Glenn Dyer's TV ratings: farewell to Margaret and David

A mixed night. Nine and Seven shared the spoils in metro and regional markets, as did Ten and the ABC for third and fourth place. The ABC was more watched in the metros because of the very solid audience for the last episode of At The Movies with Margaret and David. It had 936,000 national/ 726,000 metro/ 210,000 regional viewers. That summed up its life on TV — very popular in them metros where movies are freely available, not so popular in the regions where cinemas are few and a long way away for a lot of viewers. They will be missed.

The final episode of A Country Road on ABC at 8.30pm had 764,000 national/ 522,000 metro/ 242,000 viewers. It wasn’t popular in the regions, where much of the story was based and it wasn’t as popular as the final goodbyes from Margaret and David an hour later. But it was excellent top class TV, informative, with the sense to allow the talent to talk. It was their story, not reporter Heather Ewart’s — she only intruded personally in the first episode where she went home to where she was brought up in Country Party country in regional Victoria — which was a telling point by the end when you realise how far the party had moved from its roots. It again emphasised how well top class TV tells difficult, sprawling stories in a way books, newspapers, radio and magazines struggle with.

And those were the highlights from last night. Earlier in the day, the first Test Cricket on Nine had solid figures, especially in the final session which ran into the early evening because of slow over rates from the Indians (thanks said Nine and its advertisers). That session had 1.301 million viewers across the country — 843,000 metro and 458,000 regional. Session two had 994,000 national viewers and the first session had 781,000 national viewers. The poignancy around this match and the death of Phillip Hughes always meant this Test would be well watched.

Network channel share:

Nine (28.5%)
Seven (27.1%)
ABC (19.3%)
Ten (18.6%)
SBS (6.5%)

Network main channels:

Seven (20.1%)
Nine (19.8%)
ABC (14.5%)
Ten (13.5%)
SBS ONE (5.8%)

Top 5 digital channels:

GO (4.5%)
Gem (4.2%)
7TWO (3.8%)
7mate (3.2%)
ABC (2.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

Nine News — 1.575 million
Seven News — 1.431 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 1.318 million
First Cricket Test, Australia v India – Session 3 (Nine) — 1.301 million
RBT repeat (Nine) — 1.298 million
Kalgoorlie Cops (Nine) — 1.236 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.117 million
ABC News — 1.075 million
Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.055 million
Nine News 6.30 — 1.041 million

Top metro programs:

Nine News — 1.104 million
Seven News — 1.097 million
Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.065 million
Nine News 6.30 — 1.041 million

Losers: Anyone who failed to watch any of the three parts of A Country Road on ABC.Metro news and current affairs:

Nine News — 1.104 million
Seven News — 1.097 million
Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.065 million
Nine News 6.30 — 1.041 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 932,000
ABC News — 761,000
7.30 (ABC) — 670,000
Ten Eyewitness News — 469,000
The Project 7pm (Ten) — 455,000
The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 396,000

Morning TV:

Sunrise (Seven) – 392,000
Today (Nine) – 254,000
The Morning Show (Seven) — 162,000
News Breakfast (ABC 73,000 + 57,000 on News 24) — 130,000
Mornings — Summer (Nine) — 108,000
Studio 1o (Ten) — 47,000

Top five pay TV channels:

Fox 8 (2.9%)
LifeStyle (2.3%)
Arena (1.9%)
TV1 (1.8%)
Disney (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

Modern Family (Fox8) – 64,000
Would I Lie To You (UKTV) – 60,000
Dance Moms (Disney Jr) – 59,000
Stella & Sam (Disney Jr) – 57,000
Sofia The First (Disney Jr) – 55,000

*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.