A night of firsts. Not only did we have a big winner on Seven’s Million Dollar Minute (and hopefully another on tonight’s show), but Nine’s The Voice suffered its first national loss (it won the metros) to Seven’s House Rules. House Rules succeeded where Australia’s Got Talent failed for Seven in the past. Yes, it was a room reveal on House Rules and just a bit of normal weeknight warbling on The Voice, but it shows what Seven is using House Rules for —  to blunt the audiences of the Nine mega-hit. It also shows the continuing high level of support for House Rules in regional markets.

Lisa scored a half a Million Dollar Minute. And so did the Seven News. But Seven News still lost Sydney and Melbourne to Nine News. Million Dollar Minute had 1.137 million national / 737,000 metro / 400,000 regional viewers. Nine’s Hot Seat had 1.038 million national / 671,000 metro/ 367,000 regional viewers. Q&A got a nice boost from Treasurer Joe Hockey by himself — it had 1.124 million national viewers on ABC1 and News 24 last night. The budget interest remains in the ether, a week after Joe’s big night out.

The Voice reverted to its now usual Monday night audience (2.345 million national/  1.684 million metro/ 661,000 regional viewers), but House Rules did just a little bit better thanks to a 200,000 winning margin in the regions.(2.350 million national/ 1.487 million metro/ 863,000 regional viewers) for the house reveal. It’s back to “normal” tonight for House Rules, and a lower audience.

Nine won a much closer night from Seven in the metros, with the ABC firmly in third and Ten fourth with a metro main channel share of just 9.1% (and just 6.4% in regional markets). In the regions, Seven crunched Nine and won easily thanks to The Voice being whacked by House Rules. ABC was a clear third, Ten a distant fourth. MasterChef couldn’t crack the million national viewer market and ended with 980,000 national / 748,000 metro / 232,000 regional viewers. Squeeze, squeeze, squeezed!

And it won’t be long for Wake Up over at Ten. And at Nine, no sign of Big Brother this year. Nine has already axed Australia’s Got Talent after one season. Australia’s Got Talent used to be on Seven, but they dropped it. Big Brother used to be on Ten, but they dropped it. Other networks’ hand-me-downs don’t work.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (32.0%)
  2. Seven (30.9%)
  3. ABC (19.1%)
  4. Ten (13.7%)
  5. SBS (4.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (25.5%)
  2. Seven (23.8%)
  3. ABC1 (14.4%)
  4. Ten (9.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.3%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. GO, 7TWO (4.0%)
  2. 7mate (3.1%)
  3. Eleven (2.7%)
  4. ABC 2 (2.6%)
  5. Gem (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. House Rules (Seven) — 2.350 million
  2. The Voice (Nine) — 2.345 million
  3. Nine News — 1.807 million
  4. Seven News — 1.692 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.600 million
  6. The Big Bang Theory repeat (Nine) — 1.523 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.502 million
  8. ABC News– 1.241 million
  9. Revenge (Seven) — 1.231 million
  10. Nine News6.30 — 1.208 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The Voice (Nine) — 1.684 million
  2. House Rules (Seven) — 1.487 million
  3. Seven News — 1.298 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.277 million
  5. Nine News — 1.243 million
  6. Nine News 6.30 — 1.208 million
  7. Seven News / Today Tonight — 1.132 million
  8. The Big Bang Theory repeat (Nine) — 1.045 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.010 million

Losers: Ten. A bad night. Seven, hopefully it will lose a million bucks tonight to Lisa on Million Dollar Minute.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.298 million
  2. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.277 million
  3. Nine News — 1.243 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.208 million
  5. Seven News / Today Tonight — 1.132 million
  6. ABC News — 856,000
  7. Q&A (ABC1, 721,000 + 101,000 News 24) — 822,000
  8. Four Corners (ABC1) — 816,000
  9. Media Watch (ABC1) — 800,000
  10. Australian Story (ABC1) — 757,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 370,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 299,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 182,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1,  75,000 + 49,000 on News 24) — 124,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 98,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 45,000
  7. Wake Up (Ten) — 26,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1 (2.8%)
  2. TV1, Fox 8  (2.2%)
  3. Showcase (1.8%)
  4. LifeStyle  (2.0%)
  5. Fox Footy (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Manly v Newcastle  (Fox Sports 1) – 204,000
  2. Game of Thrones repeat (Showcase) — 142,000
  3. Game of Thrones (Showcase) — 136,000
  4. Monday Night With Matty Johns (Fox Sports 1) – 120,000
  5. AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 101,000

Tonight: There will only be one program to watch, and that’s at 5.30pm, just before ratings start at 6pm. Seven’s Million Dollar Minute sees single mother Lisa (not Sarah, as I wrongly wrote last week) going for a million bucks. Eat your heart out Eddie Hot Seat McGuire. Winning  that would be like winning MasterChef four times, and far more satisfying to watch because of who Lisa is. I suppose its one way to avoid the nasties for single parents in Joe Hockey’s Federal Budget? She’s the first Million Dollar Minute contestant at the ultimate stage. If she wins, she will be a great “feel good” story. She is the first person to reach the ultimate MDM round.

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