Seven ran dead last night — or at least that’s what it looks like by this morning’s ratings figures. The way was again clear for The Block to do well and lift Nine to top place for the night in metro and regional markets. The Block had 1.611 million national/ 1070 million metro/ 541,000 regional viewers. The half hour afterthought called The Block Unlocked at had 1.309 million national/830,000 metro/ 479,000 regional viewers.

An oddity of last night’s ratings is that in Brisbane, for the third night in a row, more people watched the Winter Games coverage on ONE than the combination The Project, The Biggest Loser and then the Winter Games from 8.30pm. If that’s not a big message from a key TV market that The Biggest Loser is for losers, then what is? The difference in shares for the two channels was large — ONE had 10.9% and Ten’s main channel had 9.8%. It is a repeat of what happened on Sunday night and Monday nights. It also happened in Perth on Sunday night as well.

In the morning Sunrise (319,000) and Today (318,000) ended up neck and neck yesterday — Sunrise lost viewers, Today added them. And Studio 10 and Wake Up on Ten are heading for their most consistent week since starting last year. The figures are not big, but they have been above 40,000 for each so far. And on pay TV, the good start to the first test against South Africa by Australia saw viewing numbers jump sharply to 344,000 on Fox Sports 3 for the first session and 295,000 for the second session of day two. Day one saw 266,000 tune in for the first session and 206,000 for the second. Pay TV had its second strong night in a row.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (30.5%)
  2. Seven (24.4%)
  3. Ten (23.8%)
  4. ABC (17.0%)
  5. SBS (4.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (21.5%)
  2. Seven (16.8%)
  3. Ten (12.8%)
  4. ABC1 (11.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. ONE (7.6%)
  2. GO (5.8%)
  3. 7mate (4.3%)
  4. Eleven (3.4%)
  5. 7TWO (3.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.611 million
  2. Nine News — 1.564 million
  3. Seven News — 1.520 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) – 1.377 million
  5. The Block Unlocked (Nine) — 1.309 million
  6. ABC News — 1.217 million
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.203 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.008 million
  9. Nine News 6.30 — 976,000
  10. QI repeat (ABC1) — 954,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.077 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 1.070 million

Losers: The night was weak, except for The Block and the foodie programs on SBS.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.077 million
  2. Seven News — 989,000
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 976,000
  4. Seven News / Today Tonight — 920,000
  5. ABC News — 843,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 830,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 678,000
  8. The Project 7 pm (Ten) — 415,000
  9. The Project 6.30 pm (Ten) — 350,000
  10. Lateline (ABC 1) — 160,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 319,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 318,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 157,000
  4. Mornings (Nine) — 78,000
  5. News Breakfast (ABC  1, 52,000 + 47,000 on News 24) — 99,000
  6. Wake Up (Ten) — 53,000
  7. Studio 10 (Ten) — 44,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 3 (9.3%)
  2. TVHITS! (2.5%)
  3. Fox 8, LifeStyle  (2.0%)
  4. A&E (1.9%)
  5. UKTV, Fox Footy  (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Cricket: 1st Test, South Africa v Aust (Fox Sports 3, 1st session) – 345,000
  2. Cricket: 1st Test, South Africa v Aust (Fox Sports 3, 2nd session) – 295,000
  3. Breaking Ground  (Fox Sports 3) –  183,000
  4. Cricket: 1st Test, South Africa v Aust (Fox Sports 3, 3rd session) – 106,000
  5. Inside Cricket (Fox Sports 3) – 97,000

*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.) and network reports.