Nine wins on back of Farmer Wants a Wife

The girls and guys of The Farmer Wants a Wife did it for Nine last night. It was an old fashioned, slightly stilted end to the program and the current series. For a bought-in format, The Farmer Wants a Wife had been nicely adapted here.

The Winners: Seven News was tops with 1.577 million people, with Nine’s The Farmer Wants a Wife from 7.30pm to 9.30pm second with 1.494 million people. Today Tonight was 3rd with 1.417 million, Ten’s The Biggest Loser was 4th with 1.214 million from 7pm to 8pm. Seven’s 7.30pm program, Australia’s Got Talent averaged 1.176 million and Criminal Minds was 6th with 1.162 million for Seven at 8.30pm. A Current Affair was 7th (better than Tuesday night) with 1.146 million people and Nine News was 8th with 1.145 million. Home and Away averaged 1.127 million at 7pm for Seven and The Mentalist averaged 1.090 million for Nine at 9.30pm. The 7pm ABC News was 11th with 1.073 million and Spicks and Specks was 12th at 8.30pm with 1.060 million. Two and a Half Men was 13th and the last program with a million people or more. Its repeat at 7pm for Nine averaged 1.049 million. The Gruen Transfer averaged 976,000 at 9pm. Seven’s 9.30pm program, Beyond The Darklands, averaged 900,000.

The Losers: Guerrilla Gardeners, 731,000 on Ten at 8pm. The Farmer Wants a Wife was a better option last night. Lawrence Leung’s Chose Your Own Adventure at 9.30pm … 490,000. Don’t think so. Lost, late on Seven, 339,000. House on Ten at 8.30pm, 881,000, Life on Ten at 9.30pm, 742,000.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market as did Today Tonight, but ACA and Nine News had their strongest night in Sydney for over a week (except for the Simon Cowley special on Monday night). The 7pm ABC News eased and The 7.30 Report also fell to 884,000 (and both were lower in Sydney). Lateline averaged 296,000, Lateline Business, 187,000. Ten News averaged 893,000. The late News/Sports Tonight, 437,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 136,000, the late News, 184,000. 7am Sunrise, 354,000, 7am Today, 289,000.

The Stats: Nine won All People 6pm to Midnight, with 30.6% (26.8%), from Seven with 27.2% (29.5%); Ten with 21.0% (20.5%), the ABC with 17.2% (19.0%) and SBS with 4.0% (4.2%). Nine won all metro markets except Perth. The farmers were very popular in Melbourne. Nine leads the week, 28.0% to 26.8% for Seven. In regional areas a win to WIN/NBN with 30.6% from Prime/7Qld with 28.3%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 18.8%, the ABC on 16.7% and SBS on 5.7%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The girls and guys of The Farmer Wants a Wife did it for Nine last night. It was an old fashioned, slightly stilted end to the program and the current series. For a bought in format, The Farmer Wants a Wife had been nicely adapted here. The talent was solid and charming, the major co-star was the Australian bush and rural life. It topped the audience list in regional areas last night as well and all up around 2 million people watched.

The Australia/Uzbekistan World Cup Qualifying game in Sydney last night was the most watched ever program on Pay TV in this country with an average 431,000 people watching the game from around 8pm to 10pm.

Like all programs of this kind (Ten’s The Biggest Loser and So You Think You Can Dance Australia are similar), audiences build and then surge as the end approaches . It was the major event last night.

Spicks and Specks on the ABC was OK, The Gruen Transfer was OK as well, but again same old, same old. It needs someone to run it up a flagpole and give it a big shake to refresh it.

TONIGHT: The Footy Shows on Nine at 9.30pm, Getaway and 20 to 1. Ten has The Biggest Loser, Bondi Vet, Law and Order SVU and Life on Mars (there isn’t). Seven has Ghost Whisperer, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice. Home and Away is up against The Biggest Loser (which is building nicely for Ten) and the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men. The ABC has Q&A. It seems there’s the usual cast of panelists. How about a change? SBS has the usual repeat of Inspector Rex at 7.30pm.