A weak night overall in TV last night. Nothing grabbed viewers and the top programs were all news and current affairs programs from Nine and Seven. Nine won the metros overall and the main channels. Seven was a weak second, the ABC a solid third, Ten a weak fourth (but ahead of 2014). In the regionals, Seven won overall, Nine won the main channels, the ABC was third and Ten back in fourth. Nine scooped the demos as well.

Q&A had a government frontbencher last night, which disrupted the flow. Q&A had 837,000 national viewers — that still dominated the post 9.30pm viewing.

The Great Australian Spelling Bee on Ten saw a sharp slide in audiences from last week’s start. In fact last night’s national figure of 849,000 (655,000 metro, 195,000 regional) was down a third from last week’s 1.267 million (921,000 metro, 347,000 regional). It’s now at a farcical stage asking young children to guess words that most of those producing the program and running Ten would struggle with.  Ten should know better, but they don’t. In the morning Today had its biggest metro win over Sunrise — 342,000 to 318,000 for months.

Tonight at 7 on Seven, much-needed gunshots at Home and Away (sagging in the metros by 200,000 or so and more a night). Will the ratings revive?

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (30.0%)
  2. Seven (25.8%)
  3. ABC (20.3%)
  4. Ten (17.9%)
  5. SBS (6.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (23.3%)
  2. Seven (16.6%)
  3. ABC (15.4%)
  4. Ten (12.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.2%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (5.5%)
  2. GO (3.8%)
  3. ABC 2, 7mate (3.7%)
  4. Gem (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.679 million
  2. ABC News –1.302 million
  3. Seven News — 1.297million
  4. The Hot Plate  (Nine) – 1.297 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.270 million
  6. 7.30 (ABC) — 1.259 million
  7. House Husbands (Nine) — 1.208 million
  8. Australian Story (ABC) — 1.201 million
  9. Highway Patrol (Seven) — 1.188 million
  10. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.159 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.208 million
  2. Nine News 6.30 — 1.140 million
  3. Seven News — 1.021 million
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.005 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.003 million

Losers: Ten’s Great Australian Spelling Bee: L-O-S-T  V-I-E-W-E-R-S, O-H D-E-A-R.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.208 million
  2. Nine News 6.30 — 1.140 million
  3. Seven News — 1.021 million
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.005 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.003 million
  6. 7pm ABC News —853,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 834,000
  8. Australian Story (ABC) — 800,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 629,000
  10. Ten Eyewitness News — 627,000

Morning TV:

  1. Today (Nine) — 342,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) — 318,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 146,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  97,000 + 34,000 on News 24) — 131,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 128,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 56,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1 (3.3%)
  2. Fox8  (2.1%)
  3. TV HITS  (2.0%)
  4. UKTV (1.8%)
  5. A&E (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Canberra V Wests (Fox Sports 1) — 267,000
  2. Monday Night With Matty Johns (Fox Sports 1) — 143,000
  3. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 131,000
  4. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 82,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 81,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2015. 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.