You can tell how weak a night of TV is when you’re watching the box and dreaming of the next night or the night after that — well, dreaming of the AFL and NRL finals tonight and tomorrow night. At least they will be live (even if the calls will be interminable) and exciting, even if you are not a fan of the teams involved. Go the mighty Swans!

Apart from ABC1’s Upper Middle Bogan (1.049 million national/ 698,000 metro/ 351,000 regional viewers) and It’s A Date (which has weakened in the past couple of episodes), it was a night to read a book, wash your hair (if you have any), update your address book, clean out your inbox, have a drink or three, or stay out. Any night where the most interesting programs on commercial TV are Home and Away (Seven, 1.435 million national/ 881,000 metro/ 554,000 regional viewers) and Big Brother (Nine, 1.183 million/820,000 metro/ 363,000 regional viewers), or Save With Jamie Oliver (Ten, 832,000 national/597,000 metro/ 235,000 regional viewers), tells us just how average a night it really was.

But the best example of  the night’s weakness was Seven’s programming of repeats of Dynamo Magician Impossible at 7.30 — last night it had 1.254 million national/ 775,000 metro/ 479,000 regional viewers). Yes, you’d expect a program like this to be repeated. But on a Thursday night in ratings and not in summer?

Seven’s Million Dollar Minute (884,000 national/573,000 metro/ 311,000 regional viewers) just beat Hot Seat on Nine (889,000 national/ 581,000 metro/ 308,000 regional viewers) in metro markets. MDM started the week with 811,000 metro and 1.205 million national viewers.  Seven News and Today Tonight lost Sydney and Melbourne, but won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and regional markets. That was the situation on some nights last week, the week before and before and before, etc. If TV news were a national battle between national broadcasts, then the national wins by Seven, and sometimes Nine, would have some meaning. They don’t except for bragging rights.

Seven ran down the flop Please Marry My Boy with two episodes from 9pm. They averaged for the two hours 727,000 national/479,000 metro/ 248,000 regional viewers. Fade to black. And next week Ten runs episodes of Wanted on Monday night at 7.30 and Thursday night at 8.30. Someone wants to get rid of it.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (29.2%)
  2. Seven (28.7%)
  3. ABC (19.3%)
  4. Ten (16.8%)
  5. SBS (6.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (21.0%)
  2. Seven (19.9%)
  3. ABC1 (13.0%)
  4. Ten (11.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.0%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.1%)
  2. 7TWO (4.9%)
  3. 7mate (3.9%)
  4. ABC 2 (3.7%)
  5. Eleven (3.2%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.770 million
  2. Nine News — 1.605 million
  3. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.435 million
  4. ABC1 News — 1.370 million
  5. Dynamo repeat (Seven) — 1.254 million
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.199 million
  7. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.183 million
  8. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.181 million
  9. The Footy Show (Nine) — 1.096 million
  10. Upper Middle Bogan (ABC 1) — 1.049 million

Losers: The second episode of Ten’s Revealed at 9.30pm — 353,000 national/245,000 metro/ 108,000 regional viewers. Yet another turkey for the Hamish McLennan-led Ten (and his news and current affairs boss of the moment, Anthony Flannery).Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.174 million
  2. Nine News — 1.115 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) — 942,000
  4. ABC1 News — 911,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 872,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 806,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News — 607,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 572,000
  9. Lateline (ABC1) — 174,000
  10. SBS ONE News — 163,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 329,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 319,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1, 69,000 + 35,000 on News 24) — 104,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle (3.0%)
  2. TV1 (2.8%)
  3. Fox 8 (2.4%)
  4. Disney, Disney Jnr, A&E (1.6%) – 1.8%.
  5. Sky News  (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 105,000
  2. CSI:Miami (Tv1) – 74,000
  3. Chelsea’s Greatest Garden 2013 (LifeStyle) — 69,000
  4. Inside Claridges (LifeStyle) – 68,000
  5. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 67,000

*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.