Seven’s night because of the dominance of House Rules (2.279 million national/ 1.445 million metro/ 834,000 regional viewers).  The Big Bang Theory kept Nine in the game with more than 1.8 million viewers nationally for the fresh episode and over 1.5 million for the repeat. What Happens in Bali’s second episode helped Seven stay in front with more than 1.3 million viewers nationally.

So Seven won the metros (losing Melbourne to Nine), and was again a clear winner in the regionals. Ten was third in metros and the regions with NCIS its best performer with 1.210 million viewers nationally and 10th spot in the most-watched list. MasterChef was close behind with 1.193 million national viewers. The ABC was fourth in both the metros and the regions. Nine News again won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – the margin in Melbourne was a huge 146,000, in Brisbane it was just 1000 viewers and in Sydney, 70,000. In the mornings Sunrise was again clearly in front of Today — 355,000 to 298,000 in the metros. That is a real problem for Today.

After watching Foreign Correspondent at 8pm on ABC1  (804,000 national/ 545,000 metro/ 259,000 regional viewers) and then the Catalyst special on mega wildfires straight after (807,000 national/ 543,000 metro/ 264,000 regional viewers), I’m glad taxpayers are funding the ABC. Both programs showed why the partisan federal government, especially Senator Bernadi, Malcolm Turnbull and the rest of the front bench, are wrong in wanting to cut funding for the ABC. Both programs last night relied on talented ABC producers, reporters, other staff and executives to bring viewers stories that the better-resourced commercial networks can’t and won’t produce. Imagine the Seven Network, for instance, producing a story on the real events of Tiananmen Square when its owner Kerry Stokes is a big investor in China and a leading foreign business owner. The greenies won’t like the wildfires special from Catalyst, because of the evidence that precautionary use of fire can reduce the potency of wildfires. And that’s a good thing. The Chinese government won’t like the Foreign Correspondent story on the role of the Australian embassy 25 years ago today in Beijing. That was a real human rights test for the then Hawke Government, and it passed with flying colours. Can you imagine the Abbott Government taking a similar stance now and allowing 25,000 Chinese students to remain here?

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (31.3%)
  2. Nine (28.1%)
  3. Ten (19.8%)
  4. ABC (15.3%)
  5. SBS (5.5%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (23.0%)
  2. Nine (21.3%)
  3. Ten (15.0%)
  4. ABC1  (10.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.6%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (4.3%)
  2. GO (4.1%)
  3. 7TWO (4.0%)
  4. Eleven (2.8%)
  5. Gem (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. House Rules (Seven) – 2.279 million
  2. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.809 million
  3. Nine News — 1.789 million
  4. Seven News — 1.571 million
  5. The Big Bang Theory repeat (Nine) — 1.563 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.502 million
  7. What Really Happens in Bali (Seven) — 1.349 million
  8. ABC News — 1.243 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.236 million
  10. NCIS (Ten) — 1.210 million

Top metro programs:

  1. House Rules (Seven) – 1.446 million
  2. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.258 million
  3. Nine News — 1.226 million
  4. Seven News — 1.211 million
  5. Nine News 6.30 — 1.162 million
  6. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.105 million
  7. The Big Bang Theory repeat (Nine) — 1.076 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.076 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.010 million

Losers: When Love Comes To Town on Nine at 8.30pm. It had 981,000 national/ 657,000 metro/ 324,000 regional viewers. It should be entitled Why Viewers Cringe.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.226 million
  2. Seven News — 1.211 million
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 1.162 million
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.105 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 1.076 million
  6. ABC News — 835,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 658,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News – 619,000
  9. Foreign Correspondent (ABC1) — 545,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC1) — 529,000 *

*pre-empted in Brisbane by the state budget coverage which had 100,000 viewers.

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 355,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 298,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 150,000
  4. Mornings (Nine) — 125,000
  5. News Breakfast (ABC1,  85,000 + 37,000 on News 24) — 122,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 43,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (3.0%)
  2. TVHITS! (2.5%)
  3. LifeStyle  (2.02)
  4. Fox Sports 3 (1.8%)
  5. A&E (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Wentworth (SoHo) – 95,000
  2. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 86,000
  3. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 84,000
  4. The Great British Bake Off (LifeStyle) – 75,000
  5. NCIS (TVHITS!) – 69,000

*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.