The cricket season ended — sort of; there are a couple of T20 internationals to go and the suffering Sheffield Shield. But the men’s and women’s Big Bash finals yesterday in Adelaide ended the high profile summer for the sport. The women’s Big Bash — session 1 from noon had 197,000 viewers, while the short second session saw the audience rise to 307,000. That’s an average of 250,000, which is OK. The men’s final saw the second session average a very solid 1.51 million — well behind MKR on 1.62 million, while the first session averaged 1.18 million and the whole game average was 1.35 million, and not that much different than the 1.35 million who watched the first T20 international on Nine on Saturday night. Celebrity was watched by a solid 1.26 million, while Nine’s Married averaged 1.168 million.

But as well as the Big Bash did, as well as and Celebrity and Nine’s Married At First Sight, Seven’s MKR and the hoary old romantic Pretty Woman (807,000), won the night for total viewers. Insiders returned yesterday for 2018 and won the morning with 493,000 national viewers on the AC’s main channel and ABC News. Landline returned at 12.30pm (half an hour later) and easily beat the opposition with 456,000 viewers. That includes the Women’s Big Bash.

In regional markets My Kitchen Rules was tops with 516,000, the second session of the Big Bash was second with 474,000, Seven News was third with 473,000, then the first session of the Bash with 380,000 and Celebrity was fifth with 378,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (28.9%)
  2. Nine (24.5%)
  3. Ten (21.9%)
  4. ABC (17.7%)
  5. SBS (7.0%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (21.5%)
  2. Ten (17.1%)
  3. Nine (16.3%)
  4. ABC (13.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.5%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (3.6%)
  2. 7mate (3.3%)
  3. 7TWO (3.0%)
  4. ONE, Gem (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. MKR (Seven) — 1.620 million
  2. Big Bash Final, Session 2 (Ten) — 1.517 million
  3. Seven News — 1.388 million
  4. I’m A Celebrity (Ten) — 1.260 million
  5. Big Bash Final, Session 1 (Ten) — 1.186 million
  6. Married At First Sight (Nine) — 1.168 million
  7. Nine/NBN News — 1.092 million
  8. 7pm ABC News — 1.054 million
  9. 9. The Coronation (ABC) — 1.001 million
  10. Shetland (ABC 1) — 917,000

Top metro programs:

  1. MKR (Seven) — 1.104 million
  2. Big Bash Final, Session 2 (Ten) — 1.043 million

Losers: Big bash final for both men and women. Should have been played later in the day and at night. Adelaide Oval was not filled to capacity, but should have been.

Metro news and current affairs: *

  1. Seven News — 915,000
  2. Nine News — 804,000
  3. 7pm ABC News – 714,000
  4. SBS World News — 167,000

*Ten News and the Sunday Project pre-empted by the Big Bash final

Morning TV:

  1. Insiders (ABC, 317,000, 176,000 on ABC News) — 493,000
  2. Landline (ABC) — 456,000
  3. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 357,000
  4. Weekend Today (Nine) — 347,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) — 204,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. The Fate Of The Furious (Foxtel Movies) — 56,000
  2. Call The Midwife (BBC First) — 47,000
  3. SWAT (Fox8) — 46,000
  4. Midsomer Murders (UKTV) — 44,000
  5. Outsiders (Sky News) — 43,000