Only 788,000 bothered to watch the first part of the final of I’m A Celebrity last night across the country. And while the elimination saw a nice rise to 938,000 viewers, only 874,000 watched across the entire program. For an expensive, heavily promoted program, that screams The Biggest Loser.

Married At First Sight dominated the night nationally — 1.87 million, in the metros 1.34 million and the regions, 532,000. Seven’s MKR is now just another program — 1.28 million nationally, almost 600,000 behind. And it couldn’t crack a million in the metros — the 858,000 was a new low. And that performance spells rising danger for Seven and its management. MKR was fourth nationally, third in the metros and in the regions. That is the weakest result of its entire life so far. Both Celebrity and MKR have turned very underwhelming.  

60 Minutes saw Ross Coulthart’s excellent report on the terrible abuse of children at Daruk rehab school near Sydney. The report contained the testimony by some powerfully spoken former inmates. That deserved many more viewers than the 949,000 national viewers 60 Minutes had last night. It would have been better scheduled before the lightweight nonsense of Married At First Sight.

In mornings, Insiders dominated with 541,000 national viewers, while Landline, the quiet achiever, managed 430,000, and more viewers than the better resourced Weekend Sunrise and Weekend Today. Both Insiders and Landline are low budget success stories because of their credibility and simplicity — that is something lost elsewhere (say…at Sky News Australia).

In regional markets, Married had 532,000 viewers, Seven News, 467,000, MKR, 430,000, Nine/NBN News 6.30pm, 384,000 and fifth was the 7pm ABC News with 336,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (34.2%)
  2. Seven (27.8%)
  3. Ten (16.0%)
  4. ABC (15.8%)
  5. SBS (6.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (25.6%)
  2. Seven (19.4%)
  3. Ten (11.8%)
  4. ABC (11.0%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (3.5%)
  2. 7mate (3.4%)
  3. ABC Kids Comedy (2) (2.8%)
  4. Gem (2.7%)
  5. 7flix (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Married At First Sight (Nine) — 1.873 million
  2. Seven News  — 1.349 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.310 million
  4. MKR (Seven) — 1.288 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 1.011 million
  6. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 949,000
  7. I’m A Celebrity Final Part 1 Elimination (Ten) — 938,000
  8. Sunday Night (Seven) — 869,000
  9. Grand Designs (ABC) —845,000
  10. I’m A Celebrity Final Part 1 (Ten) — 788,000

Top metro programs:

    1. Married At First Sight (Nine) — 1.873 million

Losers: Seven, and MKR especially and Ten, especially I’m A celebrity

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 971,000
  2. Seven News — 882,000
  3. 7pm ABC News – 675,000
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 653,000
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 558,000
  6. The Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 347,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News — 286,000
  8. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 227,000
  9. SBS World News — 155,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC, 340,000, ABC News, 181,000) — 521,000
  2. Landline (ABC) — 430,000
  3. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 396,000
  4. Weekend Today (Nine) — 368,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC, 236,000, 85,000 on ABC News)  — 321,000
  6. Sports Sunday (Nine) — 245,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Penrith v Parramatta (Fox League) — 242,000
  2. NRL: Gold Coast v Canberra (Fox League) — 217,000
  3. NRL: Sunday Ticket (Fox League) — 189,000
  4. Cricket: Second Test, South Africa v Australia, Day 3 (Fox Sports) — 120,000
  5. NRL: Sunday Ticket (Fox League) — 110,000