An average night of viewing. Seven and Nine shared the spoils (if you can call them that) in metro and regional markets.

But it was also a night in which the second part of ABC  three partner on the National Party — A Country Road — shone like a lonely beacon of quality. Good, intelligent TV which reminded us that what we have seen in the past four years in Australian politics had nothing on the late 1980s or the early years of the Howard government. And it reminded us how brave Tim Fischer was in fighting for John Howard’s gun laws and how familiar the antics and reaction to those proposals were to the opposition to the carbon and mining taxes, and how gutless Labor, the Liberals and the Nationals were this time round. There isn’t one political leader of the past six or seven years who has shown the political courage that Tim Fischer (and John Howard, but he had it easier with the Liberal Party) showed on gun control — and that includes the current Prime Minister and Opposition Leader. Political midgets all of them unlike Howard and Fischer (and people like Kim Beazley).

The program also confirmed what a rabble rousing megalomanic former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen was and what a gutless bunch of people he had around him, including Clive Palmer. Mr Palmer showed his true colours then and he hasn’t changed one bit. We have seen that in recent weeks and his appearance on Kitchen Cabinet on ABC last night couldn’t erase the grubbiness you felt from watching him a bit later in A Country Road, or at the National Press Club earlier this week. A Country Road must have hit a chord — its national and metro audiences jumped last week. Nationally it had 822,000 viewers, up from 718,000 for the first episode last Tuesday night. Its metro audience rose to 570,000 from 483,000. Kitchen Cabinet had 1.077 million national viewers. A Country Road showed the true, opportunistic Clive Palmer.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (28.2%)
  2. Seven (23.4%)
  3. Ten (22.7%)
  4. ABC (19.2%)
  5. SBS (6.5%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (18.4%)
  2. Seven (16.2%)
  3. Ten (16.0%)
  4. ABC (14.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.3%)
  2. Gem (4.5%)
  3. 7mate (3.7%)
  4. ONE (3.6%)
  5. 7TWO (3.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.380 million
  2. Home and Away (seven) — 1.326 million
  3. Seven News — 1.192 million
  4. ABC News  – 1.145 million
  5. RBT repeat (Nine) — 1.089 million
  6. Kitchen Cabinet (ABC) — 1.077 million
  7. NCIS (Ten) — 1.007 million
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 981,000
  9. Nine News 6.30 — 964,000
  10. Under the Hammer (Seven) — 942,000

Top metro programs: Not one program with a million or more viewers.

Losers: The great summer snore is upon us, judging by the way viewers reacted last night. They tuned out, switched channels or simply ignored the TV,  missing the second part of A Country Road, which was a pity.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 970,000
  2. Nine News 6.30 — 964,000
  3. Seven News/ Today Tonight  – 930,000
  4. Seven News — 912,000
  5. ABC News  – 800,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) – 797,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 683,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 579,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 568,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 568,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 362,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 335,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 159,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC, 84,000, 54,000 on News 24) — 138,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 105,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 49,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (3.1%)
  2. LifeStyle  (2.7%)
  3. Disney Jr (2.4%)
  4. UKTV (2.1%)
  5. TV1  (2.0%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) – 64,000
  2. Liberty of London (LifeStyle) — 64,000
  3. Modern Family (Fox8) – 64,000
  4. The Big Bang Theory (Comedy) – 62,000
  5. Stella and Sam (Disney Jr) – 60,000

*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.