(Image: Brisbane Lions)

AFL helped Seven triumph on Thursday — the network easily won the night in main channels and total people. But Thursday night is not exactly a glittering prize.

The most watched non-news, non-sport program wasn’t even in prime time: it was the 5.30-6pm section of Seven’s The Chase Australia, with 909,000 viewers. Not even the AFL — 781,000 — could attract more viewers.

Low numbers across the board, it appears. The 717,000 viewership for MasterChef on Ten was not nearly sizeable enough, while on the ABC Foreign Correspondent on deepfakes (with Hamish Macdonald as host) attracted 627,000 viewers, and Q+A straight after, with Macdonald again at the helm, drew only 439,000. Foreign Correspondent had almost as many metro viewers — 430,000 — as Q+A had nationally. Not a good look. 

Breakfast: Sunrise, 443,000 national/259,000 metro; Today, 337,000/223,000; News Breakfast, 273,000/176,000

Regional top five: Seven News, 580,000; Seven News 6.30, 573,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 365,000; Home and Away, 326,000; 7pm ABC News, 323,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (34.0%)
  2. Nine (24.5%)
  3. Ten (18.7%)
  4. ABC (16.1%)
  5. SBS (6.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (22.5%)
  2. Nine (17.0%)
  3. Ten (12.1%)
  4. ABC (10.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.5%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (5.3%)
  2. 7mate (4.2%
  3. 10 Bold (3.0%)
  4. ABC Kids/Comedy/Plus (2.9%)
  5. 10 Peach (2.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.634 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.562 million
  3. Nine News  — 1.242 million
  4. Nine News  6.30 — 1.200 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 1.004 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 967,000
  7. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 909,000
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 825,000
  9. AFL (Seven) — 781,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 766,000

Top metro programs: 

  1. Seven News — 1.054 million

Losers: Q+A

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.054 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 989,000
  3. Nine News  — 937,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 895,000
  5. ACA (Nine) — 683,000
  6. 7pm ABC News — 681,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 506,000
  8. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) — 430,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 418,000
  10. Ten News First — 386,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 443,000/259,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 337,000/223,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC) — 273,000/176,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven), Today Extra (Nine) — 194,000
  5. Studio 10 (Ten) — 54,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: Brisbane vs Geelong (Fox League) — 202,000
  2. AFL: Thursday Night Footy on Fox (Fox Footy) — 132,000
  3. Credlin (Sky News) — 82,000
  4. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 674000
  5. Aussie Gold Hunters (Discovery) — 61,000