The good taste of TV viewers was underlined last night with the two most popular non-news programs on TV being Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (in which Malcolm Turnbull was skewered like he has never been skewered) and the second part of the ABC’s great doco on the history of Australian comedy, Stop Laughing This Is Serious. Mad as Hell poking at the ABC programming and News 24 is far more effective than anything the drones at the Murdoch bugles can come up with. Mad As Hell had 1.117 million national viewers and Stop Laughing had 1.113 million. Home and Away had 1.151 million viewers at 7pm across the country, but the ABC duo were more popular in metro markets.

Apart from the ABC, it was night to forget on the commercial networks who have thrown the switch to standby and left on an Easter Parade.

The AFL season starts tonight, I can hear the sighs of content from the Deep South, the Mid Central and Far West of the country, and from the small eastern suburbs enclave of Sydney called Swansville. .

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (28.6%)
  2. Nine (28.0%)
  3. ABC (19.9%)
  4. Ten (17.8%)
  5. SBS (5.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (19.4%)
  2. Seven (18.0%)
  3. ABC 1 (15.5%)
  4. Ten (10.2%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (6.1%)
  2. GO (6.0%)
  3. 7mate (4.4%)
  4. Eleven (3.9%)
  5. ONE (3.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.385 million
  2. ABC News — 1.213 million
  3. Seven News — 1.211 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.151 million
  5. Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (ABC) — 1.117 million
  6. Stop Laughing This Is Serious (ABC) — 1.113 million
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 964,000
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 942,000
  9. QI (ABC) — 936,000
  10. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 931,000

Losers: Anyone who missed Mad as Help and the second part of Stop Laughing This Is Serious.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 976,000
  2. Seven News — 938,000
  3. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 931,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 930,000
  5. ABC News  — 837,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 777,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 668,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 561,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 519,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 451,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 311,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 300,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  104,000 + 37,000 on News 24) — 141,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 131,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 115,000
  6. Studio 1o (Ten) — 57,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle (3%)
  2. Fox 8 (3.2%)
  3. UKTV, TVHITS (1.9%)
  4. ARENA (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) — 182,000
  2. Gogglebox Australia (LifeStyle) — 138,000
  3. The Flash (Fox8) – 86,000
  4. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 71,000
  5. Family Guy (Fox8) — 68,000

*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.