The Winners:

  1. MasterChef (Ten) — 1.852 million
  2. Packed to the Rafters (Seven) — 1.802 million
  3. Modern Family (Ten) — 1.532 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.475 million
  5. Seven News — 1.453 million
  6. Nine News — 1.281 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.171 million
  8. Minute To Win It (Seven) — 1.110 million
  9. Two and a Half Men (Nine) — 1.088 million
  10. ABC News — 1.076 million
  11. NCIS Los Angeles (Ten) — 1.046 million
  12. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.045 million
  13. NCIS (Ten) — 1.008 million

The Losers: Some Nine viewers outside Melbourne might have wondered why it was such an average night, even with Top Gear in the schedule. Packed to the Rafters and MasterChef meant Nine ran dead. Some Nine viewers in Melbourne who might have wanted to see Top Gear, had a meaningless AFL exhibition game, of which 418,000 people watched. Australia Versus at 9.30pm on Seven, 623,000. Not convincing.

News & CA: Seven was especially weak in Sydney, stronger in Melbourne than Nine. The 7pm ABC News had more viewers than Seven’s News at 6pm in Sydney. ACA was very strong in Melbourne, weak in Sydney, like Seven News was.

  1. Today Tonight — 1.475 million
  2. Seven News — 1.453 million
  3. Nine News — 1.281 million
  4. A Current Affair — 1.171 million
  5. ABC News — 1.076 million
  6. The 7pm Project — 957,000
  7. Ten News — 857,000
  8. The 7.30 Report — 841,000
  9. Foreign Correspondent — 827,000 — very good
  10. Ten late News/Sports Tonight — 431,000
  11. Lateline — 206,000
  12. SBS News (6.30pm) — 180,000
  13. Lateline Business — 125,000.

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise — 349,000
  2. Today — 262,000.

Today are still struggling a bit; Sunrise seems to have opened a bigger gap.

The Stats:

  • FTA: A win for Seven with a share of 28.0%, from Nine and Ten tying on 24.8%; the ABC was on 16.5% and SBS, 5.9%. Seven leads the week on 27.9%, from Nine with 26.5% and Ten on 24.4%. Ten won the demos, Seven All People.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with a share of 26.2%, from Ten on 24.2%, Nine on 22.8%, ABC 1 on 14.5% and SBS ONE on 5.4%. Seven leads the week with a share of 24.2%, from Ten on 23.3% and Nine on 23.0%.
  • Digital: A low night with GO winning with a share of 2.0%, from 7TWO on 1.8%, ABC 2, 1.3%, ABC 3 and ONE, 0.6% and SBS TWO, 0.5%. That’s a total share of 6.8%, much lower than Monday night. 7TWO leads the week with 3.7% from GO on 3.4%.
  • Pay TV: Seven won with a share of 23.7%, from Nine and Ten on 21.0% each, the ABC on 14.0%, Pay TV, 12.8% and SBS, 5.0%. That’s a total share of 87.2% for the 11 FTA channels, with Pay TV’s 100 channels sharing the reported 12.8%.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a share of 30.1%, with WIN/NBN on 24.9% and SC Ten on 24.8%, the ABC on 14.5% and SBS on 4.9%. The main channels was easily won by Prime/7Qld with 28.7%, from Ten on 24.3% and WIN/NBN on 23.1% Nine showing the Ted Whitten AFL game from 7.30pm didn’t help the Network outside Melbourne and Victoria. 7TWO won the digitals with 2.2%, from GO on 1.8% and ABC 2, 1.0%. WIN/NBN leads the week with 29.3%, from Prime/7Qld on 27.5%. WIN/NBN will go further ahead with the State of Origin tonight which will dominate ratings in regional NSW and Queensland.

Major Markets:

  • Sydney: A win to Seven from Ten and Nine, which is the way the main channels finished. GO won the digitals from ABC 2 and 7TWO. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten, but Nine will jump ahead with the State Of Origin tonight.
  • Melbourne: Nine’s AFL celebrity game saw it get home last night from Seven and Ten. In the main channels it was Seven ahead of Ten and Seven. Go won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC 2. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.
  • Brisbane: In Brisbane, standby for a big State Of Origin tonight here for Nine. Last night Seven won well from Ten and Nine. It was the same order in the main channels, while in the digitals it was a familiar order, GO, 7TWO and ABC 2. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten.
  • Adelaide: Seven won here from Nine and Ten, but in the main channels it was Seven, from Ten and Nine. GO won from 7TWO and ABC 2. Nine leads the week from Seven and Ten. Seeing Hey Hey has died in Adelaide, will Nine manage to hold off Seven here tonight, or will MasterChef prevail for Ten?
  • Perth: Seven territory, it won from Ten and Nine. That was the same order in the main channels. GO won the digitals from 7TWO and ABC 2. Seven leads the week from Nine and Ten. That won’t change.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won, Packed to the Rafters was OK. The night was made hard to assess because Nine had the contrived EJ Whitten Legends game last night (sorry, missed that one yesterday) from 7.30pm.

That’s why Nine won Melbourne and got closer on the night than it deserved nationally. Nine won’t show the same devotion to its in house football code, the NRL, tonight in Melbourne.

Hey Hey is on in Melbourne when the State of Origin Rugby League game is being shown live in Sydney and Brisbane. Nine showed the first two live, but not this one because Queensland has won the series, so Nine thinks it will be dead. Well, the Melbourne Storm is dominated by the best players in Australia, who are playing for Queensland, so why not show it live and keep faith with viewers and fans? Nine pandered to AFL fans last night, why not tonight?

Correction: Was it a macaroon on MasterChef on Monday night? According to media reports this morning, Sydney pastry guru, Adrian Zumbo, who designed the challenge, says the judges and contestants got the pronunciation wrong. Whatever, it was still a contrived stunt. A croque, in a teacup, so to speak. So was last night’s green thing with an egg and peas.

Today Tonight‘s selective knife job on some of the fat foods MasterChef chefs cook was another tired old hack job. What about some of the fast fat confections on Seven’s My Kitchen Rules rip-off? Of course, Seven won’t look at that, too close to the bone.

TONIGHT: The State of Origin on Nine in Sydney and Brisbane. Nine however won’t be showing the game live into Melbourne. It will show at 9.30pm. Instead it will show the tired Hey Hey it’s Saturday live in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Hey Hey screens at 9.30pm in Sydney and Brisbane (or whenever the football finishes).

The ABC has Spicks and Specks at 8.30pm and The Gruen Transfer at 9pm, the highlights of the night.

Ten has MasterChef (another stunt where they don army fatigues, run in teams to a mess tent and cook for the troops). But Ten does have The 7pm Project.

SBS has a certain bike race. After the second stage crashes and the cobbles early today, these blokes earn their money (some of the falls were horrible). Holland is into the World Cup final, now for either Germany or Spain early tomorrow morning.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports