Nine Ninja’d its way to the top for a second night in a row, and will be there again tonight and tomorrow night (with the third State of Origin Game). Seven executives and the board might be obsessed with the Amber Harrison court case in Sydney, but in the real battle ground, Nine has the ascendancy and will continue to dominate while Australian Ninja Warrior remains on air — which will then pass the baton to the latest series of The Block. After boasting of winning the first 25 weeks of the 2017 ratings battle, Seven might have to put up with second place for quite a while. Seven will have a miserable tonight with the weak knock off in Behave Yourself at 7.30pm, followed by the appalling (Last Resort appalling) Yummy Mummies at 8.30pm.

The Ninjas not only whacked Seven last night, but Ten as well, and the ABC which had a very poor night. The Ninjas managed 2.274 million nationally, down just 52,000 from the debut on Sunday night with 1.60 million in the metros and 670,000 in the regions. And that was the night. Masterchef scrambled to 1.040 million for Ten. The ABC was weak — starting with the 7pm News — only 1.05 million national viewers, 7.30 had 699,000, Australian Story, 690,000, Four Corners, 729,000 and Media Watch 605,000. Those figures used to be OK for metro audiences a couple of years ago, not nationally.

In regional markets, Seven News led with 734,000 viewers, then came the Ninjas in second with a solid 670,000, Seven News/TT was third with 579,000, The Last Days of Diana (Seven) was fourth with 523,000 and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia as fifth with 503,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (33.4%)
  2. Seven (28.0%)
  3. Ten (18.5%)
  4. ABC (4.7%)
  5. SBS (5.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (27.0%)
  2. Seven (19.6%)
  3. Ten (13.6%)
  4. ABC (9.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (3.3%)
  2. ABC 2 (3.2%)
  3. GO (3.0%)
  4. 7mate (2.9%)
  5. Eleven (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

    1. Australian Ninja Warrior (Nine) — 2.274 million
    2. Seven News  — 1.820 million
    3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.608 million
    4. Nine/NAB News — 1.369 million
    5. Nine/NAB News (6.30pm) — 1.367 million
    6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.312 million
    7. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.234 million
    8. The Last Days of Diana (Seven) — 1.199 million
    9. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.162 million
    10. 7pm ABC News — 1.059 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Australian Ninja Warrior (Nine) — 1.604 million
  2. Seven News — 1.087 million
  3. Nine News — 1.058 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.046 million
  5. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.025 million

Losers: Seven, Ten and especially the ABC

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.087 million
  2. Nine News — 1.058 million
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.046 million
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.025 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 935,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 723,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 634,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 519,000
  9. Four Corners (ABC) — 503,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 499,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 408,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) —274,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC,  147,000 + 89,000 on News 24) — 236,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 186,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 138,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TVHITS  (2.5%)
  2. Nick Jr, Sky News (1.9%)
  3. Fox 8  (1.6%)
  4. UKTV, Foxtel Movies More (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 116,000
  2. AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 90,000
  3. Nella The Princess Knight (Nick Jr) — 59,000
  4. Vera: Natural Selection (13th Street) — 58,000
  5. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 57,000