The big news from TV is tonight. Ten has blinked and sent American Idol off to purgatory (Friday night) for poor ratings. Replacing it will be a new Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals and and a Law and Order episode, and I bet they do much better than Idol. It took weeks of weakening ratings to get Ten to ditch the failing Idol (a Fox program) from its main channel. Fans of Idol (all two dozen or so of you) will be able to watch it on Ten’s main channel tomorrow night. You have been warned.

But let’s not worry about this flop, instead, what happened last night? Well, My Kitchen Rules ruled on Seven (2.6 million nationally/1.8 million metro/ 795,000 regionally) for yet another night and was again really MasterChef for couples. The similarities with the original MasterChef on Ten were stunning. The audience liked it, and Seven won the night, as usual. Nine was a distant second with The Block All Stars averaging 1.87 million nationally/ 1.2 million metro/ 609,000 regionally). The ABC was third and Ten was fourth. Situation normal!

Seven’s Last Resort averaged  1.092 million nationally/685,000 metro for its first episode after MKR and 838,000 nationally/515,000 metro for the second episode and kept Seven in front for another 110 minutes. Mr and Mrs Murder on Ten averaged 833,000 nationally/606,000 metro. Mad as Hell on ABC1 at 8pm averaged 840,000 nationally/596,0000 metro viewers. Either way, Shaun Micallef was the winner. The fake ALP campaign song was terrifyingly accurate, the fake ad for the Liberal party candidate was likewise — an even-handed episodelast night.

Network share:

  1. Seven (35.7%)
  2. Nine (26.2%)
  3. ABC (18.3%)
  4. Ten (15.3%)
  5. SBS (4.5%)

Main Channels:

  1. Seven (26.2%)
  2. Nine (18.5%)
  3. ABC 1 (13.4%)
  4. SBS ONE (4.0%)

Digitals:

  1. 7TWO (4.9%)
  2. GO (4.7%)
  3. 7mate (4.4%)
  4. ABC2 (3.1%)
  5. Gem  (3.0%)
  6. Pay TV 15.0%.

Top 10 national programs:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 2.598 million.
  2. The Block All Stars (Nine) – 1.875 million.
  3. Seven News — 1.685 million.
  4. Nine News — 1.589 million.
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.358 million.
  6. ABC1 News –1.320 million.
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.163 million.
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.103 million.
  9. Last Resort (Seven, episode one) — 1.092 million.
  10. QI (ABC1) — 1.071 million.]

Metro/regional markets: Seven had a clean sweep (overall and main channels), winning Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Prime/7Qld also won the regionals as well. Nine/WIN/NBN were second, and the ABC/ABC1 were thirdm as Ten remained stuck in fourth slot. On the digital channels, 7mate, 7TWO and GO were the most-watched digital channels across the country. Seven/Prime/7Qld lead the week in metro and regional markets and will go on to win, despite the NRL games in NSW and Queensland tonight and tomorrow nights.

Metro Winners: 

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 1.803 million
  2. The Block All Stars (Nine) — 1.266 million
  3. Seven News — 1.113 million
  4.  Nine News — 1.069 million

Losers: Hmmm, Ten’s The Good Wife at 9.30pm, 482,000 nationally/355,000 metro — too low. Sherlock, Nine’s replacement for Parade’s End on the main channel at 8.30pm (539,000 nationally/352,000 metro). It was a timeslot filler for Nine’s biggest misjudgment of the year so far. By the way, Parade’s End averaged 127,000 nationally/81,000 metro on Gem from 9.30pm last night in metro markets. 

News and current affairs:

  1. Seven News – 1.113 million
  2. Nine News  – 1.069 million
  3. Today Tonight (Nine) – 1.069 million
  4. ABC News – 917,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 902,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 664,000
  7. Ten News — 635,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 397,000
  9. Lateline (ABC1) — 210,000
  10. SBS ONE News — 156,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 361,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 337,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 55,000 + 25,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8 – 3.5%
  2. LifeStyle – 3.5%
  3. TV1  — 2.5%
  4. 111 Hits – 1.9%
  5. UKTV- 1.7%

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle)  – 208,000
  2. Location, Location, Location Australia (LifeStyle) — 104,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 78,000
  4. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 74,000
  5. Coronation Street  (UKTV) – 73,000.

Tonight: So no Idol on Ten, but instead we have Jamie Oliver back cooking up a 15-minute storm in a new series of his latest menu program. There are two episodes. There are also two episodes of Law and Order, one new, one a repeat. The NRL or AFL Footy Shows on Nine and an NRL game tonight in NSW and Queensland markets. Seven, of course, has My Kitchen Rules, then Bones. ABC1 has Canberra Confidential at 8.30pm. Watch to find out why Canberrans claim the program has too much whimsy and didn’t take the national capital seriously (seriously?). SBS has Food Safari and a new episode of Gourmet Farmer, which returns at 8pm.

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