Another Sunday night split in the national viewing audience. There was a definite thumbs down for The Voice on Nine (and other programs) and Ten’s MasterChef Australia (and other programs) from regional viewers, and a big thumbs up for Seven’s lineup, led by House Rules. The Voice doesn’t do it in Perth, judging by last night’s ratings, but it did it for Nine elsewhere in the metro markets. Ten had a good night in metro markets, but in the regions Ten was again a very distant fourth behind the ABC. And Seven’s winning All People share in the regions of 36.7% was a bigger share than Nine’s winning 33.8% in metro markets.

The Voice won the metros, but was badly beaten in the regions. It had 2.563 million national/ 1.886 million metro/ 677,000 regional viewers. It won well nationally and in the metros over House Rules which had 2.1246 million national/ 1.301 million metro/ 845,000 regional viewers. As you can see House Rules walloped The Voice in the regions by 178,000 viewers. Given the type of program and its universal appeal, the failure to dominate Perth and the regions like it is doing elsewhere (especially in Sydney and Melbourne) is mystifying.

Seven’s Sunday Night was just beaten in the metros by Nine’s 60 Minutes, but in the regions it was a very different story. Sunday Night eventually won nationally with 1.870 million national/ 1.124 million metro/ 760,000 regional viewers. 60 Minutes had 1.745 million national/ 1.198 million metro/ 548,000 regional viewers — a big win in the regions for Sunday Night and underlined the size of the split between what metro and regional viewers like to watch.

In the morning The Bolt Report had an exclusive interview with the Prime Minister. It had a total of 376,000 national viewers for the live program at 10am and the 4pm repeat. Insiders had a total of 508,000 for its simulcast at 9am on ABC1 and News 24 and repeat later in the night on News24. Landline at midday had 486,000 viewers with no politics and solid interesting reporting. The message for Bolt is again that viewers just don’t like the partisanship. And finally a big tick for Trigger Point on ABC1 at 9.30pm — it had 529,000 national viewers and deserved a lot more for its effort in documenting police killings, with the gun Age crime writer, John Silvester. Only the ABC could do a doco like that without any of the glamorising of the crims as we saw in Underbelly. There’s a second episode next Sunday night. Watch it.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (33.8%)
  2. Seven (29.4%)
  3. Ten (16.7%)
  4. ABC (15.8%)
  5. SBS (4.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (27.1%)
  2. Seven (21.2%)
  3. Ten (11.7%)
  4. ABC1  (10.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.4%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (5.3%)
  2. GO (3.9%)
  3. ABC2 (3.5%)
  4. Eleven, 7TWO (2.9%)
  5. Gem (2.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Voice (Nine) – 2.563 million
  2. House Rules (Seven) — 2.146 million
  3. Nine News — 2.022 million
  4. Seven News  – 2.020 million
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.870 million
  6. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.745 million
  7. A Place To Call Home (Seven) — 1.553 million
  8. ABC News — 1.205 million
  9. MasterChef Australia (Ten) — 1.200 million
  10. The Mentalist (Nine) — 983,000

Top metro programs:

  1. The Voice (Nine) – 1.886 million
  2. Nine News — 1.401 million
  3. Seven News — 1.344 million
  4. House Rules (Seven) — 1.301 million
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.198 million
  6. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.124 million

Losers: No one really, but the gulf between metro and regional viewers last night was again an interesting development.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.401 million
  2. Seven News — 1.344 million
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.198 million
  4. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.124 million
  5. ABC News – 802,000
  6. Ten Eyewitness News — 499,000

Morning TV:

  1. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 343,000
  2. Landline (ABC1) — 294,000
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) – 267,000
  4. Insiders (ABC1 191,000 + News24 74,000) — 265,000
  5. Financial Review Sunday (Nine) — 181,000
  6. The Bolt Report repeat (Ten) — 141,000
  7. Offsiders (ABC1) — 134,000
  8. The Bolt Report (Ten) — 110,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Footy  (8.5%)
  2. Fox Sports 1 (5.1%)
  3. LifeStyle  (2.5%)
  4. Fox 8 (2.4%)
  5. TVHITS!  (2.3%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: Hawthorn v GWS (Fox Footy) – 231,000
  2. AFL: Adelaide v Gold Coast (Fox Footy) – 222,000
  3. AFL: West Coast v North Melbourne (Fox Footy) – 203,000
  4. NRL: Auckland v newcastle (Fox Sports 1) – 136,000
  5. AFL: Before The Game (Fox Footy) – 102,000

*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.