Nine’s nights, thanks to big wins in Sydney and Melbourne. Nine also won Brisbane and Adelaide. Seven had its usual big win in Perth. Seven screened different combinations of Home and Away and House Rules in various markets from 7pm to 8pm to allow viewers to catch up with developments after Wednesday night when Seven didn’t screen both programs nationally, but only in certain markets (House Rules didn’t screen in  Sydney, Brisbane and regional NSW and Queensland because of the State of Origin on Nine).

The big news though from last night was that this confusion hid a significant development — the episode of House Rules that started at 8pm  topped The Block’s main program  on Nine (and easily beat the lower ratings for the silly “unlocked” part of the episode) nationally and in regional markets, but not in metro markets. The numbers: House Rules — 1.694 million nationally/ 1.066 million metro/ 628,000 metro from 8pm to 9.15pm. The Block (from 7pm to 8pm) averaged 1.689 million (not much in it at first glance) nationally/ 1.160 million metro/ 529,000 regionally.

The Block Unlocked (the silly 30 minutes of product placement for Mitre 10) averaged 1.212 million nationally/ 899,000 metro/ 313,000 regionally. Average the two programs and you get (sorry for the figures fest) The Block from 7pm to 8.30pm averaging 1.455 million nationally/ 1.035 million metro/ 421,000 nationally. By whatever way you measure it, House Rules beat The Block last night in metro on the average of the two programs and certain beat it nationally after winning the regional markets by 100,000 viewers.

Ten has shortened MasterChef Australia by an episode a week. Instead of six fresh episodes a week, there are now five — Sunday to Thursday. Last night it broadcast the weekly Masterclass, which screened on Friday nights in past weeks (and was the most interesting of all). Tonight it shows 150 minutes of MasterChef “encores” from 8.30pm on Ten’s main channel (the repeats used to be on Eleven).  This was a late change with the weekly Guide in The SMH in Sydney not showing a Masterclass last night, or the encore tonight. Surely Ten knew of the schedule for the first week of the program at the start of last week when the Guide is put to bed? The Masterclass episode averaged 649,000 national/ 489,000 metro/ 160,000 regional viewers. Not really good enough. All Ten did was to advance the weak Friday night ep of Masterclass to Thursday nights.

And another network to make a late change was the ABC, which repeated, sorry, showed an ‘encore’ of the first part of Paper Giants: Magazine Wars (AKA Dulcie and Neenie’s No Idea). The Guide had the silly Kirstie’s Vintage Home and then the odd Stephen Fry Gadget Man in the 8.30pm and 9.30pm timeslots. Paper Giants averaged 550,000 national/ 358,000 metro/ 192,000 regional viewers. A waste of a timeslot. No wonder viewers get agro, especially if you want to PVR something in advance and you got Paper Giants again or MasterChef instead of Jamie Oliver!

Network channel share:

  1. Nine  (32.6%)
  2. Seven (26.0%)
  3. Ten (18.5%)
  4. ABC (16.5%)
  5. SBS (6.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (24.2%)
  2. Seven (20.3%)
  3. Ten (12.8%)
  4. ABC1  (11.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.2%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.5%)
  2. Eleven (3.7%)
  3. ABC 2, 7TWO (3.2%)
  4. Gem (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.936 million
  2. Seven News — 1.858 million
  3. House Rules (Seven, 8 pm) — 1.694 million
  4. The Block (Nine) — 1.689 million
  5. ABC1 News — 1.328 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.275 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.259 million
  8. The Footy Show(s) (Nine) — 1.244 million
  9. The BLock Unlocked (Nine) — 1.212 million
  10. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 1.142 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.330 million
  2. Seven News — 1.224 million
  3. The Block (Nine) — 1.160 million
  4. House Rules (Seven) — 1.066 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.065 million

Losers:  Seven’s return of Once Upon A Time at 9.15 for the first fresh episode (716,000 national/ 464,000 metro/ 252,000 regional viewers) and the second episode ( 502,000 national/ 327,000 metro/ 175,000 regional viewers) beaten by the Paper Giants repeat on the ABC for a while, thrashed by Law and Order  (853,000 national/ 642,000 metro/  211,000 regional viewers at 8.30pm and 765,000 national/ 562,000 metro/ 213,000 regional viewers for the 9.30pm repeat on Ten and The Footy Show (1.244 million national/ 857,000 metro/ 387,000 regional viewers) on Nine. Once Upon A Time is one of those US fantasy dramas aimed at female viewers in the 16 to 49 age group that starts strongly and fades as people realise there’s no substance behind the story.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.330 million
  2. Seven News — 1.224 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.065 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 996,000
  5. Ten News — 614,000
  6. ABC1 News — 891,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 756,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 516,000
  9. Ten Late News   – 233,000
  10. Lateline (ABC1) — 188,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Today (Nine) – 347,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) – 338,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 60,000 + 31,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TV1 – (2.7%)
  2. Fox 8 (2.6%)
  3. LifeStyle – (2.1%)
  4. Fox Classics – (1.6%)
  5. Discovery (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 81,000
  2. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 73,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 72,000
  4. A.N.T. Farm. Chants of a Lifetime:  (Disney ) – 71,000
  5. CSI Miami (TV1) – 61,000

*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.) Plus network reports.