Seven’s night, easily, as two hours of House Rules dominated the night with 2.391 million national/ 1.527 million metro/ 864,000 regional viewers. Seven won big in metro and regional markets, Ten was third (after a distant Nine) and the ABC was an equally distant fourth as its Wednesday night flops (Spicks and Specks and Jonah From Tonga) staggered onwards. Jonah From Tonga ended last night with a bit of tasering, which was a great image.

Nine’s line up last night looked very much patched together — three repeats of The Big Bang Theory (which kept Nine there or thereabouts) and then a new ep of that tired US hit, CSI. That’s a cost cutting line up if ever there was one. Ten’s MasterChef did ok (but down slightly on last week). It had 1.161 million national/ 847,000 metro/ 314 regional viewers. Eagle-eyed readers might notice that House Rules’ regional audience of 864,000 was bigger than MasterChef’s metro audience. Offspring was solid with 1.048 million national/ 804,000 metro/ 244,000 regional viewers. It’s not being supported as strongly by regional viewers as it is in the metro markets.

But House Rules dragged on and on last night — two whole hours of it.  Like Nine’s mid evening line up, the long House Rules episode It looked like a cost saving by Seven. The extra hour to 45 minutes meant the network saved money by not having to use a program from 8.30 or 8.45pm, and made more money by being able to charge high prices for ads from 8.30pm onwards because of House Rules’ high ratings. It finished at 8.45 on Tuesday night, against 9.30  last night.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (36.1%)
  2. Nine (25.8%)
  3. Ten (19.4%)
  4. ABC (13.5%)
  5. SBS (5.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (27.7%)
  2. Nine (17.4%)
  3. Ten (14.1%)
  4. ABC1 (8.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (?%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. GO (4.9%)
  2. 7TWO, 7mate (4.2%)
  3. Gem (3.5%)
  4. Eleven (3.2%)
  5. ABC 2 (2.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. House Rules (Seven) – 2.391 million
  2. Nine News — 1.750 million
  3. Seven News — 1.592 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) – 1.586 million
  5. MasterChef Australia (Ten) — 1.161 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.157 million
  7. The Big Bang Theory repeat episode 2 (Nine) — 1.145 million
  8. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.136 million
  9. The Big Bang Theory repeat episode 2 (Nine) — 1.109 million
  10. Nine News 6.30 — 1.103 million

Top metro programs:

  1. House Rules (Seven) – 1.527 million
  2. Seven News — 1.226 million
  3. Nine News — 1.185 million
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.136 million
  5. Nine News 6.30 — 1.103 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.009 million

Losers: Spicks and Specks on ABC1 (486,000 national/ 309,000 metro/ 177,000 regional viewers). Jonah From Tonga on ABC1 (337,000 national/ 245,000 metro/ 92,000 regional viewers), The Good Wife on Ten (520,000 national/ 382,000 metro/ 138,000 regional viewers). The solid performance of Offspring is not helping The Good Wife. Spicks and Specks’ national audience last night of 486,000 was a weak night in metro markets earlier in this series.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.226 million
  2. Nine News — 1.185 million
  3. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.136 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.103 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 968,000
  6. ABC News — 753,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News — 668,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC1) – 592,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 590,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 417,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 363,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 275,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 148,000
  4. Mornings (Nine) — 114,000
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1,  60,000 + 40,000 on News 24) — 100,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 49,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TVHITS! (2.7%)
  2. Fox 8  (2.6%)
  3. LifeStyle  (2.4%)
  4. A&E (1.8%)
  5. Fox Classics (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 90,000
  2. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 83,000
  3. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 71,000
  4. AFL: Bounce (Fox Footy) – 69,000
  5. Barry’D Treasure (A&E) – 62,000

*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.