A weak night. Seven relied on the AFL game to get home — like the Hawks got home ahead of Adelaide. The game managed 773,000 viewers nationally on Seven and 7mate. Tonight it’s the Swannies v the Bombers — after last night, no result would be a surprise. The NRL runs around in a post-Origin stupor this weekend, starting tonight.

Masterchef was a highlight for Ten with 1.11 million and was the most watched non-news program, although I don’t think Heston does it for people on MCA. And that was it for an essentially boring Thursday night.

In breakfast metro viewers are apparently relishing Karl’s absence and boosting Today’s audience over Sunrise. Ben Fordham wouldn’t mind a bit if Karl’s holiday lasted another week. Today won yesterday in the metros — 310,000 to 281,000 — making it four mornings this week. But as usual Sunrise blitzed Today nationally — 516,000 to 466,000. In regional markets, Seven News was again tops with 631,000, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 512,000, then Home and Away with 478,000, The 5.30pm bit of The Chase Australia was fourth with 432,000 and RBT on Nine was fifth with 329,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (31.5%)
  2. Nine (25.5%)
  3. Ten (21.0%)
  4. ABC (15.9%)
  5. SBS (6.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (21.3%)
  2. Nine (17.1%)
  3. Ten (15.4%)
  4. ABC (10.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (4.1%)
  2. 7mate (4.0%)
  3. 7TWO (3.8%)
  4. ONE (3.1%)
  5. ABC 2 (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.648 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.470 million
  3. Nine/NBN News (6.30pm) — 1.232 million
  4. Nine/NBN News — 1.228 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.12 million
  6. Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.118 million
  7. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.085 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.069 million
  9. 7pm ABC News — 994,000
  10. RBT (ABC) — 966,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.017 million

Losers: Weak night apart from Masterchef and the AFL — not a brilliant menu.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.017 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 957,000
  3. Nine News — 937,000
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 907,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 790,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 667,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 539,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 499,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 473,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 390,000

Morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 516,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 466,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, 198,000 + 85,000 on News 24) — 283,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 221,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 203,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 133,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: Adelaide v Hawthorn (Fox Footy) — 258,000
  2. Thursday Night Footy on Fox (Fox Footy) — 98,000
  3. NRL: 360 (Fox League) – 89,000
  4. Thursday Night Footy on Fox (Fox Footy) — 78,000
  5. Grand Designs Australia (LifeStyle) — 76,000