A Wednesday night in winter on Australian TV is not a pretty sight, especially when the networks have run out of ideas and fallen back on the hardy staples of confected reality. That was the night on Seven with Single Wives debuting. After last night’s ratings, the debut episode might be the last — 571,000 national viewers , 375,000 in the metros and 196,000 in the regions. This was followed by two hours of Modern Family which peaked at 437,000 nationally. Remember, it was a year ago when Seven brought us the equally appalling Yummy Mummies which they kept in the schedule for two and a half weeks until its metro audience slid to just 289,000 and shunted it off to 9.30pm and then death. Is Single Wives the most appalling Australian TV program of 2018 like Yummy Mummies was for 2017? Well, Nine’s Love Island would beg to differ. 

By way of comparison, MasterChef managed 1.15 million viewers nationally from 7.30pm to 8.45pm, more than twice the number of people watching Single Wives. 

Regionally, Seven’s 6pm News was tops with 561,000, with Seven News/Today Tonight next with 445,000, then Home and Away with 410,000, The Chase Australia with 379,000 and A Current Affair with 320,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (25.1%)
  2. Seven (25.0%)
  3. Ten (20.5%)
  4. ABC (19.2%)
  5. SBS (10.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (16.3%)
  2. Seven (15.5%)
  3. Ten (15.0%)
  4. ABC (13.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (7.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (3.9%)
  2. 7TWO, 7mate (3.5%)
  3. ONE (3.2%)
  4. Gem (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.568 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.417 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.267 million
  4. MasterChef  (Ten) — 1.152 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.115 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.062 million
  7. 7pm ABC News — 1.028 million
  8. The Chase Australia (Seven) — 1.002 million
  9. Anh’s Brush With Fame (ABC) — 968,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.007 million

Losers: Everyone except MasterChef viewers.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.007 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight, Nine News — 972,000
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 956,000
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) – 795,000
  5. 7pm ABC News – 712,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC) — 606,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 515,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 420,000
  9. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 336,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 431,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 333,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News ) — 257,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 232,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 147,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 85,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 86,000
  2. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) — 84,000
  3. NCIS (TVHITS) — 71,000
  4. Criminal Minds (TVHITS) — 59,000
  5. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 54,000