There was a very noticeable divergence of TV viewing last night between the big city markets and regional Australia. Smarty pants humour doesn’t really do it for the folk in the bush.

So that meant The Chaser (1.64 million), Summer Heights High (1.51 million) and Spicks and Specks (1.502 million), the top three programs in the five major metro markets last night, fared poorly in regional and rural Australia.

Spicks and Specks was No.6 in the regions with 557,100 viewers, The Chaser was No.7 with 548,300 viewers and Summer Heights High didn’t even register in the regional top 10. Ten’s House was more popular in the bush and beat Spicks and Specks and The Chaser.

The ABC had a five metro market share of 22.2%, in the regions it was 18.7%. Good but still well short of the big city audiences.

Instead regional viewers favoured Seven News, A Current Affair and Cold Case. And naturally the first ep of Nine’s Farmer Wants a Wife at 7.30pm — it finished 5th in the regions with 564,400 viewers, almost half the audience for the program in the cities (1.13 million).

Makes you wonder how ABC’s next comedic cab off the rank — The Librarians — will go down in the bush.