A most curious night as Seven seems to have sacrificed the night to broadcast an AFL game in Adelaide (Crows v the Cats), leaving the schedule in other markets weak and disjointed. So Nine won with The Block clearly on top with more than 1.6 million national viewers and over 1.1million in metro markets. Seven was second and the ABC third, with Ten again fourth, but a touch stronger. In regional markets Seven had a small overall winning margin over Nine, which had a bigger margin in the main channels and the demos over Seven. The ABC and ABC1 had big margins over Ten in metro and regional markets.

The AFL game averaged 180,000 on Seven in Adelaide — 10,000 more than Sunday night’s game involving Port Adelaide, which won. (It also averaged 252,000 on Fox Footy on pay TV). Seven naturally won Adelaide by a mile. It also won Perth. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane by big margins. The Checkout (1.194 million national/ 799,000 metro/ 395,000 regional viewers) on ABC1 maintained the high standards of both series last night. Kristen Drysdale is becoming a star. Julian Morrow is one. The Checkout is the sort of consumer program that poor old A Current Affair can only dream about these days. Janet King ( 1.135 million national/ 728,000 metro / 407,000 regional viewers) is excellent — but Rake has been making the same point, but with humour, for three series now.

Ten buried So You Think You Can Dance Australia on Thursday night, but viewers spotted it and it did poorly, as it did on Sunday nights. It averaged 427,000 national/ 318,000 metro/ 109,000 regional viewers.  Ten also missed a great chance yesterday afternoon to start showing it is changing by refusing to go to the live briefing in Canberra on those ‘wreckage bits found in the southern Indian Ocean’. Seven, Nine, News 24 all did. Ten stayed with Entertainment Tonight. That was a mistake, regardless of what might be found. It was a big news story. The question is, did Ten have the resources in Canberra to do a live cross at such short notice? So, Ten’s failure means time’s running out for Peter Meakin to have an impact at Ten. Meakin got Seven to understand the importance of things like taking news seriously a decade ago. Even SBS took Al Jazeera English (AJE) and went live. CNN took the Seven Network feed.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (30.7%)
  2. Seven (29.3%)
  3. ABC (20.2%)
  4. Ten (15.1%)
  5. SBS (4.8%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (23.6%)
  2. Seven (21.8%)
  3. ABC 1 (13.3%)
  4. Ten (10.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.9%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (4.5%)4
  2. GO (4.0%)
  3. ABC2 (3.4%)
  4. 7TWO, Eleven, Gem (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.690 million
  2. Nine News — 1.582 million
  3. Seven News — 1.423 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.255 million *
  5. ABC News  – 1.219 million
  6. The Checkout (ABC1) — 1.194 million
  7. Border Security (Seven) — 1.177 million
  8. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.156 million
  9. Janet King (ABC1) — 1.135 million
  10. Air Crash Investigations (Seven) — 1.049 million

*pre-empted in Adelaide

Top metro programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.121 million
  2. Nine News — 1.083 million
  3. Seven News — 1.073 million

Losers: Viewers generally, Apart from The Block on Nine and The Checkout and Janet King on ABC 1, it was pretty lean night for viewing..Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.083 million
  2. Seven News — 1.073 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) – 1.147 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 936,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 845,000
  6. Seven News / Today Tonight — 839,000
  7. ABC News  – 807,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC1) — 761,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 467,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 303,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 312,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 277,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 137,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1, 63,000 + 35,000 on News 24) — 100,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 87,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 46,000
  7. Wake Up (Ten) — 36,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Footy (4.7%)
  2. LifeStyle, Fox 8 (2.5%)
  3. TVHITS!  (2.1%)
  4.  Sky News (2.1%)
  5. UKTV  (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: Geelong v Adelaide (Fox Footy) – 252,000
  2. AFL: Thursday Night Footy (Fox Footy) – 90,000
  3. Grand Designs (LifeStyle) — 72,000
  4. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 65,000
  5. Coronation Street (UKTV) – 60,000

*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.