Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: Beauty and the Flop Australia

Beauty and The Geek Australia: that 30 - 40% loss of audience compared to last year's final program is not good news for Seven.

The Glenn Dyer breakdown: Seven won, but the final of Beauty and The Geek Australia underwhelmed the audience. Yes it won all the demos that matter for Seven for the type of program it is, but the size of the audience was down on last year in all people and the demos: 740,000 watched the winner announced v 736,000 for the program itself.

The metro figures were sharply down on a year ago when 1.25 million people watched the winner revealed and 1.075 million watched the program proper. The winner audience was down 40%, the program proper was off 30%. The winner’s announcement had 1.124 million viewers nationally and there were 1.094 million for the program lead up. They were also under the national figures for 2011. For some reason the audience went off the program about a month ago and never recovered.

So how weak was that? Well, ABC1’s 7.30 averaged 740,000 from 7.30 to 8pm and mainline current affairs programs on the ABC are not supposed to match the audience figures for a highly promoted “reality” program on a commercial TV. ABC’s 7.30 also averaged 1.161 million nationally.

The weak offerings on the main channels, coupled with a solid night for pay TV, saw the five main channel share fall to just over 56%, one of the lowest, if not the lowest Monday to Friday this year in official ratings. Readers might notice that no programs after 7pm topped the audience levels for the 6 to 7pm news broadcasts, which means it was a pretty weak and boring night for viewers.

Nine can’t boast though, its weak main channel offerings last night (the rusty old Getaway, 633,000 metro and nationally, 1.007 million) and tired CSI (549,000 at 8.30pm and 853,000 nationally) were beaten by Ten in the 16 to 54 demos. Nine’s overall share was boosted by the 6.2% share for GO for its Arias broadcast which averaged 304,000 in metro markets (and 448,000 nationally) from 8pm to 10.30pm. Fusion’s Steve Allen said that from 6 to 10.30pm, Ten’s main channel had 279,000 metro viewers in the 16 to 56 age group, against 263,000 for Nine. Ten has repeats of Law and Order SVU and Modern Family, plus fresh Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals.

That metro win in the digitals for GO with its broadcast of the ARIA awards(6.2% FTA share) wasn’t matched in regional areas where 7mate had a 6.8% FTA share, ahead of GO’s 5.9%.

The 2012 ratings battle is limping to a weak end. Next week doesn’t look much better.

Recording note: PVRed Inspector Morse on 7TWO last night at 8.30pm (the start time was OK) and the end time in the guides was 10.45pm. Good thing I added 15 minutes at the end because the program actually finished just before 10.55pm. It’s another example where a network is not doing the simple tasks well. It is not rocket science to get the start and end times accurate every time.

Tonight: New Tricks on ABC1. Don’t forget the third test from Perth on Nine. It could be miserable though. A Christmas special from Better Homes and Gardens on Seven at 7pm for 90 minutes and after that Russell Crowe plays Robin Hood. Ten has The Living Room.

Saturday: Test cricket on Nine. ABC1 has the first of the prequel to All Creatures Great and Small and then a repeat of Upstairs Downstairs. Nine and Seven have movies (Inglourious Basterds is on Seven at 9.30pm). Ten has wildlife stuff including a repeat of Bondi Vet at 8pm. SBS has Hunted. Ten has The Australia v Wales Rugby test at 1.15am Sunday, and a replay at 10am Sunday.

Sunday: Morning chats with finals for the year for Insiders, Inside Business and Offsiders (why this one, sport doesn’t end on Sunday morning for the year, does it?). The Bolt Report and Meet The Press on Ten are also finals for 2012. Nine has day three of the Perth test. Seven has Sunday Night (it’s in a ‘summer edition’ for December which means a mixture of new and recast old stories and interviews with an update). Ten has repeats of Modern Family and fresh episodes of Merlin and Homeland.

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

Seven News — 1.528 million.
Nine News — 1.455 million.
ABC1 News (7pm) — 1.380 million.
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.365 million.
7.30 (ABC1) — 1.161 million.
Beauty and The Geek Australia Winner (Seven) — 1.124 million.
Once Upon A Time (Seven) — 1.094 million.
Beauty and The Geek Australia (Seven) — 1.082 million.
Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.073 million.
Air Ways (Seven) — 1.025 million.

The Metro Winners:

Seven News (6pm) — 1.011 million.
Nine News (6pm) — 1.004 million.

The Losers: Beauty and The Geek Australia: that 30 – 40% loss of audience from last year’s final program is not good news for Seven. Ten’s line up in regional areas: went down like a bomb, again, just as it did again in Sydney where the ABC and ABC1 again finished third and Ten 4th.Metro News & CA: Seven News lost Sydney and Melbourne to Nine, and won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine News won Melbourne by a huge 125,000 viewers, and lost Perth by 106,000. ACA won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and lost Adelaide and Perth.

Seven News (6pm) — 1.011 million.
Nine News (6pm) — 1.004 million.
ABC1 News (7pm) — 944,000.
A Current Affair (Nine, 6.30pm) — 869,000.
Today Tonight (Seven, 6.30pm) — 852,000.
7.30 (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 740,000.
Ten News (5pm) — 684,000.
The Project (Ten, 6.30pm) — 512,000.
The Project (Ten, 6pm) — 449,000.
Ten Late News (10.30pm) — 238,000.
Lateline (ABC1,10.30pm) — 188,000.
SBS News (6.30pm) — 124,000.
The Business (ABC1, 11.05pm, repeat) — 103,000.
SBS Late News (10.30pm) — 80,000.
The Drum (News 24, 10pm, repeat) — 48,000.

In the morning:

Sunrise (Seven, 7am) — 360,000.
Today (Nine, 7am) — 323,000.
The Morning Show (Seven, 9am) — 173,000.
Mornings (Nine, 9am) — 135,000.
News Breakfast (ABC1, 7am) — 54,000 + 26,000 on News 24.
Breakfast (Ten, 7am) — 34,000.

Metro FTA: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 27.9% from Nine (three) on 26.6%, Ten (three) was on 20.8%, the ABC (four) ended on 18.3% and SBS (two) was on 6.4%. Seven leads the week with 30.3% from Nine on 27.7%, Ten on 19.0% and the ABC, 18.0%. Main Channels: Seven won with a share of 20.2% from Nine on 17.2%, Ten was on 13.4%, ABC1, 12.9% and SBS ONE ended on 4.6%. Seven leads the week with 21.6% from Nine on 19.4%, ABC 1 is on 13.1% and Ten is on 12.9%.

Metro Digital: GO won with a share of 6.2% from Eleven on 5.0%, 7mate was on 3.9%, 7TWO was on 3.8%, Gem, 3.2%, ABC2, 3.1%, ONE, 2.3%, SBS TWO, 1.7%, ABC3, 1.2% and News 24 was on 1.1%. The 10 digital channels had a very high FTA share last night of 31.5%. GO now leads the week with 4.8%, from 7mate on 4.7% and 7TWO on 4.0%.

Metro including pay TV: Seven (three channels) won with a share of 22.6% from Nine (three) on 21.6%, Ten (three) was on 16.8%, the ABC (four) ended on 14.8% and SBS (two) was on 5.1%. The 15 FTA channels had a viewing share last night of 83.1%. The 10 digital channels share was a very high 25.7%, the five main channels share was 56.4%, one of the lowest Monday to Friday in official ratings this year. The 200 plus channels on Foxtel had another solid night with the pay TV share 16.9%, unchanged from Wednesday night.

The top five pay TV channels were:

LifeStyle — 3.3%.
Fox8 — 2.7%.
TV1 — 2.3%.
Fox Classics — 1.9%.
Sky News — 1.7%.

The five most-watched programs on pay TV were:

Grand Designs Australia (LifeStyle) — 193,000.
The Simpsons (Fox8) — 60,000.
Coronation St. (UKTV) — 59,000.
Christmas At River Cottage (LifeStyle) — 58,000.
Territory Cops (Crime & Investigation) — 58,000.

Regional: Prime/7Qld (three channels) won with a share of 31.4%, from WIN/NBN (three) on 29.5%, the ABC (four) was on 17.4%, SC Ten (three) was fourth with 16.5% and SBS (two) was on 5.1%. The main channels were won by Prime/7Qld with 20.5% from WIN/NBN on 19.4%, ABC1 on 11.6% and SC Ten on 9.6%. Meanwhile, 7mate won the digitals with 6.8%, from GO on 5.9% and Gem and Eleven on 4.3% each. The 10 digital channels had an FTA share last night of an ultra high 34.6%. Prime/7Qld lead the week with 33.2% from WIN/NB on 29.5%, the ABC on 11.6% and SC Ten on 15.9%.

The five most-watched programs in regional markets were:

Seven News — 517,000.
ACA — 496,000.
Nine News — 452,000.
Once Upon A Time — 415,000.
Beauty and The Geek Australia Winner — 397,000.

Major Metro Markets: A mixed night. Seven won Sydney overall and the main channels, as well as Adelaide and Perth. Nine won both in Melbourne and won overall in Brisbane. in Sydney the ABC and ABC1 were third, and ABC1 was third in Adelaide and Perth in the main channels. Apart from that Ten was third. GO clean swept the digitals with its ARIA broadcast. Seven leads the week every bar Melbourne where Nine still is in front. The ABC remains third in Sydney. Ten is third elsewhere.

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

Source: Oztam, TV Networks data