Nine’s night as The Block and the news (assisted by the last of the NRL first round finals) boosted the network to first place overall, in the main channels and the demos in both the metros and regionals markets. It was a comprehensive win for Nine. Ten though was again weak, slipping into a distant fourth behind the ABC in third in both the metros and the regionals. The Block had 1.621 million national viewers and was easily the most watched program last night across the country (especially in the metros), apart from Nine and Seven years.

Sunday Night’s exclusive with failed Beirut kid kidnapper, Adam Whittington (the bloke abandoned by 60 Minutes and Nine and left in a Beirut jail for months) won the battle with 60 Minutes – 1.243 million national viewers to 1.152 million for 60 Minutes. In the metros it was 852,000 for Sunday Night and 778,000 for 60 Minutes. Ten’s Australian Survivor managed 771,000 national and just 586,000 metro viewers. Not good enough, even for Ten with its lower bar for measuring hits.

In the regions, Seven News was again the most watched program with 586,000, Nine News was next with 543,000, The Block was third with 520,000, The Big Music Show was fourth with 484,000 and the 7pm ABC News was fifth with 415,000.

On showcase last night on Foxtel, the series return of A Place To Call Home saw an odd thing happen. The 7.30pm program which recalled the previous series to remind viewers of past storylines and prepare them for the new series starting at 8.30pm, had 121,000 viewers. But that first new episode saw a sharp fall to 101,000. That was a fall of 16.5%. It’s as though a good hunk of viewers decided that the new story line wasn’t as interesting as the old ones.

In the Melbourne based AFL coverage on the ABC’s Offsiders yesterday there was a lot of excited talk about the size of the crown for the Swans Giants match at ANZ Stadium: 60,222 which was pretty good and apart from the State of Origin games, the biggest this year. And there was a lot of talk about how this was another step in the AFL’s plans for dominance in NSW and Sydney. Well, no. The AFL gets its money from TV, not bums on seats at stadia. If the chatterers had looked more closely at the figures for the game on Seven in Sydney (and they were available by the time the program started at 10 am) they would have found just 157,000 watched the game. It was the biggest TV audience in Sydney at that time, but it would have disappointed Seven and the AFL.

The biggest AFL crowd in Sydney on TV was the 2005 Grand Final Win by the Swans over the Weagles: 991,000. Now that was unique and saw the Swans first win in more than 70 years, but you would have though the first ever meeting in a finals series by two Sydney teams would have attracted more TV viewers than 157,000 (especially with no Rugby League finals on Nine as direct competition until 5pm, which meant there was more than 100 minutes of coverage without any opposition). Seven did simulcast the game on 7mate in Sydney and other regional areas, as well, but there were no audience figures provided. If you listened to the chat on Offsiders, the game was a triumph for the AFL – but not as far as viewers in Sydney were concerned.

Seven won total people and the main channels. Nine won the demos. Seven had big wins on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights thanks to the AFL Finals which easily beat the NRL games nationally,but not in Sydney and Brisbane (and NSW and Queensland).

Tonight: It’s the ABC’s usual news and current affairs line up v Seven’s weak line up, Ten’s marginally stronger schedule (Will Australian Survivor continue to survive?), and Nine’s one program line up based on The Block.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (30.2%)
  2. Seven (29.3%)
  3. ABC (18.2%)
  4. Ten (15.7%)
  5. SBS (6.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (21.5%)
  2. Seven (18.7%)
  3. ABC (13.2%)
  4. Ten (10.51%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.9%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (5.3%)
  2. GO (3.7%)
  3. ABC 2 (3.0%)
  4. 7flix, ONE, Eleven (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News  — 1.915 million
  2. Seven News — 1.696 million
  3. The Block (Nine) — 1.621 million
  4. The Big Music Show (Seven) — 1.307 million
  5. ABC News — 1.249 million
  6. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.243 million
  7. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.152 million
  8. Vera (ABC) — 1.062 million
  9. Attenborough at 90 (ABC) — 1.057 million
  10. NRL: Second Elimination Final  (Nine, Gem) — 887,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.372 million
  2. Seven News — 1.110 million
  3. The Block (Nine) — 1.101 million

Losers: Seven’s line up last night, Ten’s Australian Survivor – it ain’t.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.3720 million
  2. Seven News — 1.110 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven)— 852,000
  4. ABC News – 832,000
  5. 60 Minutes (Ten) — 778,000
  6. Ten Eyewitness News — 301,000
  7. SBS World News  — 193,000

Morning TV:

  1. Insiders (316,000 on ABC, 67,000 on News 24) — 383,000
  2. Landline (ABC) — 303,000
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) — 2459,000
  4. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 247,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) — 166,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1 (4.6%)
  2. Foxtel Movies Premiere, LifeStyle (1.8%)
  3. National Geo, Fox8, TVHITS (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Penrith v Canterbury (Fox Sports 1) – 315,000
  2. NRL: Finals on Fox  (Fox Sports 1) — 184,000
  3. NRL: Finals on Fox  (Fox Sports 1) — 141,000
  4. A Place To Call Home, The Story So Far  (showcase) – 122,000
  5. A Place To Call Home  (showcase) – 101,000

*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.