A certain race dominated TV viewing yesterday with more than three million national viewers measured, and probably that many or more in pubs, clubs, canteens and other locations around the country. Seven should pay for a one-off survey to try and estimate just how many people watch the cup each year, if only for interest’s sake. The deaths of the two horses afterwards took a lot of the gloss off the day.

Seven won metro and regional audiences as Dancing With The Stars, tiring as it is as a format, did more than enough to drag in and hold 25 to 54 viewers for Seven. Dancing managed 1.367 million national viewers, with 883,000 metro and 484,000 regional viewers. Nine says it won the 16 to 39 and 18 to 49s (Big Brother). Dancing had the colour and movement on the night. Seven’s Sunrise broadcast from Flemington buried Nine’s Today —Sunrise had 389,000 metro viewers, Today, 251,000. NCIS is OK for Ten with 1.063 million national viewers and second behind Dancing.

Million Dollar Minute had another solid winner who looked like she could go on, but took the money and retired — it boosted Million Dollar Minute to 1.098 million national viewers which in turn boosted Seven News in metro and regional audiences (the Cup broadcast ended at 5.30pm, but some would have stayed around to watch Million Dollar Minute). Nine’s Hot Seat had 857,000 national viewers.

CBS confirmed overnight that the upcoming 13-episode seventh season of The Mentalist will be the crime drama’s last series.The final season starts on Sunday, November 30, airing there for five weeks before it moves to Wednesdays on January 4 to fill in for Survivor as the reality series takes a break between its two yearly series. The Mentalist will conclude its run with a two-hour finale on February 18. CBS though has good news with all four of its new dramas, Scorpion, NCIS: New Orleans, Madam Secretary and Stalker have done well enough to get full season orders (Ten here is cheering), so the network won’t be short of a major drama series in 2015-16. The Mentalist hasn’t sustained its early strength on the Nine Network in Australia where local viewers lost interest three years ago. Don’t believe the guff elsewhere that The Mentalist has been “axed”. It was lucky to get this seventh series, and the decision that this would be its final outing was made back in May.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (28.9%)
  2. Nine (27.4%)
  3. Ten (20.9%)
  4. ABC (17.1%)
  5. SBS (5.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (20.7%)
  2. Nine (17.0%)
  3. Ten (15.3%)
  4. ABC (10.3%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.2%)
  2. Gem (5.1%)
  3. 7TWO (4.6%)
  4. 7mate (3.6%)
  5. ABC2 (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Melbourne Cup Race (Seven) — 3.006 million
  2. The Melbourne Cup Presentation (Seven) — 2.293 million
  3. The Melbourne Cup Mounting Yard (Seven) — 1.975 million
  4. Seven News — 1.506 million
  5. Nine News — 1.431 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.410 million
  7. Dancing With The Stars (Seven) — 1.367 million
  8. The Melbourne Cup Late (Seven) — 1.247 million
  9. ABC News — 1.209 million
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 1.098 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The Melbourne Cup Race (Seven) — 2.132 million
  2. The Melbourne Cup Presentation (Seven) — 1.630 million
  3. The Melbourne Cup Mounting Yard (Seven) — 1.390 million
  4. Seven News — 1.157 million
  5. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.062 million

Losers: Without the excitement of the Cup, the rest of the day and night’s TV would have been what the figures told us, boring and late in the year. Dancing With The Stars was to have been the fifth most watched program in metro markets on the night. The Cup was in the day and before prime time ratings started at 6pm.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.157 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.062 million
  3. Nine News  – 943,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 917,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 857,000
  6. 7 pm ABC 1 News — 820,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 729,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 569,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 563,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 448,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 389,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 251,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 198,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  91,000 + 40,000 on News 24) — 131,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 111,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 79,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (2.6%)
  2. LifeStyle  (1.8%)
  3. TVHITS  (1.8%)
  4. Sky Racing (1.5%)
  5. UKTV (1.4%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Big Bang Theory (Comedy) – 63,000
  2. Modern Family (Fox8) – 60,000
  3. Coronation Street (UKTV) – 54,000
  4. The Memorial: Beyond The Anzac Legend (History) – 54,000
  5. Family Guy (Fox8) – 53,000

*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.