Seven’s night in a close one that almost repeated the win on Tuesday night — with big winning margins in Adelaide and Perth adding adding to the network’s small gains in Sydney and Brisbane (and loss in Melbourne). Seven also had a big win in regional markets. Seven won because an action move at 8.45pm called Fast Five averaged 983,000 nationally/ 639,000 metro/ 244,000 regionally and did well in the demographics as it rolled on to its 11.30pm finish.

Apart from The Block and House Rules it was pretty lean night of viewing. The Block had 1.916 million national/ 1.367 million metro/ regional viewers and House Rules had 1.778 million national/1.139 million metro/ 639,000 regional viewers. In fact, House Rules was again the most watched program in regional markets.

MasterChef Australia 976,000 national/ 745,000 metro/ 231,000 viewers. Simply not good enough. More SousChef than Masterchef. Offspring showed the way with 1.097 million/ 847,000 metro/ 250,000 viewers, even if it was a bit too soapy. It still is a class or three above MasterChef as an example of good TV. It shows the strength of scripted drama (and good comedy) over the contrived nature of so-called reality programs.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (30.6%)
  2. Nine (28.6%)
  3. Ten (19.2%)
  4. ABC (17.2%)
  5. SBS (4.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (22.6%)
  2. Nine (21.3%)
  3. Ten (13.7%)
  4. ABC 1 (12.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.6%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.5%)
  2. Gem (3.7%)
  3. 7mate, GO, Eleven (3.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News –2.009 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 1.916 million
  3. Seven News — 1.872 million
  4. House Rules (Seven) –1.778 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.480 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.357 million
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.354 million
  8. Arrow (Nine) — 1.340 million
  9. ABC1 News — 1.313 million
  10. Hot Seat (Nine) — 1.228 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.380 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 1.367 million
  3. Seven News — 1.231 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.140 million
  5. House Rules (Seven) — 1.139 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.056 million

Losers: The night as a whole, gee it was horizontal. The Following on Nine at 9.30pm — 633,000 national/ 435,000 metro/ 198,000 regional viewers. 

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.380 million
  2. Seven News — 1.231 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.140 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.056 million
  5. ABC1 News — 916,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 768,000
  7. Ten News — 717,000
  8. The Project (Ten)  – 635,000
  9. Lateline (ABC1) — 193,000
  10. SBS ONE News — 169,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 343,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 314,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 51,000 + 41,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 3 (3.5%)
  2. Fox 8 – 3.1%
  3. LifeStyle – 2.7%
  4. TV1 (2.5%)
  5. UKTV – 1.9%

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Cricket: ICC Champions Trophy  (Fox Sports 3) – 149,000
  2. AFL: 360  (Fox Footy) – 101,000
  3. Wentworth (SoHo) – 97,000
  4. Cricket: ICC Cricket 360 (Fox Sports 3) – 85,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 85,000

Tonight: Oh, the Footy Shows on Nine and the Game Plans on Ten’s ONE channel. Avoid them. MasterChef is in the same boat. Last night’s episode was weak and contrived (well, more than normal). You could almost hear the lines coming from the judges before they spoke. Tonight the program undergoes the Masterclass Test (439,000 last week in the metro markets). Labouring, lumbering would apt descriptions of this program, a bit like the various Footy Shows, which won’t even discuss the biggest sorts story this week — the win by the Socceroos and look forward to the Iraqi game in Sydney next Tuesday night.

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) Plus network reports.