A below average night — the top programs were news and current affairs which as always tells us that viewers did not find the later offerings compelling. Masterchef should have really done better — House Rules on Seven and The Voice on Nine are now approaching their finals, so the number of weekly eps has dropped, clearing the way for Masterchef, but viewers haven’t switched back. It grabbed a national audience of 1.18 million last night. Overall Nine had won total people, Seven won the main channels and Ten did well in the demos. Seven dominated regional viewing with Seven News on 720,000 on top, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 570,000, Home and Away was third with 520,000, Border Security was fourth with 482,000 and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia was fifth with 480,000.

It was a pretty dire night’s viewing on Foxtel if we are to judge by the fourth most watched program — the 1949 release, 12 O’Clock High on Fox Classics with 58,000 viewers. That 68 year old movie was out in cinemas before I was born. It’s called raiding the vault. Still the movie helped Fox Classics to the second spot on the most watched Pay TV channels last night.

Tonight, there’s NRL on Nine and AFL on Seven. That’s why the AFL Footy Show was broadcast on Nine last night in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. It managed 155,000 viewers in Melbourne, a long way from the heady days when it was the most watched show on the night. It had 320,000 nationally and 245,000 in the metros and 76,000 in the regionals. Time it was sent for a long spell.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (28.0%)
  2. Seven (27.4%)
  3. Ten (20.7%)
  4. ABC (17.7%)
  5. SBS (6.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (19.5%)
  2. Nine (18.7%)
  3. Ten (14.4%)
  4. ABC (11.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. Gem (3.7%)
  2. ONE (3.4%)
  3. ABC 2 (3.2%)
  4. 7TWO, 7mate, GO (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.833 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.599 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.407 million
  4. Nine/NBN News (6.30pm) — 1.368 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1272 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.212 million
  7. Border Security (Seven) — 1.190 million
  8. Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.184 million
  9. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.138 million
  10. The Force (Seven) — 1.120 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.113 million
  2. Nine News — 1.109 million
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 1.056 million
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.028 million

Losers: Hmmm, no one really because there wasn’t much to lose. Apart from Masterchef and The Weekly a weak night

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.113 million
  2. Nine News — 1.109 million
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.056 million
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.028 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 871,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 720,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 631,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 543,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 530,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 424,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 521,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 434,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 259,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC,  169,000 + 87,000 on News 24) — 256,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 193,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 135,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TVHITS  (2.7%)
  2. Fox Classics  (1.9%)
  3. Sky News, Fox8, Nick Jr, UKTV (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 74,000
  2. NCIS (TVHits) — 64,000
  3. The Big Bang Theory (Comedy Channel) — 59,000
  4. 12 O’ Clock High (Fox Classic) — 58,000
  5. Wentworth (showcase) — 56,000