The Winners: An action replay of last Sunday night’s viewing. Nine was squeezed badly. Its peak audience was from 6pm to 6.30pm. In Their Footsteps, a good effort at 6.30pm for Nine, 941,000. The Mentalist on Nine at 8.30pm, 783,000, second behind Downton Abbey, a gap of nearly 1.1 million people. The Kennedys on the ABC at 8.30pm, 640,000.

  1. Downton Abbey (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.872 million
  2. Dancing With The Stars (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.541 million
  3. Seven News (6pm) — 1.508 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.499 million
  5. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1,445 million
  6. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) –1.031 million

The Losers: No one really, with more than 3.3 million people watching the TV on Ten and Seven between 7.30pm and just after 8.30pm, no one else could get a look in. And old fashioned Sunday night for the second week in a row.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney and Adelaide. Seven won Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The Bolt Report‘s morning audience jumped 50%. Didn’t help Meet The Press, which lost around 10,000 viewers.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.508 million
  2. Nine News (6pm) — 1.499 million
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) (7.30pm) –1.031 million
  4. ABC News (7pm) — 703,000
  5. Ten News (5pm) — 422,000
  6. Ten Evening News (6pm) — 388,000
  7. SBS News (6.30pm) — 205,000
  8. The Bolt Report (Ten) (4.30pm) — 170,000
  9. Dateline (SBS) (8.30pm) — 159,000

In the morning:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) (8am) — 371,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) (8am) — 238,000
  3. Insiders (ABC) (9am) — 200,000
  4. Landline (ABC) (Noon) — 184,000
  5. The Bolt Report (Ten) (10pm) — 152,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) (10.30am) — 141,000
  7. Inside Business (ABC) (10pm) — 107,000
  8. Meet The Press (Ten) (10.30am) — 86,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 35.4% from Nine (3) on 27.3%, Ten (3) was on 21.6%, the ABC (2) was on 11.4% and SBS (2) ended with 4.4%.
  • Main Channel: Seven won with 29.1%, from daylight second and third. Nine was on 18.5%, Ten on 16.0%, ABC 1 was on 9.2% and SBS ONE was on 3.7%.
  • Digital: A solid win for GO with 5.1%, from Gem on 3.7, Eleven with 3.4%, 7TWO on 3.2%, 7mate on 3.1%, ONE on 2.2%, ABC 2 on 1.3%, SBS TWO on 0.7% and ABC 3 and News 24 on 0.5% each. That’s a total FTA viewing share in prime time of 23.7%.
  • Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 29.0% from Nine (3) on 22.3%, Ten (3) on 17.7%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) was on 15.4%, the ABC (4) was on 9.3% and SBS (2) ended with 3.6%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.6% share of prime time TV viewing last night, made up of 19.2% for the digitals and 65.4% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 35.9% from WIN/NBN (3) on 28.7%, SC Ten (3) was on 20.3%, the ABC (4) was on 10.5% and SBS (2) on 4.6%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with daylight second and third. GO and 7TWO shared the digitals with 4.7% each. Gem and Eleven were on 4.3% each. A total of 28% of the FTA audience watched the digitals channels in prime time last night.

Major Markets: Seven from Nine and Ten overall and in the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. In Perth it was Seven from Ten and a weak Nine, again. GO won the digitals in all five metro markets.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last week, Seven won all people and the digitals. Ten did OK in the demos. Nine was left behind. Seven won all five metro markets. Ten was second in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Prime/7Qld won the regionals as well, as did 7TWO.

Nine’s overall audience including the digital channels is down 9% (and that is actually greater than it should because this year includes the figures for the Gem digital channel and last year didn’t at this stage). The fall on the main channel is a damaging 22% so far.

Last night was Seven’s night. With the strong Tuesday night ahead, Seven is on track for another win.

With a regional audience of 718,000 (and 1.872 million in the metros), Downtown Abbey was watched by 2.590 million people nationally.

Dancing With The Stars had a regional audience of 616,000 (1.541 million in the metros), meaning a national audience of 2.157 million people.

MasterChef had a regional audience of 485,000 (1.445 million in the metros) and a national audience of 1.930 million. More than 4.5 million people were watching Seven and Ten from around 7.30 to just after 8.30 pm.

For all the chuffing at Seven and Nine, it must be remembered to just over 34% of the audience last night was watching the digital channels and Pay TV.

And a reminder for the romantics at the AFL and for those Melbourne football writers who think the expansion interstate is wonderful. The Sydney Swans-Brisbane Lions game on Saturday night — only 56,000 people watched the game in Sydney and 53,000 in Brisbane, which includes the Gold Coast. Both markets are the targets for the AFL expansion.

Like all sport the figures do understate the TV audience because they do not cover pubs and clubs, but that also applies to the NRL which would be even more under rated because of bigger viewing audiences in pubs and clubs for both the Free To Air and Pay TV broadcasts. In some markets the AFL will be prime candidates for the network’s weakest digital channels.

TONIGHT: The ABC’s usual four and a half hours of news and current affairs. Seven has The Amazing Race. Ten has MasterChef and Offspring, Nine has Come Fly With Me.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports