Staying power was needed last night for fans of The X Factor. The 150 minutes or more of the live performance eked out a solid audience, but in the metros The Block’s reveal episode had the better of Seven’s anchor program. Seven won all people and the main channels in metro and regional markets, Nine did better in the metro demographics, Seven did better in the regions.

But nationally, The X Factor  (1.536 million viewers) was second behind Seven News  (1.690 million) with The Block fourth with 1.450 million viewers.

In the morning Insiders easily accounted for The Bolt Report on Ten, 564,000 national viewers to 218,000. In the metros it was 396,000 to 150,000. On Foxtel, Seven’s axed drama, A Place To Call Home started on SoHo and had a very solid 154,000 viewers, second best on the night behind the RWC match involving Australia. Seven could do with a classy drama right now, even if it did better in the regions (as are many of Seven’s major programs right now).

Now they are just four — two in the AFL and two on the NRL.  The NRL games on Nine (Friday, 1.737 million, Saturday 1.730 million FTA viewers) out rated the AFL games (1.588 million for Friday night and 1.503 million for Saturday) on Seven. But adding in the Fox Sports audiences for the two AFL games and the kick and giggle had more viewers: 420,000 for the Friday night game (making a total audience of more than 2 million people). On Saturday night with 383,000 watching on Fox Sports, the total national audience was more than 1.88 million people). The Australia-Uruguay RWC match last night had 183,000 viewers on Fox Sports and 431,000 on Gem last night at a far more friendly hour of around an 8.30 start to the broadcast.

Tonight it’s the Brownlow Medal for the AFL (on Gem and Fox Sports) and Dally M for the NRL on Fox Sports. Seven got the result it half wanted: A Melbourne team in Hawthorn v West Coast. But Nine didn’t get what it wanted  (a Sydney team playing a Queensland team). The Grand Final between North Queensland and the Brisbane Broncos won’t be the strongest supported NRL Grand Final in recent history: it will remind too many NSW viewers of the one-sided State of Origin.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (32.2%)
  2. Nine (29.1%)
  3. ABC (15.9%)
  4. Ten (15.4%)
  5. SBS (7.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (23.7%)
  2. Nine (21.9%)
  3. ABC  (11.8%)
  4. Ten (10.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.5%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.3%)
  2. 7mate (4.2%)
  3. GO (4.1%)
  4. Gem (3.1%)
  5. ONE (2.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.690 million
  2. The X Factor (Seven) — 1.536 million
  3. Nine News — 1.480 million
  4. The Block (Nine) — 1.450 million
  5. ABC News — 1.298 million
  6. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.256 million
  7. Vera (ABC) — 925,000
  8. Dr Who (ABC) — 831,000
  9. Family Feud (Ten) — 691,000
  10. TBL Families (Ten) — 614,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.126 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 1.052 million
  3. Nine News — 1.040 million
  4. The X Factor (Seven) — 1.011 million

Losers: TBL Families on Ten with 446,000 metro viewers — a starvation diet. 614,000 nationally, even skinnier. Ten’s most watched program was Family Feud with 691,000 national viewers from 6 to 6.30pm — viewing sank from there, but Ten’s still up on a year earlier (which was terrible).Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.126 million
  2. Nine News — 1.040 million
  3. 60 Minutes —868,000
  4. 7pm ABC News — 854,000
  5. Ten Eyewitness News  — 395,000
  6. SBS World News — 194,000

Morning TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC, 292,000 104,000 on News 24) — 396,000
  2. Landline (ABC ) —311,000
  3. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 293,000
  4. Weekend Today (Nine) —256,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) — 191,000
  6. The Bolt Report (Ten) — 150,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. RWC: Australia v Uruguay (Fox Sports 2) — 183,000
  2. A Place To Call Home (SoHo) — 154,000
  3. F1: Japan GP (Fox Sports 5) — 131,000
  4. RWC: Australia v Uruguay pre-game (Fox Sports 2) — 733,000
  5. Doc Martin (UKTV) — 67,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2015. 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.