The Block’s reveal night meant it was always going to be Nine’s night in metro (by a big margin) and regional markets (by a solid margin in the main channels). The Block jumped to 1.845 million, a new national high for this series, across the country including 1.355 million in the metros and nearly 500,000 in the regions.

Sunday Night  (1.642 million nationally) with Michelle Payne won over 60 Minutes (1.517 million nationally) with Ross Coulthart’s excellent report with the author who tracked down Michael Hand, and the program’s own vision of Mr Hand in the US — a real bit of 70’s retro journalism. So much for all the “investigations” by police and spooks in the wake of the Nugan Hand scandal. The search for Michael Hand looks like as big a scandal as the activities of the so-called ‘bank’. This will be a real test of Spy Catcher Turnbull, our newish Prime Minister. Will any of our spooks remember? Are any alive? Can the files be opened up?

The third session of the fourth day of the first test  between Australia and New Zealand was watched by more than 1.24 million people. It must have been a slow old afternoon around the country because there was not much play except in recorded highlights and studio talk as showers and storms halted play for most of the session.

In the morning Insiders was again dominant with 349,000 metro viewers. The Bolt Report an hour later at 10am had just 113,000. Nationally Insiders was far ahead, as usual.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (33.8%)
  2. Seven (28.0%)
  3. Ten (17.1%)
  4. ABC (13.8%)
  5. SBS (7.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (26.0%)
  2. Seven (19.5%)
  3. Ten (10.1%)
  4. ABC (9.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.1%)
  2. 7TWO (4.5%)
  3. Eleven (4.1%)
  4. 7mate (4.0%)
  5. ONE (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.845 million
  2. Nine News — 1.684 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.642 million
  4. Seven News — 1.615 million
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.517 million
  6. Cricket: 1st Test, Aust. v NZ, day 4, session 3 (Nine) — 1.246 million
  7. Beach Cops (Seven) — 1.210 million
  8. ABC News — 1.125 million
  9. The Cricket Show (Nine) — 819,000
  10. TBL Families (Ten) — 814,000

Top metro programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.355 million
  2. Nine News — 1.219 million
  3. Seven News — 1.069 million
  4. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.061 million
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.050 million

Losers: Viewers of The Bolt Report – getting fewer as the year goes on. The occasional pre-emption hasn’t helped Bolt this year, but its the broadness of the discussion on Insiders at 9am and its non-partisan and non-ideological nature that sees it winning the Sunday morning chats. Anyone who missed last night’s 60 Minutes – a good reaffirmation of the old values of this program and not some of the more modern lightweight reporting in a copy of A Current Affair.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.219 million
  2. Seven News — 1.069 million
  3. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.061 million
  4. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.050 million
  5. Ten Eyewitness News — 454,000
  6. SBS World News — 163,000

Morning TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC, 245,000, 104,000 on News 24) — 349,000
  2. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) – 300,000
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) – 287,000
  4. Landline (ABC) — 240,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) — 149,000
  6. The Bolt Report (Ten) — 113,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. A Place To Call Home (SoHo)  – 198,000
  2. V8 Supercars Auckland Race 30 (Fox Sports 5) — 146,000
  3. Supercars Live (Fox Sports 5) — 92,000
  4. Supercars Live (Fox Sports 5) — 75,000
  5. V8 Supercars Auckland Qual. Race 30 (Fox Sports 5) — 173,000

*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.