My Kitchen Rules really ruled last night with another massive audience in metro and regional markets. Seven won big in Metro and regional markets and has the week won, along with the demos. It averaged 2.711 million national/ 1.880 million metro/ 831,000 regional viewers. Nine’s The Block had its biggest Wednesday audience last night — but more than a million behind My Kitchen Rules with 1.609 million national/ 1.045 million metro/ 564,000 regional viewers. Nine’s 6-7pm news and A Current Affair also did well again in metro markets, especially in Sydney where Nine won by 135,000 and Melbourne where the winning margin was 111,000. Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Those problems in Sydney and Melbourne for Seven at 6 to 7 pm just won’t go away, will they?

Ten though was miserable — its main channel only had a share of 8.4% in the metro markets  and even lower in regional markets — 7.0%. The ABC beat Ten for third in regional markets overall as well. The problem for Ten management is to spin the network’s performance  in covering the Sochi Winter Games. Take last night, for example. The coverage on Ten’s main channel from 8.30 pm averaged 297,000 in metro markets. But on ONE with its HD coverage, the average audience was 302,000 in metro markets from 8.30pm as well.  That’s not good enough and not supposed to happen. The main channel is not described thus for any reason other than it’s the channel where more viewers are supposed to watch. But not last night for Ten.

Nationally, ONE had 461,000 viewers and Ten’s main channel, 423,000. Ten will combine them and argue that 599,000 people watched in metro markets and 884,000 nationally.  So how did Ten spin it this morning? “ONE: #1 multi-channel in prime time (6-10.30pm) in all age groups” … and  “XXII Olympic Winter Games Evening: 877,000 capital-city and regional viewers.” Yep, Ten combined the ONE and main channel figures. A desperate TV network executive will cling to any piece of ratings jetsam.  The reality is that the Sochi games are the least watched of all since 1992.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (35.0%)
  2. Nine (27.0%)
  3. Ten (17.8%)
  4. ABC (15.9%)
  5. SBS (4.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (27.5%)
  2. Nine (30.5%)
  3. ABC1 (10.3%)
  4. Ten (8.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.5%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. ONE (6.3%)
  2. 7mate (4.5%)
  3. ONE (3.8%)
  4. Eleven, Gem (3.1%)
  5. 7TWO (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 2.711 million
  2. Nine News — 1.676 million
  3. The Block (Nine) — 1.609 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.518 million
  5. Seven News — 1.516 million
  6. The Blacklist (Seven) — 1.510 million
  7. ABC News — 1.254 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.248 million
  9. Nine News 6.30 — 1.136 million
  10. Seven News/Today Tonight –– 1.066 million

Top metro programs:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 1.880 million
  2. Nine News — 1.168 million
  3. Nine News 6.30  — 1.137 million
  4. Seven News — 1.076 million
  5. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.065 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.056 million
  7. The Block (Nine) — 1.045 million

Losers: Ten, again. Seriously terrible.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.168 million
  2. Nine News 6.30  — 1.137 million
  3. Seven News — 1.076 million
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.065 million
  5. The Block (Nine) — 1.045 million
  6. ABC News — 829,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News — 601,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC1) — 560,000
  9. The Project 7 pm (Ten) — 459,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 317,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 315,000,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 296,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 142,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1, 53,000 + 41,000 on News 24) — 94,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 90,000
  6. Wake Up (Ten) — 52,000
  7. Studio 10 (Ten) — 41,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle (3.0%)
  2. TV1 (2.6%)
  3. Fox 8 (2.4%)
  4. A&E(2.2%)
  5. Fox Footy, Fox Classics (1.7%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) – 175,000
  2. The Simpsons (Fox) – 101,000
  3. AFL: Nab Challenge (Fox Footy) — 100,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 81,000
  5. Futurama (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.) and network reports.