A dull night for viewers, but a close night one for the networks. Seven narrowly won the all people demographic and very narrowly won the main channels. But Nine did better in the specific demographics, while Ten and the ABC battled hard for third place.  Nine’s The Block (1.717 million national/ 1.233 million/ 484,000 regional viewers) reasserted itself in the metro markets over Seven’s House Rules (1.811 million national/ 1.130 million metro/ 781,000 regional viewers) after Tuesday night’s loss.

But thanks to another very solid win in regional markets House Rules beat The Block nationally by a comfortable margin. Ten’s Offspring starred for the network last night with 1.057 million national/  770,000 metro/ 287,000 regional viewers and was the network’s most watched program on the night, as it deserved to be.

Seven again won because of big winning margins in Perth and Adelaide which more than offset Nine’s closer margins on the east coast.

Update: Seven breakfast TV co-host Melissa Doyle is leaving Sunrise for a new prime-time news program on the network. Doyle has been at Sunrise for 14 years and with co-host David Koch (and producers Adam Boland, now at Ten, and his replacement, Michael Pell) helped the program to the top of the competitive breakfast TV slots. Doyle said this morning on Sunrise she was heading for a prime-time “network news” initiative with Channel Seven. She will be replaced by Sam Armytage, who has co-hosted Weekend Sunrise for six years with Andrew O’Keefe. 

Seven is coy about Doyle’s new gig. It won’t be for a while, as she’s having a break, reporting on the royal sprog in London and then coming back to the program for a little while until the “new news initiative” is ready to air.  This will be the second new news show from Seven this year after The Daily Edition, which is doing 67,000 to 90,000 in metro markets and 119,000 to 170,000 nationally in its first three afternoons on air from 3pm. The 119,000 national/ 67,000 metro/ 52,000 regional viewers for Wednesday was the lowest of the three days so far. It needs a bit more bite!

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.8%)
  2. Nine (28.2%)
  3. Ten (19.0%)
  4. ABC (18.0%)
  5. SBS (5.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (21.7%)
  2. Nine (21.6%)
  3. Ten (13.2%)
  4. ABC1 (13.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.2%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.4%)
  2. 7mate (3.6%)
  3. Eleven (3.5%)
  4. GO (3.4%)
  5. Gem (3.2%) 

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.924 million.
  2. Seven News — 1.891 million
  3. House Rules (Seven) — 1.811 million
  4. The Block (Nine) –1.711 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.481 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.331 million
  7. Arrow (Nine) — 1.301 million
  8. ABC1 News — 1.276 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.260 million
  10. Hot Seat (Nine) — 1.212 million 

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.349 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 1.233 million
  3. Seven News — 1.228 million
  4. House Rules (Seven) — 1.130 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.071 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.011 million 

Losers:  A weak night generally. Ten’s MasterChef  Australia — 1.001 million national/ 736,000 metro/ 265,000 regional viewers. Not very strong. Last night’s cake elimination didn’t really seem fair. It was a very convoluted task. Tonight the Masterclass shows us some “fun” recipes for brussels sprouts. Goody. How about in a seven-layer cake with spearmint, phyllo pastry and cream ganache?  

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.349 million
  2. Seven News — 1.228 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.071 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.011 million
  5. ABC1 News — 845,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 752,000
  7. Ten News — 723,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 547,000
  9. Jill Meagher Murder Special (Nine) — 450,000
  10. Lateline (ABC1) — 173,000 

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 354,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 326,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 52,000 + 39,000 on News 24 

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8 – (3.1%)
  2. TV1 – (2.7%)
  3. LifeStyle – (2.5%)
  4. Sky News, UKTV – (1.8%)
  5. LifeStyle You, A&E  – (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 96,000
  2. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 83,000
  3. Wentworth (SoHo) – 82,000
  4. Location Location Location (LifeStyle) – 79,000
  5. Futurama (Fox 8) – 79,000 

*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.