It’s dead as a doornail — House Rules, Seven’s Block wannabe spoiler attempt. Last night’s  audience was the lowest since it started, dropping to 1.089 million national/ 687,000 metro/ 402,000 regional viewers,  and a sign that it is flopping like  Celebrity Splash, which finished its appalling season last night (which was too long anyway) with 1.021 million national/ 650,000 metro/ 371,000 regional viewers. (I will resist describing it a bellyflop, the failure of the program is self-evident to everyone, especially those at Seven). The Block last night averaged 1.430 million national/ 947,000 metro/ 483,000 regional, which was solid, but still showing a bit of first week softness.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s budget reply speech averaged 943,000 national/ 609,000 metro/ 334,000 regional, and the 7.30 program’s predictable analysis at 8pm averaged 970,000 national/ 647,000 metro/ 323,000 regional, which was fewer than Treasurer Wayne Swan’s Tuesday night effort, but showed there was more a bit more interest in the analysis in metro markets and a bit more interest in the speech in the regions.

Nine won the night with solid victories in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. But Seven was kept in the game by wins in Adelaide and Perth. Seven got home though in regional markets (which on the whole are more similar to the Adelaide and Perth markets in their TV viewing habits than the east coast metro markets).

Dirty Laundry on ABC2 at 9.30pm had a solid 143,000 national viewers for its debut program, which veered from the great to the ho hum (and it did look a bit odd at times a middle-aged bloke in host Lawrence Mooney, talking about s-x tapes etc with a trio of spunky younger females!) It’s actually a good ideas for a program if they can sharpen it up a bit and get the meat cleavers out at times, as well as the stilettos.

American Idol update: It’s now official — the 2012 performance finale of American Idol attracted the lowest audience ever in the US on Wednesday night — 11.57 million, down from the 20.7 million first estimate a year ago and the record 38.1 million in 2003.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (29.6%)
  2. Seven (25.5%)
  3. ABC (19.2%)
  4. Ten (19.1%)
  5. SBS (6.6%)

Network main channels

  1. Nine (23.0%)
  2. Seven (19.7%)
  3. ABC1 (14.2%)
  4. Ten (12.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.6%)

Top five digital channels: 

  1. GO (4.5%)
  2. Eleven (3.6%)
  3. 7TWO, ABC2 (3.0%)
  4. 7mate  (2.8%)
  5. ONE (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  – 1.863 million
  2. Nine News — 1.858 million
  3. The Block (Nine) –1 .481 million
  4. ABC1 News  – 1.402 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.379 million
  6. The Block Unlocked (Nine) — 1.322 million
  7. Our Queen (ABC1) — 1.315 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.253 million
  9. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.244 million
  10. The Footy Shows (Nine) — 1.171 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News –– 1.301 million
  2. Seven News — 1.237 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.059 million
  4. The Block (Nine) — 1.041 million

Losers:  Seven with House Rules now on the flopper list and Celebrity Splash drowning in its unfortunate finale. Red faces all around last night for Seven. A night of very unfortunate TV for loyal viewers. 

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News –– 1.301 million
  2. Seven News — 1.237 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.059 million
  4. ABC1 News — 918,000
  5. Ten News — 670,000
  6. 7.30 — Budget Analysis (ABC1, 8pm) — 647,000
  7. Budget Reply Speech (ABC1, 7.30pm) — 609,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 483,000
  9. Ten Late News  — 218,000
  10. Lateline (ABC1) — 205,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 352,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 331,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 52,000 + 25,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8 – 2.9%
  2. LifeStyle – 2.3%
  3. Discovery – 2.2%.
  4. TV1, A&E — 1.9%
  5. Sky News, UKTV – 1.6%

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360  (Fox Footy) – 114,000
  2. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 112,000
  3. Gold Rush  (Discovery) – 98,000
  4. Dirty Jobs Down Under (Discovery) – 86,000
  5. Family Guy (Fox 8) — 80,000

Tonight/Weekend: AFL and NRL on Seven, Nine and Foxtel tonight, tomorrow  and Sunday  in various mixes. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven in non AFL markets. Ten has The Living Room. The ABC has Silent Witness. SBS starts its yearly Eurovision coverage tonight, which continues tomorrow night and then Sunday evening. SBS also has the Giro d’Italia tomorrow and Sunday night live.  American Idol finishes tonight on Ten. On Saturday the ABC has Death In Paradise and then DCI Banks (which made an OK start last week). Nine has repeats of The Voice, Seven has movies. Ten has Bondi Vet. On Sunday we have the morning chats and then Landline. Nine has a fresh episdoe of The Block and then The Voice , Seven has Sunday Night at 6.30pm instead of the Kath and Kim Kountdown, which is now at 7.30pm, up against 60 Minutes. Ten has The Biggest Loser and then Elementary. ABC1 has the finale of Call The Midwife and Dr Who.

*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.) Plus network reports.