Nine won thanks to Big Brother — which fell under a million metro viewers last night and averaged 1.317 million million national/ 984,000 metro/ 333,000 regional viewers — and the third Ashes Test on Nine’s Gem digital channel. Seven’s female-skewed line up didn’t fare all that well and the ABC beat Ten in all people, although Ten had better demographics (younger viewers). Nine also won well in regional markets. Gem had a metro share of 11.3% and in regional markets it was 13.3%, which was a higher share than Ten’s main channel and ABC1.

Home and Away on Seven at 7pm was an hour long — and beat Big Brother with 1.330 million national/ 803,000 metro/ 527,000 regional viewers. So Big Brother won the metros, but Home and Away easily won the regionals, by almost 200,000 viewers.

The Dick Smith energy documentary at 8.30pm, Ten Bucks A Litre (1.098 million national/ 708,000 metro/ 300,000 regional viewers) on ABC1, wouldn’t have been out of place on Ten if someone there had had the wit to commission it. It was in tune with what you hear from those on The Project.

So how did the cricket do? Session one from 8 to 10pm did well — 1.004 million national/ 631,000 metro/ 373,000 regional viewers) on Gem and 347,000 viewers on Fox Sports 2. That made a total national audience of 1.344 million people.

Session two recorded a big drop, probably because the Australians went to lunch 2 for 92 and looking a bit shaky after the Usman Khawaja “dismissal”/ error/ whatever. As a result 548,000 national/ 358,000 metro/ 190,000 regional viewers watched, while the Fox Sports 2 audience dipped to 220,000. That was a national audience of 768,000 people.

The second episode of Better Man on SBS ONE at 8.30pm averaged 340,000 national/ 233,000 metro/ 107,000 regional viewers. Down just 7000 or so from last week’s debut, which wasn’t bad at all. MasterChef Masterclass had 806,000 national/ 591,000 metro/ 315,000 regional viewers.

Tonight: I bet a lot more people will be watching Gem (or Fox Sports) for the first session or two of the third Ashes Test after Australia’s great fightback last night. Those with Eurosport in their pay TV packages won’t be able to see the women’s water polo world title with Australia playing because it seems Eurosport is not showing it here, nor is any other network  (how swimming has sunk from the top of the pile). The Brumbies play the Chiefs tomorrow night in the Super Rugby Final — go the mighty horses! And there’s the odd AFL and NRL game over the weekend with the Swannies playing the Bulldogs.

And if anyone is interested, the new Dr Who (replacing Matt Smith) will be revealed on August 4 on a simulcast on the BBC in the UK and in the US. It will be early Monday morning, east coast time in Australia.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (37.4%)
  2. Seven (21.4%)
  3. ABC  (18.2%)
  4. Ten (17.4%)
  5. SBS (5.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (21.1%)
  2. Seven (15.5%)
  3. ABC1 (13.3%)
  4. Ten (12.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.8%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. Gem (11.3%)
  2. GO (5.0%)
  3. 7TWO (3.3%)
  4. ABC2, Eleven (3.2%)
  5. 7mate (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.830 million
  2. Seven News — 1.764 million
  3. ABC News — 1.364 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.330 million
  5. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.317 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.276 million
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.185 million
  8. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.173 million
  9. Hot Seat (Nine) — 1.105 million
  10. Ten Bucks A Litre (ABC1) — 1.098 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.260 million
  2. Seven News — 1.140 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.098 million

Losers:Even with the cricket on Gem dragging half a million people away from the other channels from 8pm to 10pm, the performance by Seven’s Please Marry My Boy (931,000 national/ 585,000 metro/ 346,000 regional) and then Formal Wars (726,000 national/ 477,000 metro/ 249,000 regional) was pretty weak. Both were on their second outing for the season. Both were aimed at female viewers, both did moderately OK — Marry My Boy was a lot stronger than Formal Wars, but Big Brother did better as did MasterChef Masterclass among female viewers aged 16 to 29.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.260 million
  2. Seven News — 1.140 million
  3. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.098 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 907,000
  5. ABC News  – 901,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 759,000
  7. Ten News  — 654,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 533,000
  9. Ten Late News — 272,000
  10. SBS ONE News– 191,000

Morning TV:

  1. Today (Nine) – 365,000
  2. Sunrise (Seven) – 357,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1, 50,000, News 24, 42,000) – 92,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. Fox  Sports 2 – (6.7%)
  2. TV1 – 2.5%
  3. LifeStyle, Fox 8 – 2.1%
  4. A&E – 1.5%.
  5. Fx – 1.4%

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Cricket; Third Ashes Test, Session 1  (Fox Sports 2) – 347,000
  2. Cricket; Third Ashes Test, Session 2 (Fox Sports 2)  – 220,000
  3. Cricket; Third Ashes Test pre-match show (Fox Sports 2) – 82,000
  4. River Cottage Australia (LifeStyle) – 86,000
  5. AFL: 360  (Fox) – 81,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. 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.) Plus network reports.