Seven’s night, but it was much closer in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane than the overall figures would suggest — big wins in Adelaide and Perth gave Seven a large winning margin (thanks to The X Factor’s live performance episode) because the Nine offering did not go down well with audiences in those markets, nor did it win the eyes of viewers in regional markets.

The X Factor performance episode dominated with 2.283 million national/ 1.474 million metro/ 809,000 regional viewers, where viewers provided the real boost to the program’s popularity last night.  Seven’s Sunday Night (1.939 million national/1.220 million metro/ 719,000 regional viewers) was an easy winner at 8pm over Nine’s 60 Minutes with 1.673 million national/1.132 million metro/ 541,000 regional viewers. Seven’s Bones from 9pm (1.241 million national/798,000 metro/ 443,000 regional viewers) added to Seven’s dominance.

The finals of Nine’s Australia’s Got Talent actually saw the audience fall  by around 250,000 nationally from the 1.730 million a week ago. It had 1.482 million national/ 982,000 metro/ 500,000 regional viewers last night and again proved that it’s a bit of a tired old format. Finals of programs like Talent (X Factor, The Block etc) are supposed to see viewer numbers rise (even MasterChef saw that happen this year).

The Bolt Report was shifted to 11.30am yesterday after Meet The Press, because of Ten’s live telecast of the Sydney Marathon. That didn’t help, but Andrew Bolt’s figures were still weak. Insiders on ABC1 dominated the morning chattering from 9am, but its audience is down noticeably from the last weeks of the election campaign. Insiders had 387,000 national viewers on ABC1 and News 24, Financial Review Sunday had 218,000 national viewers (and is down sharply from a few weeks ago), Bolt had 134,000 and Meet the Press had 88,000 national viewers for their first broadcast in the morning and not the late afternoon repeats. The partisanship of Bolt and people like Piers Akerman who was on Insiders yesterday morning aren’t liked by viewers who have moved on from the election campaign and the Rudd-Gillard years. Bolt and Akerman and their fellow travelers are fighting yesterday’s battles, like the two old codgers on The Muppet Show.

Last week: Seven’s week again in metro and regional markets. The X Factor on Sunday and Monday nights helped, as did the AFL finals on Friday and Saturday nights which more than offset the NRL finals on Nine. Ten had another miserable week, the second in a row, as it finished fourth behind the ABC in third.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (35.5%)
  2. Nine (28.6%)
  3. ABC (15.5%)
  4. Ten (15.5%)
  5. SBS (5.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (27.4%)
  2. Nine (22.6%)
  3. ABC1 (11.7%)
  4. Ten (9.6%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.2%)
  2. 7mate (3.9%)
  3. Eleven (3.7%)
  4. Gem (3.1%)
  5. GO (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The X Factor (Seven) — 2.283 million
  2. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.939 million
  3. Seven News — 1.832 million
  4. Nine News — 1.772 million
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.673 million
  6. Australia’s Got Talent (Nine) — 1.482 million
  7. ABC News — 1.252 million
  8. Bones (Seven) — 1.241 million
  9. Supersized Earth (ABC1) — 1.056 million
  10. Serangoon Road (ABC1) — 1.025 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The X Factor Performance (Seven) — 1.474 million
  2. Seven News — 1.253 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.220 million
  4. Nine News — 1.189 million
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.132 million

Losers: Ripper Street on Ten, 409,000 national/323,000 metro/ 86,000 regional viewers. It’s hardly troubling the scorer. The audience is seldom wrong.Metro news and current affairs:

  1.  Seven News — 1.253 million
  2. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.220 million
  3. Nine News — 1.189 million
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.132 million
  5.  ABC News — 856,000
  6. Ten News — 472,000
  7. SBS World News — 236,000
  8. The Observer Effect (SBS ONE) — 106,000

Metro Morning TV:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 375,000
  2. Insiders (ABC1, 153,000, 96,000 on News 24) — 249,000
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) – 232,000
  4. Landline (ABC1) — 209,000
  5. Financial Review Sunday (Nine) — 143,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC1) — 126,000
  7. Inside Business (ABC 1) — 106,000
  8. The Bolt Report (Ten) — 96,000
  9. The Bolt Report repeat (Ten) — 94,000
  10. Meet The Press repeat (Ten) — 82,000
  11. Meet The Press (Ten) — 59,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Foxtel Movies (2.8%)
  2. Fox 8 (2.4%)
  3. TV1  (2.3%)
  4. Crime & Investigation (2.1%)
  5. LifeStyle (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Hobit (Foxtel Movies)  – 87,000
  2. AFL: After The Bounce (Fox Footy) – 77,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 74,000
  4. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 65,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 63,000

 Tonight: In AFL markets it’s the Brownlow Medal from Melbourne. In NRL markets it’s other programming, then from 8.30 the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Both will be pretty boring. Other channels are as programmed.

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) and network reports.