You will not be able to escape the hype about The Block as it enters the final week for the season. It grabbed 2.20 million last night nationally, and 1.50 million in the metros and top place in the regionals with nearly 700,000. And that was the night, which Nine won comfortably. Ten was again weak and its main channel share in the metros was a low 6.8% — the ABC ended well ahead in 3rd spot.

The ABC in fact did very well with Doc Marin at 7.40pm (1.37 million nationally) and Dr Blake’s Mysteries at 8.30pm (with 1.40 million). In fact the ABC ran second for much of the night behind Nine and well in front of Seven. That faded as it continued to run dead against The Block. Both Doc Martin and Dr Blake also did very well in the regions. In the morning Insiders was clearly tops again with half a million national viewers.

In regional markets The Block was tops with 698,000, followed by Seven News with 489,000, then Dr Blake’s Mysteries with 460,000, Doc Martin was fourth with 434,000 and fifth was Nine/NBN News 6.30 with 424,000. Ten’s broadcast of the Bledisloe Cup Test between The Wallabies and the All Blacks saw a surprisingly (given the miserable year for Rugby Union, on and off the field) good 700,000 watch on Ten nationally on Saturday night (466,000 in the metros and 124,000 in the regions) and just 190,000 on Fox Sports. So all up 890,000 watched across the country. And if anyone is interested Sunrise again won last week — 481,000 nationally and 278,000 in the metros with Today on 420,000 and 276,0000 in the metros.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (34.3%)
  2. Seven (27.6%)
  3. ABC (20.7%)
  4. Ten (11.3%)
  5. SBS (6.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (28.2%)
  2. Seven (19.1%)
  3. ABC (15.9%)
  4. Ten (6.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (3.4%)
  2. ABC 2, 7mate (3.0%)
  3. Eleven (2.6%)
  4. Gem (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 2.204 million
  2. Seven News  — 1.464million
  3. Dr Blake’s Mysteries (Seven) — 1.404 million
  4. Nine/NBN News — 1.3955 million
  5. Doc Martin (ABC)  — 1.373 million
  6. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.278 million
  7. 7pm ABC News — 1.155 million
  8. Sunday Night (Seven) — 954,000
  9. Highway Patrol (Seven) — 957,000
  10. Supercars Gold Coast Race 2 (Ten) — 605,000

Top metro programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.507 million
  2. Nine News — 1.039 million

Losers: Seven and Ten

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.039 million
  2. Seven News — 976,000
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 865,000
  4. 7pm ABC News – 786,000
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 591,000
  6. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 299,000
  7. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 272,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 197,000*
  9. SBS World News — 163,000

* Pre-empted in Sydney and Melbourne by the Gold Cast Supercars race

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Insiders (343,000 on ABC, 157,000 on ABC News) — 500,000
  2. Weekend Today (Nine) — 411,000
  3. Landline (ABC) — 405,000
  4. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 400,000
  5. Sports Sunday (ABC) — 219,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) — 183,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Supercars Gold Coast (Fox Sports) — 207,000
  2. Supercars Gold Coast (Fox Sports) — 147,000
  3. Supercars Gold Coast (Fox Sports) — 120,000
  4. Supercars Gold Coast (Fox Sports) — 115,000
  5. Supercars Supports Gold Coast (Fox Sports) — 100,000