Steady as she went last night. Seven won the metros and regionals from Nine, with Ten third and the ABC fourth. With House Rules in the line up, it was always going to a good night for Seven. Ten’s MasterChef  Australia did OK, Offspring did well, but Nine’s When Love Comes To Town didn’t and is approaching Ten’s usual ratings standard for dud shows. House Rules again did extra well in the regionals, as you can see by the figures from last night — it had 2.211 million national/ 1.376 million metro/ 835,000 regional viewers, which was easily the highest regional figure last night. MasterChef Australia should have really topped the million viewer mark in the metros, but it didn’t. Still it had 1.1140 million national/ 828,000 metro/ 286,000 regional viewers. Offspring was solid for Ten with 1.095 million national / 827,000 metro / 268,000 regional viewers.

Nine’s 6pm News again whacked Seven’s News — in Sydney it won by 124,000; 103,000 in Melbourne and 26,000 in Brisbane. In the morning Sunrise beat Today, but Ten’s stumbling Studio 10 dipped back into death valley with just 34,000 national viewers.

The ABC’s Wednesday night line up after 8pm is now a mess — a couple of years ago it was one of its best nights. At the moment it is as weak as Ten was in prime time — dud shows like the remake of Spicks and Specks managed just 371,000 metro viewers at 8.30pm, Jonah from Tonga just 289,000 metro viewers. It’s boring even Chris Lilley’s core audience. That was after 7.30 (631,000 metro viewers) ands QI at 8pm (557,000) gave ABC1 a solid start. ABC ‘s Director of TV, Richard Finlayson took his senior staff on an “away day” last Friday (i.e. out of the office) to talk about ratings, with so-called expert and consultants brought in to help them think about TV. The answer is very simple — he has to give ABC TV leadership and that involves finding interesting programs and taking risks (no more character re-hashes from Chris Lilley, please!) or reworked old hits like Spicks and Specks.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (33.1%)
  2. Nine (26.3%)
  3. Ten (20.3%)
  4. ABC (14.9%)
  5. SBS (5.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (23.5%)
  2. Nine (17.3%)
  3. Ten (14.7%)
  4. ABC1  (9.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.2%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.2%)
  2. 7TWO (4.9%)
  3. 7mate (4.7%)
  4. Gem (3.8%)
  5. ABC2 (3.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. House Rules (Seven) – 2.211. million
  2. Nine News — 1.797 million
  3. Seven News — 1.560 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) – 1.453 million
  5. The Goldbergs episode 1 (Seven) — 1.430 million
  6. The Big Bang Theory repeat episode 2 (Nine) — 1.217 million
  7. The Big Bang Theory repeat episode 1 (Nine) — 1.186 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.168 million
  9. ABC News– 1.118 million
  10. The Goldbergs episode 2 (Seven) — 1.117 million

Top metro programs:

  1. House Rules (Seven) – 1.376 million
  2. Nine News — 1.214 million
  3. Seven News — 1.156 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.077 million
  5. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.061 million

Losers: When Love Comes To Town on Nine — 791,000 national/ 511,000 metro/ 280,000 regional viewers. This rubbish should not be on our screens. Spicks and Specks on ABC1 — 562,000 national/ 372,000 metro/ 190,000 regional viewers. It’s gone, but dying badly.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.214 million
  2. Seven News — 1.156 million
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 1.077 million
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.061 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 951,000
  6. ABC News — 779,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News — 635,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC1) –631,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 620,000
  10. The Project 6.30 (Ten) — 424,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 359,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 301,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) —  151,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1  65,000 + 44,000 on News 24) — 109,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 105,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 34,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (2.7%)
  2. TVHITS!  (2.4%)
  3. LifeStyle  (2.3%)
  4. Fox Classics (2.1%)
  5. UKTV (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 100,000
  2. AFL: Bounce (Fox Footy) — 86,000
  3. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 60,000
  4. Midway (Fox Classics), Dance Moms (LifeStyle) – 56,000
  5. NCIS (TVHITS!) – 53,000

*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.