First Dates stood out — no, shone — on a night that was simply snoringly dull. It averaged 1.223 million nationally (a solid 803,000 in the metros) and is maintaining its grip on its core audience.

Nine News bounced back in Sydney and again won Brisbane and Melbourne, but lost Adelaide and Perth to go down in the metro markets and nationally, again. Sunrise again beat Today by a big metro margin: 351,000 to 304,000.

So it was Seven’s night easily in the metros and regionals and in the demos.

The five top regional programs were: Seven News with 564,000, Home and Away with 497,000, Seven News/Today Tonight was third with 421,000 and The Chase Australia 5.30pm was fifth with 385,000.

The World Cup qualifier Australia v Thailand (a poor 2-2 draw) saw 190,000 watch on Nine’s Go channel last night and a further 100,000 on Fox Sports 4. And for those readers silly enough to be interested, yesterday’s 8 for 32 streak from Hobart was watched by a 340,000 people with nothing better to do around the country. It must be a Watch A Flogging For The Dole Scheme from Nine and Cricket Australia.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (30.7%)
  2. Nine (26.9%)
  3. ABC (18.7%)
  4. Ten (16.4%)
  5. SBS (7.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (19.6%)
  2. Nine (17.0%)
  3. ABC (13.4%)
  4. Ten (11.6%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.0%)
  2. 7TWO, 7mate (4.4%)
  3. ABC 2 (3.1%)
  4. Geme (2.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.518 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.388 million
  3. First Dates (Seven) — 1.223 million
  4. Nine News — 1.189 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.177 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.172 million
  7. Nine News 6.30pm — 1.101 million
  8. ABC News — 1.092 million
  9. 7.30 (ABC) — 1.045 million
  10. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) – 1.023 million

Top metro programs: No programs had a million or more metro viewers

Losers: Viewers, a weak night except for First Dates and Streets of Your Town. A live feed of the night after the Super moon didn’t appear in parts of NSW would have been more entertaining.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 954,000
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 929,000
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 896,000
  4. Nine News —876,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 826,000
  6. ABC News – 774,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 721,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 491,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 439000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 345,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 351,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 304,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 168,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC,  104,000 + 46,000 on News 24) — 148,000
  5. Studio 10 (Ten) — 95,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (2.8%)
  2. LifeStyle  (1.9%)
  3. TVHITS  (1.9%)
  4. UKTV, Fox Classics (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Great Australian Bake-Off (LifeStyle Food) — 107,000
  2. Soccer: Australia v Thailand (Fox Sports 4) — 100,000
  3. Australia’s Next Top Model (Fox8) — 91,000
  4. Soccer: Australia v Thailand Pre-Game (Fox Sports 4) — 63,000
  5. Peppa Pig (Nick Jr) — 59,000

*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.