts as many times as possible in a day. Tweaking the scripts and vision from bulletin to bulletin. That’s what Sky News, the BBC and News24 does, boringly so. It makes news cheaper than it looks to most viewers.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (30.8%)
  2. Nine (29.2%)
  3. Ten (18.6%)
  4. ABC (16.3%)
  5. SBS (5.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (23.1%)
  2. Nine (22.2%)
  3. ABC 1 (13.8%)
  4. Ten (11.0%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO  (4.6%)
  2. 7TWO (4.1%)
  3. 7mate (3.5%)
  4. Eleven (3.1%)
  5. ABC 2 (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The X Factor (Seven) —  2.265 million
  2. Nine News — 1.955 million
  3. Seven News — 1.919 million
  4. Hamish and Andy’s Asia Gap Year (Nine) – 1.871 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.508 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.464 million
  7. ABC News — 1.344 million
  8. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.337 million
  9. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.282 million
  10. Mr Selfridge (Seven) — 1.223 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The X Factor (Seven) — 1.495 million
  2. Nine News — 1.347 million
  3. Hamish and Andy’s Asia Gap Year (Nine) — 1.299 million
  4. Seven News — 1.269 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.255 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.058 million

Losers: Ten, weaker than it should have been last night. Wanted at 8.30pm — national/ 451,000 metro/ regional viewers. Why do the hosts, especially the very experienced Sandra Sully, looked cramped and wound up like a spring on this program? They look very uncomfortable, which tells viewers that the stuff they are about to see must not be good. And, of course, The Americans on Ten at 9.30pm — 75,000 national/ 203,000 metro/ 72,000 regional viewers – almost statistically insignificant.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.347 million
  2. Seven News — 1.269 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.255 million
  4.  Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.058 million
  5. 7 pm ABC 1 News — 889,000
  6. Australian Story (ABC 1) — 767,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 744,000
  8. Four Corners (ABC 1) – 738,000
  9. Q&A (ABC 1, 617,000, 114,000 on News 24) — 731,000
  10. Ten News At Five — 654,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 405,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 325,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC 1, 57,000 + 43,000 on News 24) — 100,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1 (3.4%)
  2. TV1  (2.3%)
  3. Fox 8 (2.0%)
  4. Fox Footy (1.9%)
  5. Fox Classics (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Wests v Easts (Fox Sports 1) – 240,000
  2. Monday Night Live With Matty Johns (Fox Sports 1) – 137,000
  3. AFL: 360  (Fox Footy) – 124,000
  4. AFL: On The Couch  (Fox Footy) – 118,000
  5. AFL: Open Mike (Fox Footy) – 107,000

 

*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.) and network reports.