The worm turns, there’s life after death, or the Ten Network is still alive (but it is still dying, slowly) — whatever the metaphor, Ten showed up its rivals last night with a very solid performance. Or rather, the absence of the usual heavy hitters on Nine (The Voice) and Seven (House Rules) left the way open for Ten to sneak home in the main channels and run second to Seven in total people. We can add that to the second-tier programs (and third in a couple of cases) on Nine and Ten, plus Nine running a little comatose with its week’s hopes built on the second State of Origin game in Sydney tonight.

MasterChef managed 1.256 million viewers nationally last night and was the sixth most watched program. Ten’s Shark Tank sneaked into 10th nationally with a solid 1.023 million. But Seven and Nine News were the top programs in regional, metro and nationally, so it was on the whole a boring night for viewers after 7pm. Seven’s First Dates ended with 864,000 (that’s for the local version from 7.30pm). The UK original from 8.40pm fell to a national figure of 576,000, which didn’t help Seven one bit. Nine’s Love Child continued its weak run this time out with 769,000 at 8.30pm. And ignore Origin — watch Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell at 8.30 tonight on ABC. You can catch the rest of Origin from 9pm — there will still be an hour or so to go — if you want a bit of biffo.

The top programs in the regions were again dominated by Seven with Seven News on top as usual with 702,000 viewers. Seven News/Today Tonight was on 562,000, then Home and Away in third with 532,000, The 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia was fourth with 462,000 and the 7pm ABC News was fifth with 355,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (26.5%)
  2. Ten (25.9%)
  3. Nine (23.8%)
  4. ABC (16.9%)
  5. SBS (6.8%)

Network main channels:

  1. Ten (17.7%)
  2. Seven (17.1%)
  3. Nine (16.8%)
  4. ABC (11.6%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.2%)

Top 5 digital channels:

  1. Eleven (4.3%)
  2. 7mate (4.0%)
  3. ONE(3.9%)
  4. 7TWO (3.4%)
  5. ABC (3.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.785 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.610 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.388 million
  4. Nine/NBN News (6.30pm) — 1.325 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.288 million
  6. MasterChef Australia (Ten) — 1.256 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.138 million
  8. ABC News — 1.0904 million
  9. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.084 million
  10. Shark Tank (Ten) — 1.023 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.083 million
  2. Nine News — 1.069 million
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.048 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.014 million

Losers: Viewers who watched Nine last night.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.083 million
  2. Nine News — 1.069 million
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.048 million
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.014 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 826,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 735,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 593,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 570,000
  9. Ten News — 467,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 356,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 513,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 431,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC,  170,000 + 94,000 on News 24) — 270,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 229,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 179,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 127,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TVHITS  (3.0%)
  2. Fox Classics (2.0%)
  3. Sky News, Fox8  (1.8%)
  4. Fox Footy, Nick Jr (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Wentworth (Showcase) — 119,000
  2. AFL: Hall Of Fame (Fox Footy) — 77,000
  3. AFL: Hall Of Fame (Fox Footy) — 76,000
  4. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 76,000
  5. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 71,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. 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.