Thursday night is, along with Saturday, a viewing black hole. Nine sort of won, Seven sort of did OK, Ten was OK. The Bachelor foundered on screen and in the ratings, dipping under a million national viewers. The debut episode on Wednesday night was watched by 1.10 million viewers, last night 979,000, a fall of 11%. If The Bach can’t crack a million national viewers next week then it will be a tough late winter for the rose abuser.

The ABC was almost invisible — Pulse (684,000 national viewers, down from 736,000 for the first ep a week ago, get the defibrillators ready). Nine had an NRL game — Penrith bored Canterbury out of the game (and the finals) while 585,000 watched on Nine and 190,000 on Fox Sports. And in Melbourne with the AFL Footy Show in a rebirthing phase, Seven’s cheap as chips The Front Bar managed 411,000 national viewers including 220,000 in Melbourne. Hmmm. Ten had the flop with Commonsense last night — 469,000 national viewers. Bury that one, or better still have the guts to put it on the next series of Gogglebox Australia.  Another flop in a flop of a year for Ten. 

In regional markets another parade for Seven, starting with Seven News with 622,000, Seven News/TT had 482,000, Home and Away with 478,000, the 5.30pm part of The Chase with 417,00 and Make You laugh Out Loud, 365,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (28.3%)
  2. Seven (26.8%)
  3. Ten (21.0%)
  4. ABC (16.6%)
  5. SBS (7.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (21.3%)
  2. Seven (17.4%)
  3. Ten (15.1%)
  4. ABC (10.6%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. ABC 2, 7TWO (3.8%)
  2. GO (3.5%)
  3. ONE (3.1%)
  4. 7flix (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.640 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.435 million
  3. Nine/NBN News (6.30pm) — 1.218 million
  4. Nine/NBN News — 1.216 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.192 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.157 million
  7. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.020 million
  8. 7pm ABC News —986,000
  9. The Bachelor (Ten) — 979,000
  10. Make You Laugh Out Loud (Seven) — 863,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.019 million

Losers: Viewers.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.019 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 952,000
  3. Nine News — 908,000
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 899,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 817,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 663,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 546,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 516,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 466,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 339,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) —462,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 404,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC,  165,000 + 94,000 on News 24) — 259,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 196,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 166,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 136,000

Top five pay TV channels:

    1. Fox League (2.8%)
    2. TVHITS  (2.4%)
    3. LifeStyle,UKTV  (2.0%)
    4. Fox 8  (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Penrith v Canterbury (Fox League) — 190,000
  2. NRL: Thursday Night League (Fox League) — 78,000
  3. Aussie Gold Hunters (Discovery) — 70,000
  4. The Late Show With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 68,000
  5. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 68,000