It was Seven’s night as The Bachelor consumed the AFL and NRL footy shows. The battle of the two AFL shows ended with a small win in Melbourne to Eddie McGuire’s  effort over Seven’s The Front Bar, but The Bachelor, with 1.12 million national viewers, dominated in the metros and put Nine into third place in the main channels (where viewing and ad spending is concentrated) behind Ten in second place. Seven won total people and the main channels, while Ten dominated the demos. Nine’s NRL Footy show saw its audience slide on a year ago, so not the best of nights all round for Nine.

In breakfast Sunrise thrashed the Today show on Nine by 177,000 viewers nationally, 488,000 to 311,000. Sunrise’s metro audience —  305,000 — was one of the few times this year it’s managed to top 300,000. That was 94,000 ahead of Today’s 211,000. More pressure on Nine and Karl Stefanovic, even though he will be back in 2019.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.7%)
  2. Nine (23.7%)
  3. Ten (23.2%)
  4. ABC (15.9%)
  5. SBS (7.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (19.4%)
  2. Ten (18.4%)
  3. Nine (17.7%)
  4. ABC (11.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.5%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.0%)
  2. 7mate (3.8%)
  3. ONE (2.9%)
  4. GO (2.7%)
  5. 7flix (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1.  Seven News — 1.378 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.372 million
  3. The Bachelor (Nine) — 1.123 million
  4.  Nine/NBN News — 1.080 million
  5.  Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.063 million
  6. 7pm ABC News — 1.032 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 959,000
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 889,000
  9. Gogglebox Australia (Ten) — 870,000
  10. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 839,000

Top metro programs: None with a million or more viewers

Losers: Nine – The Footy Shows.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 868,000
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 867,000
  3. Nine News  — 818,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 788,000
  5. 7pm ABC News – 715,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) – 675,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 572,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 487,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 343,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 313,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 488,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 311,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 234,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 202,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 122,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 80,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 62,000
  2. Shimmer and Shine (Nick Jr) — 60,000
  3. Curious George (Nick Jr) — 59,000
  4. Play Along With Sam (Nick Jr) —52,000
  5. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 50,000