Nine won the metros with series highs (for the night for The Block and for Celebrity Apprentice. That saw Nine do well in the demos. In the regions, Seven scored a narrow win over Nine, so the placings were reversed. But The Block (872,000 metro viewers) was beaten by The Bachelorette at 7.30pm (879,000 metro viewers), Highway Patrol at 8pm (883,000 metro viewers). Celebrity Apprentice (643,000 metro) was well polished by the debut of The Ex-PM on the ABC at just after 9pm on 804,000 and Gruen, also on the ABC, just after 8.30pm with 902,000. Celebrity Apprentice droned on for 70 minutes to 9.50pm. That was at best (being charitable) 40 minutes too long.

But the best indicator of how weak the night was can be seen in the most watched program nationally — it was a repeat of the Seven series Highway Patrol. It averaged 1.335 million people — 835,000 in the metros (sixth) and 453,000 in the regions (second, behind Home and Away with 461,000). That was for a repeat, a program nay viewers had seen before. That tells us just how solid the original programming last night, for the all the publicity from the networks about how well the programs did.

Seven News again finished top in the metros because of a solid effort of The Chase Australia (565,000 in the metros) over Nine’s Hot seat (495,000 metro viewers), close to the largest margin so far. As a result Seven News had a rare win in Sydney, 255,000 to 246,000. Nine won Melbourne and Brisbane, Seven won Adelaide and Perth.

At breakfast Sunrise with 335,000 viewers had a comfortable win over Today on 296,000.

Tonight, The Verdict on Nine, train wreck alert at 8.30pm. Gogglebox is on Ten (after being on Foxtel last night) — it will be a better bet than Karl Stefanovic’s imitation of Tony Jones from Q&A.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (27.0%)
  2. Seven (26.9%)
  3. Ten (21.2%)
  4. ABC (18.7%)
  5. SBS (6.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (18.7%)
  2. Seven (18.1%)
  3. Ten (15.1%)
  4. ABC (14.0%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.1%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (5.0%)
  2. GO (4.5%)
  3. 7mate (3.8%)
  4. Gem (3.7%)
  5. Eleven (3.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Highway Patrol (Seven) — 1.335 million
  2. Nine News — 1.306 million
  3. Border Security (Seven) — 1.305 million
  4. Gruen (ABC) — 1.305 million
  5. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.227 million
  6. Seven News — 1.221 million
  7. The Block (Nine) — 1.216 million
  8. The Bachelorette (Ten) — 1.153 million
  9. The Ex-PM (ABC) — 1.139 million
  10. ABC News — 1.134 million

Top metro programs: not one program with a million or more metro viewers. A weak night.

Losers: The Blacklist on Seven at 8.30pm — 566,000 metro viewers, and the appalling The Player at 9.30pm (a new very stupid US show), 339,000 metro viewers, which shows not too many people waited round for this turkey.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 948,000
  2. Nine News (6.30pm) — 944,000
  3. Nine News — 934,000
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 903,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 877,000
  6. ABC News – 814,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 561,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 613,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 489,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 427,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 335,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 296,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  109,000 + 49,000 on News 24) — 158,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 144,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 104,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 64,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle  (2.9%)
  2. Fox8  (2.5%)
  3. UKTV (2.2%)
  4. TVHITS  (1.7%)
  5. Nick Jr, A&E (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Gogglebox Australia (LifeStyle) – 130,000
  2. The Flash (Fox8) — 119,000
  3. Midsomer Murders (UK) — 72,000
  4. Peppa Pig (Nick Jr) – 66,000
  5. Peppa Pig (Nick Jr) – 64,000

*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.