Seven won the night easily in both metro and regional markets, thanks to the first part of the Molly biopic, My Kitchen Rules and Seven News. But for Nine and especially Ten, it was a miserable night and no amount of spin will change that. Because of the extensive promotion of Molly during summer, it at times last night seemed as though we had seen it, but we hadn’t and it was another top notch biopic from Seven to go with the Peter Allen and INXS stories. But of all the stories, Molly’s is the most important to us viewers because for years he was in our homes every Sunday night on Countdown. He is a big part of Australia’s cultural life of the last 50 years or so.

It is ironic that Countdown and the ABC’s success exposed the failure of the commercial networks (not withstanding Bandstand on Nine), to cover the fastest growing and most interesting part of Australian cultural life in the 70s, 80s and 90’s:  popular music. But equally that it took a commercial network to put flesh on Molly’s story when the ABC had reminded us so well a year or so ago of his huge impact on our lives in the great two part doco, Countdown: Do Yourself a Favour. Why doesn’t the ABC tackle biopics like Molly? Scared of criticism from the cultural luvvies and ratbags on the right and left of politics and cultural life?

Last night, Ten’s I’m A Celebrity, Get me Out Of Here saw its audience battered. And the network ended up being beaten into third spot in Total People by the ABC! A week ago, Ten was in front of the ABC, but last night it was back to bad old days of 2013 and 2014. MKR had 2.079 million national viewers (1.399 million in the metros), and then Molly from 8.30 had 2.636 million national viewers and 1.793 million in the metros. The night was Seven’s.

In the regions Molly was number one, with 843,000 viewers, MKR was second with 679,000, then came Seven News on 556,000, Doc Martin with 477,000 and the 7pm ABC News with 436,000 viewers.

For Nine Australia’s Got Talent backs up again tonight (it had 1.218 million national viewers which was OK, but just). It was swamped last night by Seven, but at least for Nine, it in turn swamped Celebrity (But Talent was beaten also by the ABC News and then Doc Martin). Celebrity managed 898,000 national viewers for the elimination part of the program and 863,000 viewers for the rest. Barely good enough.

But 60 Minutes (895,000 nationally) was in turn crushed by Seven and the ABC (Doc Martin at 7.40pm, 1.482 million and Vera at 8.30pm, 1.005 million . The X Files also faded badly (791,000 nationally for Ten and a long way from its debut a week ago). The return is wearing off and the fickle demo viewers the program is aimed at were off watching cooking on MKR (women) or Molly, (men).

Insiders returned yesterday morning on the ABC and showed first up that it will be essential viewing in an election year, as well as reminding us that the absence of The Bolt Report on Ten is no loss at all. In fact the quality of Sunday morning TV has lifted as a result.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (39.2%)
  2. Nine (22.4%)
  3. Ten (14.8%)
  4. ABC (17.9%)
  5. SBS (5.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (34.4%)
  2. Nine (15.0%)
  3. ABC (13.8%)
  4. Ten (10.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (3.3%)
  2. 7mate, ONE (2.7%)
  3. 9Life (2.6%)
  4. ABC2 (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Molly (Seven) — 2.636 million
  2. MKR (Seven) — 2.079 million
  3. Seven News — 1.623million
  4. Doc Martin (ABC) — 1.482 million
  5. Nine News — 1.308 million
  6. ABC News — 1.304 million
  7. Australia’s Got Talent (Nine) — 1.218 million
  8. Vera (ABC) — 1.005 million
  9. I’m A Celebrity Get me Out Of Here: Elimination (Ten) — 898,000
  10. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 895,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Molly (Seven) — 1.793 million
  2. MKR (Seven) — 1.399 million
  3. Seven News — 1.068 million
  4. Doc Martin (ABC) — 1.005 million

Losers: Ten, then Nine (especially 60 Minutes).Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.068 million
  2. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.093 million
  3. Nine News — 967,000
  4. ABC News – 867,000
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 607,000
  6. Ten Eyewitness News — 403,000
  7. SBS World News — 143,000

Morning TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC) — 386,000
  2. Landline (ABC) — 291,000
  3. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 273,000
  4. Weekend Today (Nine) – 264,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) — 191,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1 (6.0%)
  2. Fox Sports 2 (3.4%)
  3. TVHITS  (2.7%)
  4. Fox 8 (1.9%)
  5. LifeStyle, Foxtel Movies Premiere, Fox Classics  (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Rugby League: NRL Nines (Fox Sports 1) – 157,000
  2. Rugby Union: Sevens  (Fox Sports 2) — 109,000
  3. Pitch Perfect (Foxtel Movies Premiere) — 81,000
  4. NCIS (TVHITS) – 76,000
  5. NCIS (TVHITS) – 70,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2016. 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.