The race did the job yesterday afternoon for Seven. The race averaged 2.49 million nationally, but like the AFL and NRL Grand Finals, these figures are indicative — the real audience will be a lot, lot bigger, probably by two million or more, because of the difficulty measuring all the people watching in pubs, clubs, workplaces and at parties large and small.

But the real message from yesterday and last night was confirmation that Seven has the biggest foreign hit of the year on its hands with The Good Doctor’s second Tuesday night outing — 1.78 million national viewers, up from 1.64 million a week earlier.  Seven said the first episode a week ago not only had 1.64 million overnight viewers, but another 363,000 time shifted viewers over the next seven days and 63,000 streams for a total audience of 2.06 million, which makes it a mega hit, especially in these days of reducing viewing levels. Seven’s Instant Hotel debuted to 1.128 million nationally and some nice demos. Will its audience return for episode 2? That is the big question.

In regional markets the race was tops with 701,000, followed by the Good Doctor with 598,000, the race presentations was third with 564,000, then Seven News with 541,000 and Seven News/Today Tonight with 498,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (32.8%)
  2. Nine (26.4%)
  3. Ten (17.4%)
  4. ABC (15.4%)
  5. SBS (8.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (24.8%)
  2. Nine (18.7%)
  3. Ten (11.6%)
  4. ABC (9.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.1%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (3.8%)
  2. ABC 2 (3.5%)
  3. ONE (3.1%)
  4. 7TWO (3.0%)
  5. GO, Gem (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Melbourne Cup Race (Seven)  — 2.498 million
  2. The Melbourne Cup Presentations (Seven)  — 1.923 million
  3. The Good Doctor (Seven) — 1.785 million
  4. The Melbourne Cup Pre-race (Seven)  — 1.643 million
  5. Seven News  — 1.579 million
  6. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.506 million
  7. The Melbourne Cup Pre-race (Seven)  — 1.181 million
  8. Nine/NBN News — 1.241 million
  9. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.232 million
  10. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.183 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The Melbourne Cup Race (Seven)  — 1.797 million
  2. The Melbourne Cup Presentations (Seven)  — 1.359 million
  3. The Good Doctor (Seven) — 1.187 million
  4. The Melbourne Cup Pre-race (Seven)  — 1.181 million
  5. Seven News — 1.038 million
  6. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.015 million

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.038 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.015 million
  3. Nine News — 955,000
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 933,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 829,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 734,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 550,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 502,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 472,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 317,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 542,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 393,000
  3. The Cup Early (TMS slot, Seven) —481,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC, 169,000 + 79,000 on News 24) — 248,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 183,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 141,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Great British Bake-Off (LifeStyle Food) — 59,000
  2. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 59,000
  3. Melbourne Cup (Sky Racing) — 54,000
  4. NCIS (TVHITS) — 53,000
  5. Jones & Co (Sky News) — 52,000