the bachelor
The Bachelor 2020 (Image: Ten)

The Masked Singer may be doing well for Ten while Bachelor in Paradise (BIP) staggered to an almost unwatchable end on Sunday night, but The Bachelor, I am afraid to report, was almost DOA last night as it shed nearly 20% of its opening audience from a year ago.

And yes, while it topped all the relevant demos (which Ten boasted about), those numbers were also lower than a year ago, confirming that the format is going stale.

The Bachelor averaged 872,000 national viewers across 90 minutes compared to 1.07 million in 2019. That’s a fall of 19% or 206,000 which can’t be passed off by Ten as a “blip”. There was no competition on Seven and Nine (at least Ten will be comfortable about that small mercy). But The Bach was done over comprehensively by an ABC trio of 7.30 (915,000), Hard Quiz (1.03 million and the top non-news program last night nationally) and Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (972,000).

It was otherwise Seven’s night thanks to the big lead from the 6pm news hour, over Nine, Ten and the ABC.

In regional markets it was Seven News, 647,000, Seven News 6.30, 617,000, The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 376,000, Home and Away, 362,000, 7pm ABC News 360,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (26.5%)
  2. Nine (24.5%)
  3. Ten (21.5%)
  4. ABC (13.5%)
  5. SBS (9.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (18.1%)
  2. Nine (17.3%)
  3. Ten (14.0%)
  4. ABC (13.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 10 Bold (5.1%)
  2. 7TWO (4.1%)
  3. 7mate (2.8%)
  4. Gem, 10 Peach (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.799 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.673 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.377 million
  4. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.365 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 1.120 million
  6. Hard Quiz (ABC) — 1.036 million
  7. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.037 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine)  —- 1.002 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) — 958,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 915,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.152 million
  2. Seven News 6.30, Nine News — 1.055 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.019 million

Losers: A close night, but The Bachelor isn’t in paradise — more like early purgatory.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.152 million
  2. Seven News 6.30, Nine News — 1.055 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.019 million
  4. 7pm ABC News – 760,000
  5. ACA (Nine) — 692,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC) — 626,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 557,000
  8. Ten News First — 390,000
  9. The Project 6.30 (Ten) — 336,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 487,000/289,000
  2. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 353,000/234,000
  3. Today (Nine) — 306,000/208,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 246,000 
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 177,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 76,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL:Gold Coast v Essendon (Fox Footy) — 226,000
  2. Post Game (Fox Footy) — 135,000
  3. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 85,000
  4. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 84,000
  5. Alan Jones (Sky News) — 83,000