Wake Up and Studio 10, the Ten Network’s two new breakfast/morning programs are in trouble if the ratings spin from Ten is any guide. With the Cup on Seven exclusively and Sunrise and The Morning Show both broadcasting from Flemington racecourse, the average metro audiences fell for both programs — 39,000 for Wake Up from the previous day’s 52,000 and 45,000 for Studio 10, down from 63,000. The national audience dipped from 83,000 to 63,000 for Studio 10 and to 55,000 from 80,000 for Wake Up. Hopefully that was a one-off for yesterday.

Ten’s first brief ratings chat this morning talked about the peak audience and its reach — two stats used by the networks when the average audience figure is bad. There was no mention of the actual audience averages. If there had been an increase in the audiences for both programs, then Ten would have trumpeted that, wouldn’t they? The second, more detailed ratings chat failed to mention Wake Up or Studio 10 and looked at programs from 5pm onward.

A curious thing about both programs yesterday was the absence of any attempt to go mad over the Melbourne Cup. There was coverage, but more restrained that on Nine’s Today did, (even though Sunrise and Seven had the exclusive rights). For those arguing that Wake Up and Studio 10 were affected by Seven having the Cup coverage, then why did News Breakfast on ABC1 and News24 lift its audience yesterday from Monday to 111,000 in metro markets from 88,000? It had a lot of Cup content. Ten no doubt will claim the Melbourne Cup skewed the audiences yesterday, but why not go with the flow and try and feed off Seven? News Breakfast did. So give Ten the benefit of the skewing to Seven yesterday (and Sunrise did lift its audience to 665,000 national/407,000 metro/ 258,000 regional viewers) and  wait for the figures for Wake Up and Studio 10 this morning, tomorrow morning and Friday and see what has happened.

Apart from that, it was Seven’s day because of the Cup and Seven’s night (in both metro and regional markets) because of strong audiences for the News through to 9.30pm and beyond. Ten managed to run on solidly into third in prime time in both metro and regional markets, while the ABC faded to fourth. Nine did well in the demos thanks to Big Brother (1.237 million national/884,000 metro/ 353,000 regional viewers). The episode of Foreign Correspondent on ABC1 at 8pm (884,000 national/ 592,000 metro/ 292,000 regional viewers) with Mark Willacy’s final report on Fukushima, deserves to be preserved and made compulsory viewing at every media course around the country (along with his earlier report), to show the wannabes how to handle a tough, difficult task with compassion, accuracy and intelligence. Willacy’s reporting from Japan will be missed.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (33.8%)
  2. Nine (25.8%)
  3. Ten (17.9%)
  4. ABC (16.5%)
  5. SBS (6.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (25.2%)
  2. Nine (18.0%)
  3. Ten (12.9%)
  4. ABC1 (11.3%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.2%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO, GO (5.3%)
  2. 7mate (3.3%)
  3. ABC 2 ( 3.2%)
  4. Eleven (3.1%)
  5. Gem, ONE (2.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Melbourne Cup – The Race (Seven) — 3.056 million
  2. The Melbourne Cup – Presentation (Seven) — 2.545 million
  3. The Melbourne Cup – Mounting Yard (Seven) — 2.013 million
  4. Seven News — 1.898 million
  5. Dancing With The Stars (Seven) — 1.766 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.615 million
  7. Nine News — 1.595 million
  8. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.356 million
  9. ABC News — 1.325 million
  10. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.237 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The Melbourne Cup – The Race (Seven) — 2.168 million
  2. The Melbourne Cup – Presentation (Seven) — 1.784 million
  3. The Melbourne Cup – Mounting Yard (Seven) — 1.406 million
  4. Seven News — 1.284 million
  5. Dancing With The Stars (Seven) — 1.124 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.114 million
  7. Nine News — 1.083 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.034 million

Losers:  Recipe to Riches on Ten at 7.30pm — 603,000 national/ 434,000 metro/ 169,000 regional viewers. Another weak effort. Ten and Woolies say the food is fab … but it is a TV show after all. Revolution on Nine at 8.30pm — a year late (so much for ‘fast tracking from the US’) — 757,000 national/ 498,000 metro/ 259,000 regional viewers for episode one; 388,000 metro viewers for episode two at 9.30pm. Just not interesting at all for Aussie viewers.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.284 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.114 million
  3. Nine News — 1.083 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 924,000
  5. ABC News — 914,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 700,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News   – 618,000
  8. Foreign Correspondent (ABC1) — 592,000
  9. The Project (Ten) — 452,000
  10. Insight (SBS ONE) — 231,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 407,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 314,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 234,000
  4. Mornings (Nine) — 144,000
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1, 67,000 + 44,000 on News24) — 111,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 45,000
  7. Wake Up (Ten) — 39,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle  (2.5%)
  2. Fox 8 (2.1%)
  3. TV1  (1.9%)
  4. Disney Jr (1.7%)
  5. Fox Classics  (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1.  The Simpsons (Fox 8 ) – 82,000 – 64,000
  2. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) – 58,000
  3. Stella and Sam, Mickey Mouse Club (Disney Jr) — 55,000
  4. Embarrassing Bodies Down Under (LifeStyle You) – 54,000
  5. Henry Hugglemonster (Disney Jr) – 52,000

*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.