Seven’s night, thanks of course to My Kitchen Rules, Home and Away and especially First Dates, which is now the most successful of the 2016 debutant programs. As a result Seven won the night easily in metro and regional markets in total people and all the major demos.

Of the new programs in 2015, First Dates is the only one to have increased the size of its audience. Here Come The Habibs on Nine and Wanted on Seven both saw solid falls from their debut broadcasts to their second. First Dates’ second broadcast saw no change in its audience and last night an increase as viewers stayed with and turned on.

While MKR dominated the night with 2.483 million national viewers (1.689 million in the metros and a massive 794,000 in the regions), First Dates was watched by 1.373 million national, 978,000 metro and 396,000 regional viewers. That compares to its debut night figures of 871,000 and 1.245 million nationally. Its second program had 877,000 metro and 1.274 million national. Last night around 100,000 extra people tuned in, which was a solid endorsement of a program with modest ambitions, but which is outperforming the more highly hyped The Bachelor and Bachelorette on Ten.

In regional markets the five most watched programs were MKR, 794,000; Home and Away, 473,000, First Dates 396,000, The Chase Australia (5.30pm) 377,000 and The Big Bang Theory with 339,000.

The Weakly managed 798,000 national viewers, which was about right. I’m A Celebrity marked time again and scrambled into the national top 10 with 973,000 viewers. Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery with former test fast bowler Glenn McGrath grabbed 805,000 viewers and deserved more. It was the second revealing ABC program on cricket this week after Monday night’s Australian Story on Nugget Rees, the legendary non cricketer from Adelaide who has made every Australian and South Australian team for 60 years. Both programs showed sides of major Australian sports men which most sports fans would ignore — the softer emotional side — some would even reject. Both programs deserved more viewers. Seven’s First Dates is in a similar vein: a program that depends on the people in the program, not the confected hype like Ten’s offerings.

In the morning Today beat Sunrise by just 1000 viewers, 319,000 to 318,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (36.4%)
  2. Nine (24.6%)
  3. Ten (16.8%)
  4. ABC (16.0%)
  5. SBS (6.3%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (29.7%)
  2. Nine (15.4%)
  3. Ten (12.8%)
  4. ABC (11.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (4.5%)
  2. 7TWO (4.0%)
  3. Gem (3.1%)
  4. ABC 2 (2.8%)
  5. 7mate (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. MKR (Seven) — 2.483 million
  2. First Dates (Seven) — 1.373 million
  3. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.348 million
  4.  Nine News — 1.288 million
  5.  Seven News — 1.282 million
  6. The Big Bang Theory (Nine) — 1.127 million
  7. ABC News — 1.125 million
  8. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 1.060 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.016 million
  10. I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here (Ten) — 973,000

Top metro programs:

  1. MKR (Seven) — 1.689 million
  2. Seven News — 1.046 million

Losers: Anyone who doesn’t like MKR or First Dates. A weak night for The Weakly. Nine ran slow last night up against MKR.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.046 million
  2. Seven News/ Today Tonight — 996,000
  3. Nine News — 953,000
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 888,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 854,000
  6. ABC News – 806,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 599,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 552,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 471,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 460,000

Morning TV:

  1. Today (Nine) – 319,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) – 318,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC 1,  100,000 + 61,000 on News 24) — 161,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 135,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 116,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 81,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (2.8%)
  2. LifeStyle  (2.5%)
  3. TVHITS  (2.3%)
  4. UKTV (1.9%)
  5. Nick Jr (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) – 126,000
  2. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 74,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox8) – 65,000
  4. The Flash (Fox8) — 64,000
  5. QI (UKTV) — 49,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2016. 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.