Another weak night for Masterchef Australia last night. It could only average 987,000 national viewers – down from the previous Sunday’s 1 million for the last blind audition (and Delta Goodrem got the show plenty of publicity for some tough comments on one act). House Rules added more than 10% of the previous week’s audience of just over 1.33 million,  while The Voice added just 37,000 and MCA lost 22,000. The key to House Rules’ season improvement is the new UK judge. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, who is a master of the polite put down, brutally delivered. He is the kind of ratings gold that Masterchef and The Voice now lack. He is not a nasty for nasty’s sake — his criticisms have credibility, which is what these programs need in the “black hat” judge.

On Insiders Barrie Cassidy showed why he and Laurie Oakes are by far the best political interviewers in the country — Treasurer Scott Morrison tried to slip the knife into Baz by saying Cassidy had worked for Keating — Baz just brushed that aside by pointing out that he hadn’t (he worked for Bob Hawke as PM) and Morrison, realising he’d stuffed up, couldn’t swallow his cheap gibe fast enough.

In regional markets Seven News was tops with 582,000, followed by House Rules with 562,000, then Nine/NBN News (6.30pm), 492,000, The Voice with 482,000 and Nine News was 5th with 476,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (28.7%)
  2. Nine (28.0%)
  3. Ten (17.9%)
  4. ABC (15.8%)
  5. SBS (9.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (20.4%)
  2. Nine (19.6%)
  3. Ten (13.0%)
  4. ABC (10.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (8.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (3.3%)
  2. ONE (3.2%)
  3. 7mate (3.1%)
  4. ABC 2 (3.0%)
  5. 7TWO (2.8%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.71 million
  2. The Voice (Nine) — 1.59 million
  3. Nine/NBN News — 1.51 million
  4. House Rules (Seven) — 1.48 million
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 1.01 million
  6. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.00 million
  7. Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 987,000
  8. 7pm ABC News — 985,000
  9. Grandchester (ABC) — 911,000
  10. The Suspects (Seven) — 676,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.13 million
  2. The Voice (Nine) — 1.10 million
  3. Nine News — 1.02 million

Losers: Masterchef should really be doing better — it looks better and is more interesting than the The Voice and House Rules.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.13 million
  2. Nine News — 1.02 million
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) —705,000
  4. 7pm ABC News —665,000
  5. Sunday Night (Seven) — 656,000
  6. Ten Eyewitness News — 310,000
  7. SBS World News — 185,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC, 362,000, 155,000 on News 24) — 517,000
  2. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 480,000
  3. Weekend Today (Nine) —430,000
  4. Landline (ABC) — 339,000
  5. Sports Sunday (Nine) — 279,000
  6. Offsiders (ABC) — 226,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (%)
  2. LifeStyle  (%)
  3. TVHITS  (%)
  4. UKTV, Fox Classics (%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Easts v Parramatta (Fox League) — 220,000
  2. AFL: North Melbourne v Sydney (Fox Footy) —199,000
  3. NRL: Newcastle v Canberra (Fox League) — 187,000
  4. AFL: Richmond v Fremantle (Fox Footy) — 143,000
  5. AFL:Gold Coast v Port Adelaide (Fox Sports) — 141,000