Viewers tune-in to Australian Story and Four Corners

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Last night showed us that the Nine Network remains weak. With such a strong performance from the news, A Current Affair and The Block, it should have really won All people. Nine doesn’t have enough mid-tier programs on most nights. And that’s what happened last night.

The Block was watched by more than 1.5 million viewers in metro markets and 2.22 million nationally. Nine News was also a winner, but Seven won the night in All People (Nine and Ten dominated the demos) as Nine’s Tricky Business sank to just 716,000 metro viewers from 8pm. Seven’s gamble of pushing The Amazing Race Australia to 7.30pm paid off as the audience averaged 917,000, nearly 50% better than the 9pm Wednesday audience last week. Seven’s Revenge was watched by more than 1.3 million metro viewers and 1.8 million nationally.

But overshadowing these performances was the sharp rise in audiences for Australian Story (1.096 million metro viewers and 1.512 million nationally) and Four Corners (1.040 million metro viewers and 1.446 million nationally). Australian Story was the first part of a two parter on Diana Bliss, the late wife of Alan Bond. High class TV storytelling and we deserved to see the full hour. Four Corners was actually much better than the promos indicated (sometimes it’s the other way round with some of its stories).

Tonight: No Foreign Correspondent on ABC 1 which fools no one. Its absence is a cost saving and that reflects badly on the management of ABC News and Current Affairs. The second episode of Race to London could have followed Foreign Correspondent at 8.30pm or 9pm. Nine has another episode of The Block, Ten has MasterChef and has a fresh episode of NCIS at 8.30pm. Unfortunately its lead in is the third episode of Being Lara Bingle. Seven returns Winners & Losers at 8.30pm for its second series.

The top 10 national programs (metro & regional combined):

The Block (Nine) – 2.220 million
Seven News — 2.063 million
Nine News — 1.939 million
Revenge (Seven) — 1.880 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.807 million
MasterChef (Ten) — 1.537 million
Australian Story (ABC 1) — 1.512 million
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.458 million
Four Corners (ABC 1) — 1.446 million
ABC News — 1.412 million

The Metro Winners:

The Block (Nine) (7pm) — 1.543 million
Nine News (6pm)– 1.375 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.373 million
Revenge (Seven) (8.30pm) — 1.319 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.232 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.152 million
MasterChef (Ten) (7pm) — 1.152 million
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 1.096 million
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 1.040 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.010 million

The Losers: Tricky Business on Nine at 8pm. More than 800,000 metro viewers who were watching The Block failed to stay for Tricky Business which averaged 716,000. The thumbs down! Last Man Standing at 8pm on Ten, 691,000. More than 450,000 metro viewers who were on MasterChef failed to hang around for this dud.

Metro News & CA: Seven News won Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth but lost Melbourne by a massive 165,000 viewers, hence the national loss. A Current Affair won Sydney, Melbourne (by 143,000 people) and Brisbane. Today Tonight won Adelaide and Perth. The Project added viewers with the first of its Sydney episodes, the 6.30pm half just fell under 700,000, which is what the old 7pm version used to get on many nights. Q&A started off OK.

Nine News (6pm)– 1.375 million
Seven News (6pm) — 1.373 million
A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.232 million
Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.152 million
Australian Story (ABC) (8pm) — 1.096 million
Four Corners (ABC) (8.30pm) — 1.040 million
ABC News (7pm) — 1.010 million
Media Watch (ABC) (9.20pm) — 810,000
Ten News (5pm) — 803,000
7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 730,000
The Project (Ten) (6.30pm) — 697,000
Q&A (ABC) (9.35pm) — 636,000 (+67,000)*
The Project (Ten) (6pm) — 518,000
Lateline (ABC) (10.35pm) — 264,000
SBS News (6.30pm) — 171,000
Ten News (10.30pm) — 152,000
The Business (ABC) (11.10pm) — 117,000
SBS News (10.30pm) — 39,000
The Drum (News 24) (6pm) — 38,000

*On News 24 simulcast

In the morning: yet another weak start to the week by Ten’s Breakfast.

Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 371,000
Today (Nine) (7am) — 359,000
The Morning Show (Seven) (9am) — 190,000
Mornings (Nine) (9am) — 135,000
The Circle (Ten) (9am) — 53,000
News Breakfast (ABC) (6am) — 50,000 (+28,000)*
Breakfast (Ten) (7am) — 22,000

*On News 24 simulcast

Metro FTA: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 28.8% from Nine (3) on 27.0%, Ten was third (3) with 20.2%, the ABC (4) was on 19.7% and SBS (2) was on 4.2%. Seven leads the week with 30.2% from Nine on 28.9% and Ten with 20.7%. Main Channels: Seven won with 21.7% from Nine on 19.6%, ABC 1 was on 15.7%, Ten was on 14.6% and SBS ONE, 3.2%. Seven leads the week with 23.4%, from Nine on 22.2% and Ten on 15.0%.

Metro Digital: GO won with 4.5%, from 7TWO on 4.0%, 7mate on 3.2%, Eleven was on 3.0%, Gem was on 2.9%, ONE was on 2.7%, ABC 2 ended on 2.3%, SBS TWO was on 1.0%, and News 24 and ABC 3 ended with 0.9% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share of 25.4% last night. GO leads the week with 4.2% from 7mate on 3.5% and ONE and 7TWO on 3.3%.

Metro including Pay TV: Seven (3 channels) won with a share of 23.9% from Nine (3) on 22.4%, Ten was third (3) with 16.8%, the ABC (4) was on 16.4%, Pay TV (200 plus channels) was on 14.8% SBS (2) was on 3.5%. the 15 FTA channels had an 85.2% share of TV viewing last night. The 10 digitals share was 20.9%, the five main channels share was 64.3%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

Fox Sports 2 (3.75%)
Fox 8 (2.57%)
TV 1 (2.0%)
showtime premiere (1.77%)
A&E (1.66%)

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

NRL: Newcastle v Wests (Fox Sports 2) — 366,000
NRL: XTRA (Fox Sports 2) — 123,000
AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 90,000
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 83,000
The Simpsons (Fox 8) — 82,000

Regional: Prime/7Qld (3 channels) won with a share of 31.3% from WIN/NBN (3) on 29.6%, the ABC (4) was on 17.9%, SC Ten (3) was on 16.1% and SBS (2) ended on 5.1%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 22.4% from WIN/NBN on 21.1%. The digitals were won by 7TWO with 5.7%, from GO on 5.2% and 7mate on 3.2%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 28.6%. Prime/7Qld leads the week with 32.2% from WIN/NBN on 31.0%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Seven News — 691,000
The Block — 676,000
A Current Affair — 574,000
Nine News — 563,000
Revenge — 561,000

Major Metro Markets: Seven won overall and the main channels in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. in Brisbane Nine won the overall and shared the main channels with Seven. In the main channels, ABC 1 pushed Ten out of third in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. The ABC finished third overall in Perth. In the digitals, GO won Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, while 7TWO won Melbourne and Adelaide. Nine leads the week in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane by fairly narrow margins. Seven has big leads in Adelaide and Perth.

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

*Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports