Seven won the night, of course, with My Kitchen Rules wrapping up last night in another Masterchef-like Grand Final announcement of the winners. Unfortunately for Seven, the program ran out of puff last night compared to the final last year.

The Winners Announcement averaged 2.757 million national and 1.969 million metro viewers. In 2015, the announcement averaged 3.038 million national viewers and 2.039 million metro. The Grand Final segment (the lead up to the announcement) averaged 2.576 million national and 1.820 million metro viewers. Last year the Grand Final had 2.879 million national and 2.082 million metro viewers. The 2015 final audience was down 20% from 2014, this year’s fall wasn’t as dramatic, but still close to 10% and a sign that viewers were getting tired of the format by the end.

From Easter onwards there was a notable loss of viewers which only picked up in the finals. But there was a solid turn on to the Winners’s Announcement from the level of the Grand Final – around 180,000 people. That wasn’t too high (which would indicate viewers were really bored with the format and only wanted to know the result). The figures were still solid, but the fall in the size of the audiences this year confirms that the audience is growing tired with ‘reality programs’, even MKR which was entertaining until it hit the cooking studio and started looking like a clone of Masterchef.

MKR of course dominated viewing in regional markets: the Winner’s Announcement had 788,000 viewers and the Grand Final had 755,000 viewers. Home and Away was third with 555,000 viewers, The Chase Australia 5.30pm had 449,000 viewers and Seven Year Switch had 442,000 viewers.

Despite the drop, Seven was very happy as the program blitzed its rivals and snapped up all the demos and dominated Total People. Tonight Seven goes back to the worry beads with the return of House Rules (at one stage Crowded House Rules in some early, confused promos on Seven). Will it tank as it did last year in the face of intense opposition on Nine and Ten? We won’t know till next Sunday night when Ten returns this season of Masterchef Australia and Nine starts this year’s series of The Voice.

Of the two, Masterchef was much stronger last year when its ratings grew. The Voice shrank. So which one will be the third program out? Last year it was House Rules (when Nine ran Reno Rumble as a spoiler and badly damaged House Rules). Reno Rumble went up against MKR this year and was absolutely crushed (See below for last night’s final, bad figures).

In the morning Today beat Sunrise in Breakfast.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (40.52%)
  2. Nine (20.0%)
  3. Ten (18.3%)
  4. ABC (15.5%)
  5. SBS (5.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (33.4%)
  2. Ten (13.6%)
  3. Nine (13.4%)
  4. ABC (10.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (3.4%)
  2. GO (3.3%)
  3. ABC 2, 7mate (2.9%)
  4. ONE (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. MKR Winner’s Announcement (Seven) — 2.757 million
  2. MKR Grand Final (Seven) — 2.576 million
  3. Nine News — 1.470 million
  4. Seven News — 1.440 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.415 million
  6. ABC News — 1.215 million
  7. Seven Year Switch (Seven) — 1.208 million
  8. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.132 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.086 million
  10. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.083 million

Top metro programs:

  1. MKR Winners Announcement (Seven) — 1.969 million
  2. MKR Grand Final (Seven) — 1.820 million
  3. Seven News — 1.150 million
  4. Nine News — 1.085 million
  5. Nine News 6.30 — 1.072 million
  6. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.072 million

Losers: Really no losers on a night when a big program like MKR ends, but let me tell you about the ratings for Reno Rumble on Nine: 249,000 metro viewers and 391,000 national viewers. Seven Year Switch – 1.208 million national viewers. Not normally a loser but the content last night was nothing more than ratings bait. A show of the lowest possible kind. A warning for anyone thinking of having a go next year, you will be hurt.

 

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.150 million
  2. Nine News — 1.085 million
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.072 million
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.072 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 918,000
  6. ABC News – 836,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 641,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 593,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 514,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 488,000

Morning TV:

  1. Today (Nine) – 349,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) – 328,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 158,000
  4. Today Extra (Nine) — 150,000
  5. The Morning Show (Seven) — 148,000
  6. News Breakfast (ABC,  95,000 + 47,000 on News 24) — 142,000
  7. Studio 10 (Ten) — 67,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TVHITS  (2.1%)
  2. LifeStyle, Fox Classics, Fox 8  (1.5%)
  3. Fox Sports 1 (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 97,000
  2. Back Page (Fox Sports 1) — 86,000
  3. AFL: Open Mike (Fox Footy) — 74,000
  4. Game of Thrones (showcase) – 72,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 72,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2015. 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.