Last night was a tale of two sets of TV ratings. In the metros The Bachelor (helped by Gogglebox Australia) did the business for Ten, although the size of the audience for the decision and the lead up (Finale) were down on last year. But in regional Australia there was a completely different result with the night won by Seven, fairly easily. In the metros Ten won with an overall share of 26.3% from Nine on 25.8% and Seven on 24.4%. In the metros it was Seven on 30.0%, Nine on 24.5% and Ten on 23.9%. In the main channels (where all the big money and audiences occur), the metros were won by Ten with 20.6%, from Nine on 19.6% and Seven on 16.1%. But in the regions, Seven won the main channels with 19.7%, from Nine on 17.7% and Ten on 16.7%.The Bachelor is a metro-skewing format and just doesn’t do as well in the regions.

So in the metros, the decision part of the final episode last night topped the most watched list with 1.324 million, but that was well down on 2015’s 1.482 million. The finale lead up was watched by 1.103 million, against 1.228 million a year ago. Perhaps the core audience didn’t warm to last night’s final two: Nikki and Alex. Perhaps it was Ritchie’s attitude (he crudely told Kyle and Jackie O on Sydney radio this morning, according to News.com.au, “There was so much built up tension, it was three months of having the biggest blue balls in Australia. To get to the finale was great”.

That is a bit too graphic. Now I suppose there will be the dummy spits, and “I was wrong” stories, as we have seen in past years? Sam Frost who has been there before in this meat market biz (on The Bachelor and the first The Bachelorette), appeared to be a bit concerned at Ritchie’s choice on Sydney radio this morning. Why do I feel this after program stuff is as confected as the program itself?

Nationally The Bachelor’s decision audience of 1.794 million was around 140,000 less than 2015’s series high of 1.939 million. The Finale audience of 1.473 million was also down on last year’s 1.596 million. But both were still very solid figures. Gogglebox Australia benefited from that lead-up and had an audience of 1.042 million, which was also very solid.

In the regions, Seven News was the top program with 610,000 viewers, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 462,000, The Bachelor decision was third with 470,000, then came The 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia with 465,000 and fifth was home and away with 459,000. Those figures in part tell us why Seven won the regions so clearly last night. The Bach was OK, but only the decision. There was a 101,000 turn on in regional areas to the decision from the finale, less than half the 221,000 who turned on for the decision in the metros. — Click here to read Glenn Dyer’s full TV ratings.