It’s very hard to breathe new life into an old format that finished its previous on air stint strongly and didn’t bore its viewers. That’s how Spicks and Specks under Adam Hills ended its long and fruitful life. Last night’s reincarnation on ABC1 at 8.30pm ain’t in the same class — loud, brittle and at times boring. A new set and look couldn’t hide the weaknesses in the on-air talent. Why did they start with such a weak panel? The program had 935,000 national/ 598,000 metro/ 337,000 regional viewers. That’s just enough not to dismiss it. Next week though, will they return?

The Block fell under a million metro viewers for the first time, Nine News’s half hour and Seven News/Today Tonight also dipped under a million metro viewers, as did Home and Away (for the first time since its return last week) while A Current Affair fell under a million as well and ended up third behind Home and Away and ABC News. In the morning Today just fell short of 300,000 metro viewers (298,000) while Sunrise was in front with 338,000.

My Kitchen Rules averaged 2.470 million national/ 1.668 million metro/ 802,000 regional viewers — that’s more than half a million fewer than Tuesday night’s elimination final which THAT couple survived. That’s why Chloe and Kelly are vital to the continuing mega audiences for this series. Last night’s couple was so sweet (not) and the audience tumbled to mere super hit levels from Tuesday night’s mega hit numbers. Despite the audience fall, Seven had a surprisingly easy win in metro and regional markets and in the major demographics because the programs on other networks, such as The Block (1.413 million national/ 975,000 metro/ 438,000 regional viewers) didn’t pick up viewers. Nine is still having a better start to 2014 than it did last year.

Ten’s The Project had another poor night with a sub 400,000 metro audience . The 373,000 metro viewers was well short of what it usually gets. Have Nine’s and Seven’s extra half hours of news put a dent in The Project’s appeal? Rain short-changed Ten and viewers of the second Big Bash semi-final (a five over chase for Sydney, a joke). The audience for the post-game chat rated more highly than the match as fans tried to find out the result. The final is on Friday from Perth, just before Ten starts trying to convince Australia that the snow and ice of southern Russia are so important that we just have to watch and watch and watch.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (32.1%)
  2. Nine (25.2%)
  3. Ten (20.1%)
  4. ABC (16.9%)
  5. SBS (5.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (25.9%)
  2. Nine (18.9%)
  3. Ten (14.7%)
  4. ABC1 (11.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.7%)

Top digital channels: 

  1. Gem, 7mate  (3.2%)
  2. GO, ONE, ABC 2 (3.1%)
  3. 7TWO, ONE (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 2.470 million
  2. Seven News — 1.650 million
  3. Home and Away (Seven)  — 1.518 million
  4. Nine News — 1.482 million
  5. The Block (Nine) — 1.413 million
  6. ABC News — 1.302 million
  7. The Big Bash Post Game (Ten) — 1.059 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.046 million
  9. The Big Bash Session 1 (Ten) — 1.034 million
  10. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.080 million

Top metro programs:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) — 1.668 million
  2. Seven News — 1.020 million
  3. Nine News — 1.012 million

Losers: Well, where to start – The Project on Ten, ACA on Nine (third on the night at 7 pm), Spicks and Specks reborn on ABC 1. What’s wrong with Today on Nine?Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.020 million
  2. Nine News — 1.012 million
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 949,000
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 948,000
  5. ABC News — 905,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) – 873,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 680,000
  8. Ten Eyewitness News — 594,000
  9. The Project (Ten) — 373,000
  10. ABC Late Edition News — 155,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 338,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 298,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 138,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1, 66,000 + 40,000 on News 24) — 106,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 91,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 40,000
  7. Wake Up (Ten) — 29,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle (2.8%)
  2. TVHITS! (2.7%)
  3. Fox 8 (2.1%)
  4. A&E (2.0%)
  5. Fox Classics (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) – 100,000
  2. Coronation Street (UKTV) — 55,000
  3. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 53,000
  4. Family Guy, The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 52,000
  5. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 45,000

 Tonight: The Block flies tonight without any interference from My Kitchen Rules. If you want something very different, try SBS ONE’s foodie programs, especially Italy Unpacked at 8.30pm, and take a look at Rectify right after.

*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.) and network reports.