Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: Seven out in front

Now last night produced the sort of result that will generate the odd meeting or three at Seven, with a bottle of Bolly or three on the table. It was a solid night, without the ratings success of the past two Sundays in the Catching Milat mini series. Nine, Ten and Seven were very close in the 18 to 54 age group in the metros, but Seven had a very big win in regional markets in particular, a point ratings analysis avoids or fails to notice. Nine won Sydney, Seven won Melbourne and Brisbane (closely) and big margins for Adelaide and Perth. The whole house reveal on House Rules topped Masterchef Australia last night in national, metro and regional markets, and easily accounted for the double house reveal on Reno Rumble. Ten did well, it’s up on last year, but it is not doing anywhere near as well in the regions where Masterchef Australia remains unloved.

House Rules averaged 1.813 million national viewers, Masterchef Australia 1,377 million and Reno Rumble 1.277 million. In other words, daylight was second as Masterchef Australia and Reno Rumble failed to make an impression on regional viewers. In the metros House Rule beat Masterchef Australia by 135,000 viewers and Reno Rumble by more than 250,000 viewers — a convincing win. In the regions, House Rule was watched by a huge 681,000 viewers, Reno Rumble by 351,000 and Masterchef Australia just 321,000. Ten might boast about how well it is doing and how well Masterchef Australia is rating — which it is is in metro markets, but not in regional markets. That remains one of the oddities of TV ratings.

In the morning Insiders again streeted the opposition with 320,000 metro viewers — well in front of Today and Sunrise (their weekend editions) and The Bolt Report which had 131,000 viewers (and Offsiders on ABC also at 10am (for half an hour) beat Bolt in that time slot with 174,000 viewers. Andrew Bolt had yet another interview/discussion with fellow traveller, Miranda Devine, which was like watching a mirror interview a mirror. On Insiders, Gerard Henderson shaped up to Barrie Cassidy David Marr and Karen Middleton in a far more enlightening and lively hour of TV. Its diversity of view made for good, interesting and informative TV, not the uniformity of view that you get on Bolt.

And look at last night’s figures for Nine’s 60 Minutes (1.239 million national) and Seven’s Sunday Night (1.112 million). It was only last year that figures like that were an average to poor night in metro markets, let alone nationally. Nine and Seven have not helped both programs by running them either after the “reality” type programs which now start at 7pm (after a news broadcast pushed out to an hour from 6pm). These reality programs last more than an hour, sometimes 90 minutes, meaning these programs which used to air at 6.30pm on Sundays (Sunday Night) and 60 Minutes (religiously at 7.30 pm), are no longer anchored in the schedule, or increasingly, in the minds or remotes of viewers. Last night 60 Minutes started at 8.30pm, Sunday Night at 8.50pm — at these times they are like ratings afterthoughts. These ratings (in the metros last night 60 Minutes got 885,000 viewers and Sunday Night just 674,000) are weak and if they continue at these levels, we could see a time where one or both of these programs are cut back, or dropped. There is in fact no such thing as a flagship current affairs program on Nine, Seven or Ten these days.

Nine won last week, overall and the main channels in metro markets, while Seven and Nine shared the regionals. But it is interesting that without the State of Origin game on Wednesday night, Nine would have lost the week in the metros and regional markets. And on Friday Sunrise moved back in front of Today in the metro markets, 318,000 to 284,000 reversing the position and margin on Thursday morning. Sunrise also won the week in the metros, 308,000 to 296,000 for Today.

Network channel share:

Seven (30.6%)
Nine (26.6%)
Ten (21.2%)
ABC (15.4%)
SBS (6.3%)

Network main channels:

Seven (22.3%)
Nine (19.9%)
Ten (15.9%)
ABC (11.3%)
SBS ONE (5.0%)

Top digital channels:

7mate (4.5%)
7TWO (3.7%)
GO (3.7%)
Gem (3.0%)
ONE, Eleven (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

Seven News — 2.108 million
Nine News –1.816 million
House Rules – Whole House Reveal (Seven) — 1.813 million
Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.337 million
ABC News — 1.363 million
60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.249 million
Reno Rumble (Nine) — 1.277 million
Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.112 million
Shark Tank (Ten) — 972,000
Poldark (ABC) — 815,000

Top metro programs:

Seven News — 1.432 million
Nine News — 1.268 million
House Rules: Whole House Reveal (Seven) — 1.131 million
Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.056 million

Losers: Nine, Reno Rumble is a clear number 3. Last night there was a near 600,000 gap in favour of House Rules (both programs had their peak reveal nights last night). Reno Rumble will end its season as a clever waste of money and a one series wonder.Metro news and current affairs:

Seven News — 1.432 million
Nine News — 1.268 million
ABC News — 927,000
60 Minutes (Nine) — 885,000
Sunday Night (Seven) – 674,000
Ten Eyewitness News — 389,000
SBS World News — 189,00

Morning TV:

Insiders (ABC, 236,000, 84,000 on News 24) — 320,000
Landline (ABC) — 283,000
Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 281,000
Weekend Today (Nine) – 274,000
Offsiders (Seven) — 174,000
The Bolt Report (Ten) — 131,000

Top five pay TV channels:

Fox Footy (4,5%)
Fox Sports 3 (2.7%)
Foxtel Movies Premiere, LifeStyle (2.1%)
Fox Sports 1 (2.0%)

Top five pay TV programs:

AFL: West Coast v Geelong (Fox Footy) – 193,000
AFL: Collingwood v North Melbourne (Fox Sports 3) – 173,000
NRL: Auckland v Newcastle (Fox Sports 1) –151,000
AFL: Brisbane v St Kilda (Fox Footy) – 145,000
Open Slather (Comedy Channel) – 131,000

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