Q&A: Rudd v Jones, lurve in, a meeting of minds, Judith Brett the historian and Laura Tingle the AFR’s chief political writer. Q&A should have slotted Rudd and Jones together and let them rave. It had 575,000 metro viewers and 812,000 nationally. Will we have to put up with Rudd appearing for book two of his autobiography?

But it was Seven’s night with The Block out of Nine’s line up and Seven introducing us to something called The Wall which is a format that has done very well in the US for NBC (certainly in generating lots of publicity about the amounts of money being given away, which is what pleases the hearts of worried TV network executives). It is not so blatant a cash give away or bribe to watch that Seven’s Sunrise and Nine’s Today engage in every morning and it’s more crass than The Chase Australia and The Chase UK original, in that more is left to chance with the oddly coloured balls dropping through what looks like a slot/pinball machine. Viewers liked it but it couldn’t crack a million metro viewers — came close with 974,000 (and with stronger support in the regions, 1.546 million nationally which means it is a first up success). The question is how many will return tonight? But for Seven it was the first really dominant night since Australian Ninja Warrior started on Nine in early July and ruined the next four months of Seven’s programming — helped by The Block. Perhaps Seven’s share price will now start rising.

Nine’s new program, Family Food Fight, faded and in the end was weak — a rip off of Masterchef and MKR and viewers agreed — 832,000 national and 614,000 metro viewers. Seven’s heavily promoted UK series Liar also faded — half a million metro viewers at best (and 765,000 nationally). How many will come back for the next episode? And Seven News had another win in Sydney at 6 pm with 259,000 to 250,000 viewers — what was occasional is now becoming weekly.

In regional markets The Wall was tops with 572,000, Seven News was second with 570,000, Seven News/TT was third with 491,000, Home and Away was 4th with 438,000 and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia averaged 388,000 for 5th.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (30.5%)
  2. Nine (24.2%)
  3. ABC (21.2%)
  4. Ten (17.2%)
  5. SBS (7.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (20.1%)
  2. Nine (17.63%)
  3. ABC (15.7%)
  4. Ten (12.4%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (4.4%)
  2. 7TWO (3.7%)
  3. ABC 2 (3.6%)
  4. ONE (2.8%)
  5. GO, Gem (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.564 million
  2. The Wall (Seven) — 1.546 million.
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.467 million
  4. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.294 million
  5. Nine/NBN News — 1.232 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.203 million
  7. 7pm ABC News — 1.144 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.143 million
  9. Australian Story (ABC) — 1.114 million
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 1.050 million

Losers: Nine’s Family Food Fight — didn’t live up to the promotions.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.100 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.093 million
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.037 million
  4. Nine News — 1.022 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 965,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 918,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 776,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 613,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 500,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 451,000

Morning (national) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 475,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 404,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC,  175,000 + 88,000 on News 24) — 263,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 215,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 165,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 117,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8  (%)
  2. LifeStyle  (%)
  3. TVHITS  (%)
  4. UKTV, Fox Classics (%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Outlander (showcase) – 76,000
  2. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 61,000
  3. The Walking Dead (Fx) — 61,000
  4. Fl: Mexico (Fox Sports) – 61,000
  5. The Walking Dead (Fx) — 45,000

*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.