Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: unexpected flops at Nine and Ten

Event television isn't bringing in the viewers as expected over at the commercial networks.

Sunday: The Seven Network has easily won the first ratings clash of 2014 with My Kitchen Rules’ first episode of the year blitzing Nine’s first episode of the new series of The Block. In fact MKR beat The Block by more than half a million viewers in metro markets and more in the regions. MKR had 2.378 million national/ 1.671 million metro/ 707,000 regional viewers. The Block had 1.694 million national/ 1.143 million metro/ 551,000 regional viewers.

Nine was kept in the hunt last night by the movie The Blindside from 8.30pm with 1.223 million national/ 843,000 national/ 380,000 regional viewers . Seven ran double episodes of Chicago Fire from 9.10pm, but it only rated moderately, attracting 864,000 national/ 541,000 metro/ 323,000 regional viewers. Viewers in Perth loathed The Block and loved My Kitchen Rules — Seven won that market by more than 16 points with a share of just over 40%.

Seven won metro markets and Nine was a narrow winner in the regions where The Block and The Blindside both did very well. Nine will be hoping this is a one off aberration, but seeing The Block has been promoted heavily during the test cricket and ODIs, Nine can’t argue that the new series wasn’t made known to possible viewers. Nine will be hoping for an improvement from tonight. Seven also broke out its 6-to-7pm slot into the news from 6 and then a combination of that and Today Tonight from 6.30pm. It averaged 1.225 million metro viewers to Nine’s 6.30pm news segment with 1.190 million viewers (the Nine program isn’t national yet). Nine News won the 6pm battle in metro markets, 1.330 million to 1.255 million. But nationally, Seven News finished with 1.917 million people and Nine News ended with 1.887 million.

Monday: It might have been a holiday yesterday, but Nine’s Today had a weak showing with just 200,000 metro viewers and Sunrise had 338,000. Seven’s The Morning Show from managed 235,000, also had more viewers than Today. Ten’s Wake Up flopped with just 22,000 metro viewers (why bother any longer?), but Studio 10 had a very solid morning with 74,000, up around 20,000, compared to Today’s loss of 100,000 or more. News Breakfast also added around 20,000 viewers on ABC1 and News24 on the holiday Monday.

The return of Home and Away to Seven’s 7pm slot crushed A Current Affair on Nine. Home and Away had more than 200,000 extra viewers in the metros and more in the regions. The aftermath of last year’s final episode bomb helped. Home and Away ended with 1.879 million national viewers. A Current Affair isn’t broadcast nationally at 7pm on the main channel of WIN in the regions. Ten’s The Biggest Loser was crushed, as expected — it had 819,000 national/ 560,000 metro/ 259,000 regional viewers. Ten’s The Big Bash T20 game also saw a huge audience drop — it averaged 581,000 national/ 388,000 metro/ 193,000 regional viewers. Nearly half what it was averaging a week or so ago in the early rounds.

Jurassic Park update: Mike Munro, the former host of A Current Affair on Nine, co-host of Sunday Night on Seven, and a former newspaper and TV reporter, is returning to Ten to present the Weekend News from Sunday week, February 9. His hiring brings to three the number of former veteran Nine Network people now gathering at Ten. They include Peter Meakin, Ten’s incoming news and current affairs boss, who held similar roles at Seven and Nine and Steve Wood, hired last week to try and save Wake Up, Ten’s dying breakfast TV program. Wood is a former executive producer of Nine’s Today Show. Ten’s Sydney News boss, John Choueifate is another Nine and Seven alumnus.

Network channel share:

Seven (32.0%)
Nine (29.9%)
Ten (16.4%)
ABC (16.3%)
SBS (5.4%)

Network main channels:

Seven (26.3%)
Nine (24.3%)
ABC1(11.6%)
Ten (11.4%)
SBS ONE (4.4%)

Top 5 digital channels:

GO (3.2%)
7TWO (3.0%)
Eleven (2.8%)
7mate (2.7%)
ABC2 (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 2.378 million
Seven News — 1.917 million
Nine News — 1.887 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.879 million
The Block (Nine) — 1.694 million
Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.341 million
ABC News — 1.302 million
The Blindside (Nine) — 1.223 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.196 million
Nine News at 6.30 — 1.190 million

Top metro programs:

My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 1.671 million
Nine News — 1.330 million
Seven News — 1.255 million
Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.251 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.221 million
Nine News 6.30 — 1.190 million
The Block (Nine) — 1.143 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.008 million

Losers: Nine and Ten. The Biggest Loser’s squashing was expected. The poor performance first up by The Block wasn’t. Time for a rethink at Nine? The cheer squad among shareholders will ignore this at their peril.Metro news and current affairs:

Nine News — 1.330 million
Seven News — 1.255 million
Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.251 million
Nine News at 6.30 — 1.190 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.008 million
ABC News — 886,000
Ten Eyewitness News — 706,000
The Project (Ten) — 468,000
ABC Late News — 203,000
SBS World News — 143,000

Metro morning TV:

Sunrise (Seven) – 338,000
The Morning Show (Seven) — 235,000
Today (Nine) – 200,000
Mornings (Nine) — 168,000
News Breakfast (ABC1, 72,000 + 48,000 on News24) — 120,000
Studio 10 (Ten) — 74,000
Wake Up (Ten) — 22,000

Top five pay TV channels:

Fox 8 – (3.0%)
TV1 – (2.3%)
LifeStyle – (2.0%)
UKTV – (1.8%)
Fox Classics – (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

56th Grammys (Fox 8) — 107,000
The Simpsons, The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 59,000
Storage Wars (A&E) – 58,000
New Tricks (UKTV) – 55,000
Angry Birds Toons, 56th Grammys repeat (Fox 8) — 54,000

*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.