A spike in COVID-19 means a spike in news viewers

Seven won last night from Nine but Big Brother (1.02 million) was again easily beaten by Ten’s MasterChef (1.30 million) in the battle of the confected reality programs.

Seven says Big Brother has run into COVID-19 and there’s a big announcement on Sunday night. Gee, Australia can hardly wait. Will they all be quarantined and ordered not to speak into their mics, having to do Marcel Marceau’s version of Auslan to communicate with each other?

The pick-up in COVID-19 cases in Melbourne saw an upturn in news viewing, especially in Melbourne. The most watched program in the nation last night in a single market was Nine’s 6pm news with 454,000 viewers in Melbourne. That helped Nine’s news top Seven’s by 1000 viewers in the metro markets — 1.191 million to 1.190 million. The audience for Seven’s Sunrise climbed back to 500,000 nationally, while Today on Nine also jumped well past 300,000.

Spoiler alert (LOL): Nine has Muriel’s Wedding tonight. It was on the ABC a couple of Sunday nights ago. The networks are obviously so short of content that they taking to sharing content — how nice. Next Nine will be lending Seven a cup of sugar and some butter and flour, plus a teabag for afternoon tea! The Front Bar is again on at 10.45pm on Seven in non-AFL channels. Too late.

In the regions: Seven News, 663,000, Seven News 6.30, 621,000, The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 459,000, Home and Away 395,000, 7pm ABC News, 386,000.

Network channel share:

1. Seven (26.0%)
2. Nine (25.4%)
3. Ten (21.8%)
4. ABC (16.8%)
5. SBS (10.0%)

Network main channels:

1. Seven (18.4%)
2. Nine (17.6%)
3. Ten (15.1%)
4. ABC (12.2%)
5. SBS ONE (6.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. 10 Bold (4.0%)
2. 7TWO (3.1%)
3. 7mate, 10 Peach (2.8%)
4. ABC Kids/Comedy (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News —1.853 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.763 million
3. Nine/NBN News — 1.556 million
4. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.444 million
5. MCA (Ten) — 1.307 million
6. 7pm ABC News — 1.206 million
7. The Chase Australia (Seven) — 1.154 million
8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.087 million
9. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.064 million
10. Big Brother (Seven) — 1.04 million

Top metro programs:

1. Nine News — 1.191 million
2. Seven News — 1.190 million
3. Seven News 6.30 — 1.142 million
4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.078 million

Losers: Nine — No Voice, no win.

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Nine News — 1.191 million
2. Seven News — 1.190 million
3. Seven News 6.30 — 1.142 million
4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.078 million
5. 7pm ABC News — 820,000
6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 767,000
7. 7.30 (ABC) — 588,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 560,000
9. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) — 532,000
10. Ten News First   — 476,000

Morning (National) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 500,000/277,000
2. Today (Nine) —323,000/228,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 88,000
2. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 76,000
3. Credlin (Sky News) — 68,000
4. PML Later (Sky News )  — 54,000
5. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy)  — 47,000