The retirement villages story on Four Corners last night and in the Fairfax papers could have been tackled by any of the opposition media, especially 60 Minutes and Sunday Night or ACA, but it is clear many ordinary Australians don’t trust them on stories like this and approached Fairfax and the ABC. Australians voted with the remotes — Four Corners had 1.341 million national viewers — 954,000 in the metros and 387,000 in regional Australia. Four Corners helped the ABC into third spot in the metro channels, pushing Ten to fourth. Four Corners won the timeslot easily (and was a top 10 program nationally and in the metros), beating the weak offering on Nine and Seven and Ten’s MasterChef and Have You been Paying Attention, which were the commercial networks’ best (not in terms of ratings) programs last night.

Seven’s House Rules had 1.594 million viewers, MasterChef had 1.163 million, and Have You been Paying Attention had 1.083 million. Seven’s Wanted managed 1.054 million nationally and could only get 581,000 in the metros, where it has gone right off the boil. It’s a series too far. The same could be said about Here Come The Habibs on Nine – 861,000 nationally and 609,000 in the metros. And that was at 8pm. 

In regional markets a clean sweep for Seven with Seven news tops with 689,000, followed by House Rules with 629,000, 3rd was Seven News/Today Tonight with 557,000, Home and Away was fourth with 540,000, and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia was fifth with 489,000

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (27.3%)
  2. Nine (25.5%)
  3. Ten (21.4%)
  4. ABC (20.2%)
  5. SBS (5.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (19.5%)
  2. Nine (18.3%)
  3. ABC (16.0%)
  4. Ten (15.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (3.5%)
  2. GO (3.1%)
  3. Eleven (2.9%)
  4. ONE (2.8%
  5. 7mate (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.801 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.607 million
  3. House Rules (Seven) — 1.594 million
  4. True Stories, Nine/NBN News (Nine) — 1.415 million 
  5. Nine/NBN News (6.30pm)— 1.396 million
  6. Four Corners (ABC) — 1.314 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.303 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.302 million
  9. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.179 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News, Seven News — 1.103 million 
  2. Nine News 6.30 — 1.083 million
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.049 million

Losers: Anyone who missed Four Corners, and Have You been Paying Attention

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News, Seven News — 1.103 million
  2. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.083 million
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.049 million
  4. Four Corners (ABC) — 954,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 943,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 766,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 710,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 702,000
  9. Media Watch (ABC) — 692,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 515,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 414,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC,  159,000 + 81,000 on News 24) — 240,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 236,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 200,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 110,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TVHITS  (2.8%)
  2. UKTV, Fox 8  (1.8%)
  3. Nick Jr (1.7%)
  4. Sky News (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 109,000
  2. Monday Night With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 85,000
  3. AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 78,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox8) —53,000
  5. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 52,000

*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.) and network reports.