If Seven’s 6pm news bulletin beats Nine tonight in Sydney then it will have scored a rare Monday to Friday win over its rival in the country’s most competitive TV market, in the most competitive timeslot and in the most competitive part of the business — network news. This may sound like a side show, a non-event, but it isn’t. Sydney is HQ for the media companies and networks, it is the biggest revenue market by far and it dominates network thinking and ad selling. And with Seven’s share price slowly sinking, and Nine’s on the rise, this week’s performance is a rare ray of light for Seven towards the end of a bad year.

Seven won last night because The Good Doctor again delivered — 1.49 million national viewers — lower than the debut earlier in the week with 1.64 million, but as viewing levels are much lower on a Thursday evenings than Tuesday evenings, it was a more dominant ratings outcome for Seven, as the ratings show. Ten’s Gogglebox was again funny (and insightful) and got 871,000 nationally. Nine snuck the Stan series, Wolf Creek into the schedule at 9.30pm; it got 302,000 and deserved less. Ten started yet another comedy panel series, Cram! hosted by The Project‘s Peter Helliar. 770,000 nationally, which is OK, but how many will return next week? 

In the regions more good news for Seven: The Good Doctor topped with 540,000 viewers, then Seven News with 512,000, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 430,000, followed by Home and Away with 420,000 and the 7pm ABC News was fifth with 324,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (32.7%)
  2. Nine (22.7%)
  3. Ten (21.3%)
  4. ABC (15.8%)
  5. SBS (7.5%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (23.4%)
  2. Nine (16.3%)
  3. Ten (15.4%)
  4. ABC (9.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. ABC 2 (3.9%)
  2. 7TWO (3.8%)
  3. ONE (3.4%)
  4. 7mate (3.1%)
  5. Eleven (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Good Doctor (Seven) — 1.490 million
  2. Seven News  — 1.386 million
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.289 million
  4. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.061 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.058 million
  6. Nine/NBN News — 1.033 million
  7. 7pm ABC News — 1.006 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 989,000
  9. RBT repeat (Nine) — 905,000
  10. Gogglebox Australia (Ten) — 891,000

Losers: the ABC — a rats and mice night and the cats couldn’t be bothered to watch

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 874,000
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 859,000
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) —797,000
  4. Nine News — 792,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 690,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 682,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 492,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 466,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 412,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 348,000

Morning National TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 503,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 389,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, 179,000 + 83,000 on News 24) — 262,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 211,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 147,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 116,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 61,000
  2. Grand Designs (LifeStyle) — 58,000
  3. PML Overtime Sky News) — 52,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox8) — 47,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 42,000