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. — Click here to read Glenn Dyer’s full TV ratings.