Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: improved 7.30 continues rebound

Last night 7.30 used the extra hour it had to organise solid coverage of the royal commission into child abuse. That's a story ACA and TT have all but ignored.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven’s night, as it was always going to be with The X Factor performance episode in the schedule at 7.30pm. It averaged more than 1.5 million metro and over 2.36 million national viewers and saw the network move into the week’s lead after Nine’s win on Sunday night.

That also saw Seven win big in regional markets. In fact, Seven had an emphatic win in all the demos. In the 16 to 54 demo in the key 6-10.30pm zone, Ten actually had more main channel viewers than Nine did, so weak was Nine’s effort last night as it prepares for summer.

The second part of Devil’s Dust on ABC1 at 8.30pm averaged 723,000 metro and 1.076 million national viewers, a bit better than the first episode did on Sunday night and was well and truly worth it.

Australian Story‘s final episode was excellent. The story of Zelie Bullen was updated from a year ago and was well worth the effort: 973,000 metro and 1.416 million national viewers confirmed that judgment. The program has, like the ABC (and especially its drama) finished the year with a wet sail, unlike the Ten Network which continues to lose its way.

The child abuse royal commission was announced at 6pm (good timing and media management by the PM). That left newsrooms struggling. The 7pm ABC1 News had an extra hour (and 7.30 had an extra 90 minutes and did a lot with it) and that was shown in the jump in its ratings: more than 1.16 million metro viewers and almost 1.65 million nationally.

The impact was especially clear in Melbourne where it topped the news battle with 380,000 people, well ahead of Nine on 346,000 and Seven News on 304,000. In Sydney it was second behind Seven News on 326,000 and Nine back on 254,000. Nine News was hurt by the cricket running over and more than 100,000 viewers going to Gem to watch the final overs, meaning 864,000 people watched the final session of the cricket on Nine across the country.

Meanwhile, 7.30 had more than 900,000 metro and over 1.33 million national viewers and is clearly the winner in terms of improvement in 2012 when compared with the fading commercial ‘rivals’, A Current Affair and Today Tonight which have lost the plot when it comes to taking risks and covering news and not confected stories.

Tonight: The X Factor and Winners & Losers on Seven. Ten runs partly dead tonight, with two fresh episodes of Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals from 8.30pm, but repeats of ratings producer NCIS at 8.30pm and NCIS: Los Angeles at 9.30pm.

ABC1 has Foreign Correspondent and a bit of royal spak filler at 8.30pm related to Prince Charlie’s view of his mum in her jubilee year. Nine has a fresh Big Bang at 8.30pm, a best of so-what program at 7.30pm that looks at aircraft near misses, and that big miss at 9.30pm called Two And A Half Men (Two and A Half Losers! boom boom).

SBS has the most interesting program of them all (especially for any one really interested in TV). It’s called America in Primetime. Watch!

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

The X Factor (Seven) — 2.363 million.
Seven News — 1.805 million.
ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.649 million.
Nine News — 1.531 million.
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.520 million.
Castle (Seven) — 1.441 million.
Australian Story (ABC1) — 1.416 million.
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.390 million.
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.363 million.
7.30 (ABC1) — 1.339 million.

The Metro Winners:

The X Factor (Seven, 7.30pm) — 1.536 million.
Seven News (6pm) — 1.212 million.
ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.1688 million.
Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.077 million.
Nine News (6pm) — 1.058 million.
Home and Away (Seven, 7pm) — 1.015 million.

Losers: None really, except the usual suspects, Ten and Nine who fought out second place among 16 to 54 viewers, well behind Seven and its X Factor.Metro News & CA: Meanwhile, 7.30‘s rebound continued and last night it got to within 3000 metro viewers of ACA. Why? Well, 7.30 used the extra hour it had to organise solid coverage of the royal commission into child abuse. That’s a story ACA and TT have all but ignored. More fool them. Seven News had a big win over Nine News in Sydney (the biggest for months at 72,000). Nine News won Melbourne, Seven News won the rest. TT lost Melbourne to ACA, won the rest.

Seven News — 1.212 million.
ABC1 News — 1.1688 million.
Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 1.077 million.
Nine News — 1.058 million.
Australian Story (ABC1, 8pm) — 973,000.
A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 918,000.
7.30 (ABC 1, 7.30pm) –915,000.
Ten News (Ten, 5pm) — 614,000.
The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 607,000.
The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 441,000.
Lateline (ABC1, 10.30pm) — 262,000.
Ten Late News (Ten, 10.30pm) —
SBS ONE News (6.30pm) — 167,000.
The Business (ABC1, 11.05pm, repeat) — 117,000.
The Drum (News 24, 10pm, repeat ) — 46,000.
SBS ONE Late News (10.30pm) — 41,000.

In the morning: Today had a big win over Sunrise (big for Today‘s recent performances). Breakfast is departing Ten, it won’t be missed. Mornings on Nine was truncated for the Test cricket.

Today (Nine, 7am) — 362,000.
Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 344,000.
The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 143,000.
Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 121,000.
News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 50,000 + 35,000 on News 24.
Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 39,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 33.2%, from Nine (three) on 25.5%, the ABC (four) was on 20.8%, Ten (three) was on 16.7% and SBS (two) was on 3.8%. Seven leads the week with 31.1% from Nine on 29.0%, Ten was on 18.0% and the ABC was on 17.7%. Main Channels; Seven won with a share of 25.5% from Nine on 16.7%, ABC1 was on 15.8%, Ten was on 12.1% and SBS ONE ended on 3.1%. Seven now leads the week with 23.0% from Nine on 20.5%, ABC1 on 14.0% and Ten on 13.5%.

Metro Digital: GO won with a share of 5.2% from 7TWO on 4.6%, Gem was on 3.6%, 7mate was on 3.2%, Eleven ended on 2.9%, ABC2, 2.6%, ONE was on 1.8%, News 24 was on 1.2%, ABC3, 1.1% and SBS TWO was on 0.7%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of 26.9%. GO leads the week with 5.1% from 7TWO on 4.3%, Gem on 3.4% and 7mate on 3.1%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 27.6%, from Nine (three) on 21.2%, the ABC (four) was on 27.2%, Ten (three) was on 13.9% and SBS (two) was on 3.2%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 85.3%, with the 10 digital channels share totalling 22.3% and the five main channels share on 63.0%. the 200 plus channels on Foxtel gave pay TV a share last night of 14.7%.

The top five pay TV channels were:

TV1 — 2.5%.
Fox8 — 2.3%.
A&E — 1.8%.
LifeStyle — 1.7%.
UKTV, Cartoon Net., Fox Sports 1 — 1.6%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

New Tricks (UKTV) — 73,000.
The Simpsons (Fox8) — 72,000.
Megatruckers (A&E) — 70,000.
Family Guy (Fox 8) — 66,000.
Pawn Stars (A&E) — 62,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 36.2%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 27.4%, the ABC (four) was on 18.6%, SC Ten (three) was on 14.3% and SBS (two) was on 3.5%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 27.2%, from WIN/NBN on 17.8%, ABC1 was on 13.5% and SC Ten was back on 9.2%. GO won the digitals with 5.6% from 7TWO on 5.5% and Gem on 4.0%. The 10 digital channels had a high FTA viewing share of 30.7%. Prime/7Qld extended its lead for the week to 33.0%, from WIN/NBN on 29.6%, the ABC is on 17.3% and SC Ten is on 16.1%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

The X Factor — 826,000.
Seven News (6pm) — 593,000.
Castle — 534,000.
Home and Away — 505,000.
ABC1 News (7pm) — 476,000.

Major Metro Markets: A clean sweep (overall and main channels) for Seven, with Nine second and the ABC/ABC1 third everywhere bar the main channels in Perth where ABC1 ended up second and Nine third. Ten just didn’t get a look in anywhere. GO won the digitals in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. 7TWO won them in Adelaide and Perth. Seven leads the week in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine still leads in Melbourne.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data