Seven’s night with The Voice ended for the week. Seven won the metros and regionals, thanks to the strong performance of House Rules in the regions. House Rules beat Masterchef nationally: 1.304 million to 1.277 million. Masterchef had more metro viewers (965,000 to 786,000) but House Rules grabbed 518,000 regional viewers while Masterchef could only attract 312,000. That 206,000 is a substantial margin  in any market.  It’s a good thing that House Rules is just holding its own in the metros otherwise Seven would be placed in a tough position if its metro figures slipped, leaving it supported by the regions. Advertisers wouldn’t like that.

Seven’s easy win in the regions in the absence of The Voice can be seen from the most watched list: Home and Away topped the list with 557,000 (and its regional audiences are helping make the program look better than its weak metro figures). House Rules was second with 518,000; The Chase Australia 5.30 was third with 476,000; Nine News was fourth with 407,000 and ABC News was fifth with 392,000.

Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell returned to ABC to relieve the tedium of TV at the moment and grabbed 1 million national viewers, with 692,000 of those in the metros and 208,000 in the regions.

The NRL Footy Show at 8.30 to 10.30pm (in NSW and Queensland, Sydney and Brisbane) was a dead weight with rotten ratings for Nine, even though Nine won Sydney last night, it lost Brisbane. It could only manage 356,000 national viewers and 35,000 on delay in non-NRL markets. 228,000 in the metros, 128,000 in the regions. Not really good enough for a Logie winning program in prime time on a Wednesday night.

In breakfast Today again easily beat Sunrise 365,000 to 312,000 in the metros. Nationally Sunrise squeaked home, 526,000 to 524,000 for Today.

US update: The Good Wife finished its run on CBS in the US on Sunday night and ran out of puff. While the final episode won the night for CBS with 10.47 million overnight viewers (60 Minutes was next with 9.07 million, also on CBS), there was little sign of the enormous turn on that other popular US TV series have had for their finales. For example, M.A.S.H. holds the record with a reported 125 million people watching the final episode on CBS on 1983 (in the days of paper diaries).The finale of Friends on NBC in 2004 had 53.5 million, while Seinfeld drew an estimated 76.3 million for its final episode in 1998. The Good Wife’s finale figure was around 2 million more than watched the third last episode on April 24, and 1.3 million more than watched the penultimate episode on May 1.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.1%)
  2. Nine (24.7%)
  3. Ten (21.6%)
  4. ABC (17.2%)
  5. SBS (7.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (19.1%)
  2. Nine (17.1%)
  3. Ten (15.7%)
  4. ABC (12.0%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (5.4%)
  2. 7mate (3.4%)
  3. Gem (3.3%)
  4. ONE (3.1%)
  5. ABC 2, GO (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1.  Nine News — 1.566 million
  2.  Seven News — 1.373 million
  3. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.335 million
  4. House Rules (Seven) — 1.304 million
  5. Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.277 million
  6. ABC News — 1.186 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.162 million
  8.  The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.161 million
  9. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.128 million
  10. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.069 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.073 million
  2. Nine News — 1.059 million
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 1.018 million
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.005 million

Losers: Thankfully the return of Mad As Hell and Shaun Micallef made for a brief respite last night from what was another arid night. Even QI and Stephen Fry stood out. Masterchef and House Rules should have really done better with The Voice resting. Last night again exposed Nine’s vulnerability — it needs more than just The Voice to bring it back from the dead. Ten’s line up looks stronger.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.073 million
  2. Nine News — 1.059 million
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.018 million
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.005 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 971,000
  6. ABC News – 793,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 678,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 646,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 518,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 484,000

Morning TV:

  1. Today (Nine) – 365,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) – 312,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC,  102,000 + 56,000 on News 24) — 158,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 155,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 151,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 76,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle  (2.9%)
  2. TVHITS  (2.1%)
  3. Fox8, Nick Jr (2.0%)
  4. Crime & Investigation, UKTV (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Gogglebox (LifeStyle) — 201,000
  2. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 109,000
  3. NRL: On The Couch with Sterlo (Fox Sports 1) — 74,000
  4. The Flash (Fox8) — 60,000
  5. NRL: 360 (Fox Sports 1) – 60,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2016. 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.