Two days of ratings to round up and the Morse code links and pedal wireless backup with Perth has been restored by teams of diligent engineers who travelled overnight on camel express to reach the site of the breakdown.

The glitch with Tuesday’s ratings in Perth deprived Ten of its morning of glory yesterday with a solid end to the season for TBL Families. While Seven won Total People, Ten won the main channels on what was a weak night where TBL stood out with well over 1.34 million national viewers.

If anything, last night it was even more taxing for viewers. Horizontal was the correct position to view last night’s offerings, with the eyes closed. Not even the confected lace and silk of the Victoria Secret’s bra and panty perv-a-thon could convince me to remain upright and awake. From what I saw, it made Christmas With the Women’s Weekly look like real brain fodder. The panty parade had 408,000 national viewers, except in on WIN in regional areas of Queensland, Southern NSW, Tasman and regional WA where it was marked as a repeat and had 102,000 viewers.

The Would I Lie to You Christmas Special on ABC stood out as a beacon of intelligent life, even though it was a repeat. It managed 595,000 national viewers!

Cate Blanchett also stood out on the AACTA Awards on Seven. Her speech in real time was more dramatic according to this morning’s reports than what we saw last night. So will Seven suffer if she wins an Oscar next two —  she has two contending films? The Awards managed 618,000 national viewers and easily beat the panties on parade on Nine and WIN.

Seven’s Home and Away ended with the expected dramatic bang last night, the murder of the scheming ‘older woman, a blonde’. It saw the program top the night with 1.383 million national, 824,000 metro (first time above 800,000 for weeks) and 560,000 regional viewers (who saved the program from collapse this year with their continuing strong support). But here’s a little comparison to keep in mind: the 1.383 million viewers was only 35,000 more than what Home and Away rated back on September 15 (1.348 million) when 800 Words premiered later in the night (too far away to have an impact on Home and Away). Home and Away needs reviving in 2016, and that will probably be Seven’s biggest challenge because it is a consistent performer, and enormous revenue generator offshore.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (28.12%)
  2. Nine (27.6%)
  3. Ten (19.2%)
  4. ABC (16.0%)
  5. SBS (9.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (19.0%)
  2. Nine (18.9%)
  3. Ten (12.5%)
  4. ABC  (9.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.1%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (5.3%)
  2. ABC 2 (3.9%)
  3. 7mate (3.8%)
  4. ONE (3.6%)
  5. GO (3.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.383 million
  2. Seven News — 1.274 million
  3. Nine News — 1.255 million
  4. ABC News — 1081 million
  5. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.006 million
  6. The Chase Australia – 5.30pm (Seven) — 958,000
  7. Ready For Takeoff (Nine) — 928,000
  8. Nine News 6.30 — 925,000
  9. 7.30 (ABC) — 914,000
  10. A Current Affair (Nine) — 905,000

Losers: No programs with a million or more metro viewers on a Wednesday night tells us that summer is almost here and viewer ennui is spreading. I have it now … zzz?Metro news and current affairs:

  1.  Seven News — 997,000
  2.  Seven News/Today Tonight — 957,000
  3.  Nine News (6.30pm) — 925,000
  4.  Nine News — 925,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 762,000
  6. ABC News – 756,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 624,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 515,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 463,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 456,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 350,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 330,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 160,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  104,000 + 54,000 on News 24) — 158,000
  5. Mornings – Summer (Nine) — 106,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 54,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (2.9%)
  2. TVHITS  (2.5%)
  3. UKTV (2.2%)
  4.  LifeStyle (2.1%)
  5. Arena (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Flash (Fox8) – 81,000
  2. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 81,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 69,000
  4. Real Housewives of Beverley Hills (Arena) — 63,000
  5. Family Guy (Fox8) — 48,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2014. 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.