Thankfully the ABC and the lads at The Hamster Decides scheduled a post -election episode last night. That’s because no one else manages to provide an election wrap quite like them. As a result, we saw more of James Diaz than the voters of Greenway in Sydney did in the campaign.

The Hamster Decides had 1.184 million national/ 803,000 metro/ 381,000 regional viewers for its final program of this series and will be missed more than Gruen Nation which ended last week. And Gruen Planet, which returned last night to be the number three program across the country with 1.510 million national/ 1.023 million metro/ 487,000 regional viewers, was better than its sibling because of a smaller panel (which meant everyone got more airtime) and for the lovely way Wil Anderson herded the Ten Network’s Russel Howcroft on why that Get Up ad was banned. The discussion of the Get Up ad also saw Todd Sampson almost eat his words as well. Very nicely done Mr Anderson. Russel Howcroft couldn’t bring himself to mention the gorilla in the room, the Murdoch family’s News Corp papers (the target of the Get Up ad) and Lachlan Murdoch’s place at Ten. A top notch episode.

Nine’s battering of Seven News in Sydney and Melbourne continued last night. Nine News beat Seven in Sydney by 100,000 viewers — 366,000 to 266,000 and in Melbourne it was bigger — 402,000 to 295,000, or 107,000 viewers. Million Dollar Minute can’t come quickly enough for the news and Today Tonight when it starts next Monday at 5.30pm. Seven News national did win over Nine News — 1.758 million to 1720 million last night was only good for bragging rights. The real battles are in Sydney and Melbourne because of the money involved in both markets. That’s what the big spend on Million Dollar Minute by Seven is all about. After all, Seven regularly wins Brisbane and always wins Adelaide and Perth and on most nights is tops in regional markets.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.7%)
  2. Nine (25.8%)
  3. ABC (21.2%)
  4. Ten (18.4%)
  5. SBS (5.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (21.0%)
  2. Nine (18.6%)
  3. ABC 1 (15.5%)
  4. Ten (11.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (5.1%)
  2. Gem (3.8%)
  3. 7TWO (3.7%)
  4. Eleven (3.5%)
  5. GO (3.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.758 million
  2. Nine News — 1.720 million
  3. Gruen Planet (ABC1) — 1.510 million
  4. Slideshow (Seven) — 1.432 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.418 million
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.393 million
  7. ABC News — 1.338 million
  8. QI repeat (ABC 1) — 1.224 million
  9. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.216 million
  10. The Hamster Decides (ABC1) — 1.184 million

Top metro programs:

  1.  Nine News — 1.190 million
  2.  Seven News — 1.152 million
  3.  Gruen Nation (ABC1) — 1.023 million

Losers:  Ten. Apart from the moderate success for Wonderland (its audience seems to have steadied), the rest of the network’s offerings last night were weak. And, but before Ten believes its Wonderland spin too much, it should remember that Wonderland at 8.30pm had just 1000 more metro viewers than The Project did at 6.30 to 7.30pm (606,000) in a far more competitive time slot. That wasn’t a very wonderful for Wonderland.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.190 million
  2. Seven News — 1.152 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 977,000
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 965,000
  5. 7.30 (ABC1) — 942,000
  6. ABC News — 818,000
  7. The Project (Ten) — 606,000
  8. Ten News — 597,000
  9. SBS World News — 174,000
  10. Lateline (ABC1), Ten Late News — 166,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 357,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 298,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC 1 70,000 + 48,000 on News 24) — 118,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8 (3.1%)
  2. TV1, LifeStyle  (3.0%)
  3.  Sky News, UKTV (1.8%)
  4. Discovery, Fox Classics (1.6%)
  5. Disney Jr, A&E, Nat Geographic (1.4%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Location Location Location (LifeStyle) — 137,000
  2. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 127,000
  3. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 80,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 76,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 74,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) and network reports.