Seven at last had some good news with the Commonwealth Games topping expectations and gathering three of the top five spots nationally — the actual Ceremony averaged 2.74 million from 7pm to 10.30pm (2 million in the metros and 736,000 in the regions). The Games Countdown which ran from 9am to 2pm averaged a massive (and surprising) 1.99 million (1.38 million in the metros and 615,000 in the regions) while the highlights from 10.30pm averaged 1.47 million nationally (1.09 million nationally and 381,000 in the regions). All much better than Seven had been hoping for and while partly explained by school holidays, the high figures were still a tribute to the stepped up promotion over the past six months. 

Nothing else mattered, and as such, the ABC should really repeat last night’s episode of Mad As Hell, which was one of the best ever — it got 656,000 nationally and deserved double that, if only for his very neat skewering of Bill Shorten, again. But the games sucked viewers away from every program from 7pm onwards — the ratings for A Current Affair, The Project, the ABC News, then 7.30 sank sharply as viewers moved to Seven and stayed there. And of course these figures do not include viewers in clubs, pubs and offices, or streaming. 

In the regions the opening ceremony topped the night with 736,000, followed by the daytime countdown with 615,000. Seven News was third with 522,000, then Seven News/TT with 478,000 and the highlights with 381,000 was fifth.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (52.7%)
  2. Nine (18.4%)
  3. ABC (12.7%)
  4. Ten (11.0%)
  5. SBS (5.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (43.8%)
  2. Nine (12.5%)
  3. ABC (8.8%)
  4. Ten (7.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.6%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (3.7%)
  2. 7mate (3.1%)
  3. ABC Kids/Comedy, (Life (2.3%)
  4. GO. Eleven (1.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony (Seven) — 2.742 million
  2. Commonwealth Games Countdown (Seven) — 1.997 million
  3. Seven News  — 1.540 million
  4. Commonwealth Games Highlights (Seven) —1.473 million
  5. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.381 million
  6. Nine/NBN News — 1.217 million
  7. Nine/NBN News 6.30pm  — 1.197 million
  8. 7pm ABC News — 925,000
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 913,000
  10. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 847,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony (Seven) — 2.006 million
  2. Commonwealth Games Countdown (Seven) — 1.383 million
  3. Commonwealth Games Highlights (Seven) —1.092 million
  4. Seven News — 1.018 million

Losers: The Comm games means there are no losers, well Fairfax and News Corp.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.018 million
  2. Nine News — 929,000
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 906,000
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 902,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 646,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 617,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 495,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 428,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 395,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 3571,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Countdown to The Games (Seven) — 1.997 million
  2. Sunrise (Seven) – 497,000
  3. Today (Nine) – 379,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC, 167,000 + 87,000 on News 24) — 254,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 171,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 100,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Gogglebox Australia (LifeStyle) — 165,000
  2. Selling Houses Australia (Lifestyle) — 131,000
  3. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 58,000
  4. NRL: 360 (Fox League) — 438,000
  5. Family Guy (Fox8) — 39,000