Seven and MKR (1.46 million viewers nationally) and the Winter Games (1.75 million on Seven and 7mate) simply swamped the competition last night — the clever programming on the main channel from 9 pm (meaning live and 1.30 million nationally) and before that the feed on 7mate from 5.30 pm to 9 pm (442,000) again crunched the opposition. All those cheap gibes in the legacy media and from rival networks about how the Games are going unwatched with falling audiences are not being backed by the numbers and the demographics. 

Nine threw in the towel last night. Ten battled manfully with Celebrity (865,000 nationally) and Gogglebox Australia (934,000). The ABC gave us a special edition of Q&A on the #MeToo sexual harassment movement — just 419,0000 nationally. Seven’s overall share of 42.5% more than doubled Nine’s 20%, while Seven’s main channel share of 28.2% was more than Nine’s — 12.8% and Ten’s 13.6% — combined. It is clear Nine is nothing without Married At First Sight in its schedule.

The Project on Ten at 6.30 and 7 pm had a very weak night — so much so that the metro audience for the 7pm part averaged 396,000, the first time it has been that low (outside of summer) for ages. Ten News with 430,000 actually had more metro viewers from 5 to 6pm than did The Project at 7pm. The 6.30 part of The Project saw its metro audience dip to just 287,000, which was also very low. The national audience for the 7pm part was 619,000. It used to get that in the metros alone on some nights. 

In regional markets it was a Seven procession with MKR winning with 520,000, from Seven News with 517,000, Home and Away was third with 427,000, then Night 6 of the Winter Games in fourth with 412,000 and Seven News/Today Tonight with 408,000 in fifth.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (42.5%)
  2. Nine (20.0%)
  3. Ten (18.0%)
  4. ABC (14.6%)
  5. SBS (5.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (28.2%)
  2. Nine (13.8%)
  3. Ten (13.6%)
  4. ABC (10.0%)
  5. SBS ONE (2.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (7.9%)
  2. 7TWO (4.3%)
  3. Gem (2.8%)
  4. ABC 2 (2.5%)
  5. Eleven (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.500 million
  2. MKR (Seven) — 1.467 million
  3. Winter Games – Night 6 (Seven) — 1.303 million, plus 442,000 on 7mate
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.276 million
  5. Nine/NBN News — 1.167 million
  6. Nine/NBN News 6.30pm — 1.128 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.073 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.055 million
  9. 7pm ABC News — 982,000
  10. Gogglebox Australia (Ten) — 934,000

Top metro programs: None with a million or more viewers

Losers: Nine and the ABC. Ten battled manfully.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 983,000
  2. Nine News — 875,000
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight —869,000
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 807,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) —757,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 681,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 538,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 430,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 396,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 287,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 519,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 400,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, 160,000 + 83,000 on News 24) — 243,000
  4. Today Extra (Nine) — 201,000
  5. Studio 10 (Ten) — 124,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: AFLX (Fox Footy) — 82,000
  2. The Great Australian Bake-Off (LifeStyle) — 75,000
  3. Outback Opal Hunters (Discovery) — 73,000
  4. Gold Rush (Discovery) — 48,000
  5. TheBolt Report (Sky News) — 48,000