Tonight: How much sport? After all the politics this week, bring it on. The Swannies and the Blues tonight in AFL (Seven), The second rugby test tomorrow between Australia and the Lions (Ten), the Tour de France starts tomorrow night (SBS ONE), Wimbledon on 7TWO. Grand Prix bikes and Formula One cars on Ten. There’s also a great doco on the TDF on SBS ONE tonight at 8.30 pm. All more interesting than what was on offer last night (with one or two exceptions).

Last night — apart from the first part of The Wonders Life on ABC1 at 8.30pm (791,000 national/ 566,000 metro/ 225,000 regional), it was a flat night as the echoes of the night before (not the rugby league game between Queensland and NSW) continued to roll over the schedule. Seven went for an hour news from 6 to 7pm in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, but not in Adelaide or Perth, where Today Tonight went to air (because of the time difference). The ABC News and then 7.30 were full of follow-up, unfortunately (but understandable), as was the Nine news at 6pm in Sydney at least. Nine won the metros, Seven won the regions.

Seven also had a Thursday night AFL from Perth and 7mate, which did OK (won dramatically at the end by the Essendon Peptides).

Wednesday night update: Oztam has issued an update top program list for Wednesday night. The interest in the events in Canberra was much, much larger than first seemed. Yes, the Origin game on Nine (with 2.235 million) and the pre-game stuff (1.721 million), remained one and two. But eight of the top 12 programs in metro markets were news broadcasts or specials on the leadership. A rough estimate suggests that between 3.5 million and four million viewers were watching events before Origin started in metro markets. So the level of interest was much, much higher than it seemed from the raw figures. 

So much for TV viewers tuning out of the dramatic political events. The most watched programs after the two origin items were a Nine news special with 1.544 million, Nine news with 1.339 million, Seven news with 1.211 million and an ABC news special with 977,000 (around the time of the 7pm ABC news). There was a further half a million or more watching The Project‘s coverage on Ten.

The combined national figures are still being worked out. You can work out how interest waned last night (buyer’s remorse?), with News 24’s share going back to 1.2% in the metros (5.9% on Wednesday night) and 1.6% in the regions (5.6%), while Sky News’ share of pay TV viewing fell to 2.5% from 5.4% the night before.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine  (31.0%)
  2. Seven (30.1%)
  3. ABC ( 18.2%)
  4. Ten (15.2%)
  5. SBS (5.5%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (22.6%)
  2. Seven (20.4%)
  3. ABC1 (13.4%)
  4. Ten (10.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.8%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.7%)
  2. 7mate (5.0%)
  3. 7TWO(4.4%)
  4. Gem (2.8%)
  5. ABC 2, Eleven (2.6%) 

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 2.065 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 1.734 million
  3. ABC1 News — 1.423 million
  4. Seven News  –1.360 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.318 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.265 million
  7. Hot Seat (Nine) — 1.162 million
  8. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.138 million
  9. Ten News — 989,000
  10. House Rules (Wed, Seven in NSW and Queensland) — 983,000 

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.385 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 1.162 million
  3.  A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.087 million
  4. Seven News — 1.068 million 

Losers:  Ten — MasterChef Masterclass averaged 656,000 national/ 483,000 metro/ 173,000 regional viewers and deserved a bit more. It was informative. But after there was a “cold turkey” feeling compared with Wednesday night with the political dramas on all the networks and the football on Nine. 

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.385 million
  2. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.087 million
  3. Seven News (an hour in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) — 1.068 million
  4. ABC1 News — 936,000
  5. 7.30 (ABC1) – 745,000
  6. Ten News  — 724,000
  7. The Project (Ten) — 514,000
  8. Lateline (ABC1) — 253,000
  9. Today Tonight (Seven, Adelaide and Perth) — 250,000
  10. Ten Late News — 162,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Today (Nine) – 396,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) – 369,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 78,000 + 61,000 on News 24 

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Footy (4.4%)
  2. Sky News (2.5%)
  3. Fox 8 – 2.4%
  4. TV1 – 2.3%
  5. LifeStyle – 2.2%

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: West Coast v Essendon (Fox Footy) — 265,000
  2. River Cottage Australia (LifeStyle) – 110,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 94,000
  4. AFL: Thursday Night Footy (Fox Footy) — 93,000
  5. AFL: Thursday Night Footy (Fox Footy) — 84,000  

*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.