Nine’s night in metro and regional markets. Ten was third and the ABC was fourth, except in the regional main channels where viewers gave Ten the thumbs down and liked the ABC’s underwhelming offerings instead. Nine’s The Block Glasshouse again dominated the night with 1.707 million national, 1.151 million metro and 556,000 regional viewers.

But is Wednesday the grubbiest night of the week on free to air TV? How else can you describe the confected rubbish masquerading as a TV program called The Bachelor on Ten at 7.30pm? It lowers the tone of the entire night. The Bachelor was the 10th most program watched nationally and in the metros, but the 17th in the regions. They have good judgement in rural Australia and poor taste in the metros, well, among the 16-to-49 age demographic females who are the program’s biggest supporters. It’s one long February 14 of the worst possible kind.

Over on ABC, the disappointment continued with Utopia and Reality Check (although the latter was marginally better last night when they moved into the area of Asian contestants on reality programs). Utopia (706,000 national/ 566,000 metro/ 221,000 regional viewers) and Reality Check (577,000 national/ 411,000 metro/167,000 regional viewers). Neither are as yukky as The Bachelor, so the smaller audiences were more down to their later timeslots and older appeal (especially in the regions). And how weak is Wonderland on Ten? Well, a third of The Bachelor‘s audience abandoned Ten when Wonderland started — it averaged 696,000 national, 536,000 metro, 160,000 regional TV.

At 6pm Nine News had some big wins over Seven in Sydney by 138,000, Melbourne by 119,000 and Brisbane by a smaller 31,000. In the morning though Seven’s Sunrise beat Today by more than 100,000 metro viewers — 378,000 to 276,000, as Sunrise’s US jaunt continues to pay off. And keep an eye on Studio 10 on Ten, there’s been a notable weakening of its figures in the past couple of weeks — it averaged 41,000 metro viewers yesterday, which takes us back to the bad old days of Wake Up!

Network channel share:

  1. Nine  (30.8%)
  2. Seven (30.7%)
  3. Ten (19.3%)
  4. ABC (15.2%)
  5. SBS (4.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (21.6%)
  2. Seven (20.0%)
  3. Ten (13.9%)
  4. ABC 1 (10.6%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.2%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (6.4%)
  2. 7TWO (6.1%)
  3. 7mate (4.6%)
  4. Eleven (3.3%)
  5. ABC 2 (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Block Glasshouse  (Nine) – 1.707 million
  2. Nine News — 1.675 million
  3. The Force (Seven) — 1.391 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) – 1.374 million
  5. Seven News — 1.358 million
  6. Border Security (Seven) — 1.324 million
  7. Criminal Minds (Seven) — 1.205 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.189 million
  9. ABC News — 1.136 million
  10. The Bachelor (Ten) — 1.100 million

Top metro programs:

  1. The Block Glasshouse  (Nine) – 1.151 million
  2. Nine News — 1.137 million
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 1.093 million
  4. Seven News — 1.050 million
  5. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.033 million

Losers: All those people, mostly young women, who watched the rubbishy The Bachelor.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.137 million
  2. Nine News 6.30 — 1.093 million
  3. Seven News — 1.050 million
  4. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.033 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 992,000
  6. ABC News  – 759,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 679,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News —  618,000
  9. 7.30 (ABC) — 592,000
  10. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 484,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 378,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 276,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 160,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC  70,000 + 45,000 on News 24) — 115,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 110,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 41,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (3.0%)
  2. TV1  (2.3%)
  3. LifeStyle  (2.0%)
  4. UKTV (1.8%)
  5. Fox Classics (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Recruit (F0x8) – 119,000
  2. Family Guy (Fox8) – 89,000
  3. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 88,000
  4. NCIS (TVHITS!) – 80,000
  5. Family Guy (Fox8) – 76,000

*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.