Seven’s night in the metros and regions for total people, the main channels and the demos, but a hole was detected in Just Desserts’ ratings.

In fact for the Sugar Castle (AKA Zumbo’s Just Desserts) the meringue went soggy. It lost 290,000 national viewers last night from its Monday night debut: 1.245 million against 1.535 million, and 250,000 of that loss came in the metros as the audience fell to 830,000 from 1.081 million. If that loss of audience is repeated tonight, the program will get the staggers.

The Block (AKA, another holiday in Melboring!) was 1.367 million nationally, down from Sunday night’s return, but steady on Monday. In the metros, 944,000 also down from Sunday night and just a touch lower (a few thousand) from Monday. It still topped the demos, but Seven had more viewers in the demos for its programs. Nine was a one program network last night which is an ongoing weakness.

Seven returned 800 Words to the line up after Just Desserts. It did well with 1.437 million nationally (adding more than 200,000 to the audience for Desserts), 877,000 in the metros and a very strong 560,000 in the regions which lifted it to third nationally.

And Ten started a lifestyle drama called Life In Pieces last night. This morning it should be called Ratings In Pieces after it flopped: 506,000 nationally with 379,000 in the metros and 126,000 in the regions. Even for Ten with its higher tolerance of lower ratings, those figures are rotten. The target demo — young female viewers — were off in NZ with 800 Words after pigging out on The Block and Just Desserts.

The top regional programs were Seven News with 602,000, Home and Away with 574,000, Seven News/Today Tonight, 529,000 and The Chase Australia 5.30 pm, 444,000. The Block had a solid 422,000 in the regions, Just Desserts, 415,000.

In the morning Today won metro Breakfast with 340,000 to Sunrise’s 322,000 (with the Games gone). But nationally Sunrise won. And Ten’s 7pm part of The Project had more metro viewers 746,000 than the 7pm ABC News with 711,000. ACA won the 7pm slot in the metros with 936,000 followed by Home and Away with 826,000. But nationally Home and Away won the slot from ACA, the 7pm ABC News and the 7pm Project.

Tonight: Will Just Desserts continue to enjoy the Mixmaster, or sink like a bad souffle? Gruen is back on the ABC, Nine has a very weak line up — RBT and then Skyfall, the Craig Bond movie. Ten has The Bachelor and his harem, plus the solid Offspring. But after Just Desserts, the highlight of the night is the UK produced The Durrells which is the story of their life on Corfu before WW2 (That’s All Creatures Great and Small Gerald Durrell and the Alexandra Quartet’s Lawrence (Larry) Durrell.) Gerald Durrell wrote three autobiographical books set on Corfu and the six part TV series is based on those. Could it be a little too British for local viewers.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (31.0%)
  2. Nine (27.6%)
  3. ABC (17.9%)
  4. Ten (16.1%)
  5. SBS (7.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (24.1%)
  2. Nine (18.3%)
  3. Ten (13.6%)
  4. ABC (13.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (5.0%)
  2. ABC2 (3.9%)
  3. Gem (3.2%)
  4. 7TWO (3.0%)
  5. GO (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.742 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.657 million
  3. 800 Words — 1.437 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.399 million
  5. Nine News — 1.379 million
  6. The Block (Nine) — 1.367 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.372 million
  8. Zumbo Just Desserts (Nine) — 1.245 million
  9. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.153 million
  10. Catalyst (ABC) — 1.068 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.140 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.128 million
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 1.022 million
  4. Nine News  — 1.010 million

Losers: Life In Pieces on Ten.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.140 million
  2. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.128 million
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.022 million
  4. Nine News — 1.010 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 936,000
  6. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 746,000
  7. ABC News – 711,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 707,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 528,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 483,000

Morning TV:

  1. Today (Nine) – 340,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) – 322,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC,  112,000 + 49,000 on News 24) — 161,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 144,00
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 120,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 94,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1 (3.5%)
  2. TVHITS  (2.4%)
  3. Fox 8  (1.9%)
  4. LifeStyle, Foxtel Movies Premiere (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 118,000
  2. Back Page (Fox Sports 1) — 95,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 73,000
  4. AFL: Open Mike (Fox Footy) — 70,000
  5. Paw Patrol (Nick Jr) – 60,000

*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.