Nine’s night again, and with the third State of Origin rugby league game on tonight from Sydney, it’s the network’s week. The Block (1.987 million national/ 1.390 million metro/ 597,000 regional viewers) led the way for Nine, helped by the second episode of The Great Australian Bake Off (1.558 million national/ 1.089 million metro/ 469,000 regional viewers). They were the only two programs to get more than a million metro viewers last night. The rest languished to an extent. Nine was again a big winner in regional markets.

Nine’s debut series The Bible had an average viewership of 1.142 million national/ 837,000/ 305,000 regional people for the two one-hour episodes from 9pm to 11pm. Why anyone bothered to watch it is beyond me. It was clunky, cheap and aimed at the American religious heartland. Perhaps people were glued to their TV sets in the bible belts of Sydney (The Hills and The Shire) and in other cities. Me? I would like to have seen the full monty on the stuff at Sodom that caused the salt shaker to come out.

Ten’s Under The Dome averaged 1.317 million national/ 900,000 metro/417,000 regional viewers. That’s still OK, but it’s down more than 200,000 on last week and 400,000 on its opening. MasterChef had 1.006 million national/ 719,000 metro/287,000 regional viewers. Not good. Seven’s Winners and Losers had 1.271 million national/ 867,000 metro/ 404,000 regional viewers and clearly needs a strong lead in to help it gain viewers. The weak ABBA special at 7.30pm with its 1.044 million national/ 684,000 metro/ 360,000 regional viewers, clearly wasn’t that.

We have heard of bible bashing, flogging a dead horse and running dead (as in TV programming), so how would we describe what was done to a brace of octopuses on Kitchen Cabinet last night on ABC1 (1.035 million/ 713,000 metro/ 322,000 regional viewers), not to mention the stack of cheap crockery broken in the name of Adelaide night life?

I know News 24 and the ABC are down on their uppers, with hardly a brass razoo to rub together, but surely they could have done better than the appalling single camera shoot from Rockhampton last night of the Community meeting  for a pared-down federal cabinet, led by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. It was terrible, with the sole camera fixed on one person for long periods of time, the camera shook at times as well, we didn’t see the girl singing the anthem (the camera focused on the PM while she sang off key), the various questioners and others identified in the audience were not seen and there were no supers identifying who the various ministers, as well as other speakers. A cheapskate effort all round. If I hear another “we are all Queenslanders up against the rest, great weather,” folksy hokum rubbish, I will go stark raving mad from boredom, before election night! Some 56,000 people from around the country watched this sub-par effort from the ABC, including me.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (32.5%)
  2. Seven (25.1%)
  3. Ten (18.5%)
  4. ABC (17.4%)
  5. SBS (6.5?%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (25.2%)
  2. Seven (18.1%)
  3. Ten (14.3%)
  4. ABC1 (12.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.9%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. GO (4.8%)
  2. 7TWO (4.7%)
  3. ABC 2 (3.2%)
  4. Eleven, Gem (2.4%)
  5. 7mate (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.987 million
  2. Nine News –– 1.946 million
  3. Seven News — 1.922 million
  4. The Great Australian Bake- Off (Nine) — 1.558 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.512 million
  6. ABC1 News — 1.404 million
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.378 million
  8. Under The Dome (Ten) — 1.317 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.292 million
  10. Winners & Losers (Seven) — 1.271 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.390 million
  2. Nine News — 1.353 million
  3. Seven News — 1.261 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.095 million
  5. The Great Australian Bake-Off (Nine) — 1.089 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.082 million

Losers: Seven. The failure of The Mole has left a big hole in its schedule. 

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.353 million
  2.  Seven News — 1.261 million
  3.  A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.095 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.082 million
  5. ABC1 News — 965,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 768,000
  7. Ten News — 713,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 590,000
  9. Ten Late News — 226,000
  10. Insight (SBS ONE) — 213,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 383,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 358,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 59,000 + 26,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8 – (3.1%)
  2. TV1 – (2.4%)
  3. Foxtel Movie Premiere, LifeStyle , Crime & Investigations – (1.8%)
  4. Fox Classics, Lifestyle You – (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 104,000
  2. Australia’s Next Top Model (Fox 8) – 99,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 85,000
  4. Back Page (Fox Sports 1) – 82,000
  5. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 73,000

*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.