Lleyton Hewitt worked his magic for yet another night for Seven, and will be back to do the same on Thursday. The little Aussie battler remains a big drawcard for the Australian viewing public. But as energetic as the match up between Hewitt (ranked 308 in the world) and fellow Aussie, James Duckworth (ranked 129th), the real battle was on another court where former champ Rafal Nadal went down in five fighting sets over more than four hours to fell Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in a match that made the Hewitt tussle look like park tennis. Verdasco was unseeded and Nadal was ranked fifth for this tournament. And in the women’s second seed, Simona Halep  was beaten 6-4 6-3 by Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai, ranked 133rd in the world. In terms of the importance to the titles, both were more important results that Hewitt’s win, but he provided the local colour and the ratings for Seven.

Apart from the tennis there was nothing else viewers wanted to watch apart form the various news and current affairs broadcasts from 6-8pm Then it was the tennis and off to bed. Today there’s tennis and the fourth ODI between Australia and India from Canberra (it’s a day-nighter). Apart from the Verdasco/Nadal match last night, the three ODI games so far have been among the sporting highlights of summer because of the high quality batting, the way the Indians have sprinted and how the underrated Australian team has hauled them in. The pink ball test from Adelaide against the Kiwis remains the sporting highlight/spectacle of the summer (for moi) so far. Also today the second stage of the our down under from Adelaide. Good racing in mad dog hot weather.

By the way, Ten’s Studio 10 yesterday morning racked the 100,000 mark for the first time with 101,000 viewers. Tennis highlights were on Seven, so no Morning Show, while Mornings (Summer) on Nine jumped to 141,000 viewers.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (37.4%)
  2. Nine (24.2%)
  3. Ten (16.5%)
  4. ABC (14.1%)
  5. SBS (7.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (29.7%)
  2. Nine (14.7%)
  3. Ten (10.7%)
  4. ABC (9.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.2%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (4.1%)
  2. 7TWO, ABC 2 3.6%)
  3. GO (3.5%)
  4. Eleven (3.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Tennis: Australian Open, Day 2 Night session (Seven) — 1.198 million
  2. The X Factor (Seven) — 1.597 million
  3. Nine News — 1.455 million
  4. Seven News — 1.414 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.348 million
  6. ABC News — 1.304 million
  7. The Block (Nine) — 1.185 million
  8. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.148 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.132 million
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 1.108 million

 

Losers: Anyone who didn’t like tennis or the news would have worked out very early there was nothing on.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 951,000
  2. Nine News — 925,000
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 898,000
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 888,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 790,000
  6. ABC News – 780,000
  7. 7.30 Summer (ABC) — 570,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 550,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 471,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 379,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 316,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 304,000
  3. Mornings (Nine) — 141,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  80,000 + 55,000 on News 24) — 155,000
  5. Studio 10 (Ten) — 101,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (3.2%)
  2. TVHITS  (2.4%)
  3. UKTV (1.7%)
  4. LifeStyle, Nick Jr  (1.6%))

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Simpsons (Fox8) — 95,000
  2. The Great British Bake-off (LifeStyle) — 86,000
  3. Modern Family (Fox 8) — 84,000
  4. Modern Family (Fox 8) — 79,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 78,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2016. 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.