(Image: Republican National Convention)

Nine won the night as The Block struggled into the 10th slot nationally and just into the million-plus viewership, a rise from 954,000 the night before and 1.23 million on Sunday night. The most watched eps are the weekly reveals on Sunday nights — that’s why next Sunday’s figures will be critical. The Block was again beaten by The Masked Singer (TMS) on Ten — the reveal averaged 1.11 million nationally (down 127,000 from a week earlier) and with the lead-up averaging 996,000, the program average was 1.05 million, still well in front of The Block (Kitten is my favourite).

In fact TMS was the most watched non-news program last night. But it wasn’t enough to help Ten overall. Although it finished third in total people (because of solid efforts by its multi-channels) the ABC nipped past it into third in the main channels. TMS did well in the demos, as did The Block. Nine returned a remake of Halifax — this series is called Retribution — with 783,000, down 22% from the audience for The Block. Not promising.

Elsewhere Donald Trump will not be happy. The US TV ratings for night one of the Republican National Convention showed a 26% fall from 2016, despite Trump speaking (he is speaking every night). The Nielsen ratings data also shows that the Republican cause was sharply lower than night one of the Democrat convention last week, which easily beat Trump’s effort. Nielsen said 17 million people watched the two hours of night one of Trump’s re-coronation against 19.7 million for night one of the Democrats. The totals are for the 11 separate broadcasts.

The highlight a week ago was Michelle Obama, clearly a bigger drawcard for viewers than the president.

In regional markets Seven News, 608,000; Seven News 6.30, 563,000; Home and Away, 389,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm 381,000; 7pm ABC News, 356,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (29.3%)
  2. Seven (26.3%)
  3. Ten (18.2%)
  4. ABC (17.0%)
  5. SBS (9.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (21.0%)
  2. Seven (17.2%)
  3. ABC (13.0%)
  4. Ten (12.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.6%)

Top five digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (3.5%)
  2. 10 Bold (3.4%)
  3. 7TWO (3.1%)
  4. Gem, 7flix (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.72 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.63 million
  3. Nine/NBN News  — 1.32 million
  4. Nine/NBN News 6.30  — 1.30 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 1.15 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine)  —- 1.13 million
  7. The Masked Singer — Reveal (Ten) — 1.11 million
  8. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.03 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.01 million
  10. The Block (Nine) — 1.00 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.12 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.07 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.01 million

Losers: The Block is duller than last year.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.12 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.07 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.01 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 986,000
  5. ACA (Nine) — 818,000
  6. 7pm ABC News — 802,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 573,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 545,800
  9. Ten News First — 394,000
  10. The Project 6.30 (Ten) — 352,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 455,000/250,000
  2. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 322,000/218,000
  3. Today (Nine) — 314,000/216,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 231,000 
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 143,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 80,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 85,000
  2. Alan Jones (Sky News) —  81,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 77,000
  4. Credlin (Sky News) — 67,000
  5. Wentworth (Fox Showcase) — 65,000