Seven’s night in metro and regional markets as Dancing With The Stars returned in solid but unspectacular fashion with 1.957 million national/ 1.331 million metro/ 626,000 regional viewers that easily won the night because those were the ratings for three long hours from 7.30pm. Seven won 25 to 54s and 18 to 49’s. Nine (thanks to Big Brother) won 16 to 39s.

Of more interest was the whacking Nine’s Hot Seat (1.046 million national/ 663,000 metro/ 383,000 regional viewers) handed out to Seven’s newbie, Million Dollar Minute at 5.30pm (803,000 national/ 514,000 metro/ 289,000 regional viewers). That was a margin of more than 200,000 viewers. That had a dramatic impact in the 6pm news battle in metro markets where Nine also whacked Seven — in Sydney Nine News won, 400,000 to 286,000, in Melbourne it was 461,000 to 234,000 and in Brisbane it was 280,000 to 234,000 — a real shellacking.

And some praise for the first of a two partner on Foreign Correspondent by Sally Sara on a Canadian surgeon she had met while reporting in Afghanistan. It was simply excellent and the best story I have seen for years on the brutality of war and the damage it has done to non-combatant survivors. It showed up all those boy’s own stories on all networks from Australian crews and reporters embedded with ‘The Diggers’ and lot’s of talk about Australian military exceptionalism. Sally Sara’s story (like others from the US and UK), brought home the futility of this war with considerable humanity and made the very obvious point that other people from other countries were there and hurting as well. The Canadian surgeon probably operated on Australian troops as well.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (34.5%)
  2. Nine (24.7%)
  3. ABC (18.5%)
  4. Ten (16.6%)
  5. SBS (5.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (28.0%)
  2. Nine (18.2%)
  3. ABC 1 (13.8%)
  4. Ten  (10.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (?%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.3%)
  2. GO (3.8%)
  3. Eleven (3.4%)
  4. ABC 2 (2.9%)
  5. Gem (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Dancing With The Stars (Seven) — 1.957 million
  2. Nine News — 1.873 million
  3. Seven News — 1.809 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.519 million
  5. ABC  News — 1.496 million
  6. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.341 million
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.233 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.228 million
  9. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.111 million
  10. Foreign Correspondent (ABC1) — 1.077 million

Top metro programs:

  1.  Dancing With The Stars (Seven) — 1.331 million
  2. Nine News — 1.315 million
  3. Seven News — 1.191 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.076 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.076 million
  6. ABC News — 1.016 million

Losers: Nine for not putting up better programming. Ten’s Sleepy Hollow and Recipe To Riches. Both are programs that don’t really engage and hold an audience.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.315 million
  2. Seven News — 1.191 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.076 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) – 1.031 million
  5. ABC News — 1.016 million
  6. 7.30 (ABC 1) — 822,000
  7. Foreign Correspondent (ABC1) — 762,000
  8. Ten News — 633,000
  9. The Project (Ten) — 572,000
  10. Insight (SBS ONE) — 261,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 373,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 315,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1, 69,000 + 49,000 on News24) –118,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (3.2%)
  2. TV1  (2.8%)
  3. Fox Sports 1 (2.7%)
  4. LifeStyle (2.1%)
  5. Disney  1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Rugby League: The Dally M Awards (Fox Sports 1) – 190,000
  2. Family Guy (Fox 8 ) – 79,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox 8 ) – 71,000
  4. Modern Family (Fox 8 ) – 70,000
  5. Back Page (Fox Sports 1) – 69,000

Tonight: Seven starts its second major new US series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — a Marvel Comics spin-off which has become one of the early hits of the US season. Ten had another early US hit in Sleepy Hollow last night. Unfortunately it is not a hit here, with 705,000 national/ 461,000 metro/ 244,000 regional viewers from 8.30pm. The fate of Nine’s Hostages here has dimmed  after it took a second episode flogging on Monday night in the US from Seven’s The Blacklist which had 13.5 million viewers (and a big share of the key 18 to 49 group), to  to 5.99 million viewers (and a much smaller 18 to 49 share) for Hostages. Nine was to show Hostages tonight, but held it back a week. It is a 15 part series and may not reach the end on air  in America the way its audience is falling.

*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.