The AFL finals — Thursday through Saturday — gave Seven a comfortable win last week, overall, in the main channels, and across many of the key demos. Last night though, the late finishing NRL final elimination game (won by St George) helped boost Nine’s night, built on a very solid 1.8 million nationally viewers for The Block, and almost 1.3 million in the metros and over half a million in the regions. Nine’s 6pm news also did well nationally with 1.7 million ( following on from the NRL game ) and 60 Minutes had 1.2 million nationally — a dominant night all up. Rake managed 634,000 on ABC TV.

In the mornings though another big number for the ABC’s Insiders — 623,000 — unchanged from the week before, and the third Sunday in a row where its audience nationally has topped 600,000.  It was a tribute to the non-partisan coverage of politics compared to the stuff offered up on Sky News. Gerard Henderson was on the couch yesterday, watched by more people in an hour than in a week on any of Sky’s team of ranters — Bolt, Jones, Credlin etc.

In the regions Nine’s 6pm news had a rare win with 510,000, then The Block with 502,000, followed by Seven’s 6pm News with 485,000, with Little Big Shots fourth on 447,000 and Sunday Night fifth with 418,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (35.7%)
  2. Seven (30.1%)
  3. ABC (14.3%)
  4. Ten (13.8%)
  5. SBS (6.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (27.80%)
  2. Seven (20.3%)
  3. ABC (10.5%)
  4. Ten (9.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.6%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (4.9%)
  2. 7TWO(3.4%)
  3. Gem (3.0%)
  4. GO (2.8%)
  5. ONE (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.798 million
  2. Nine News — 1.701 million
  3. Seven News — 1.553 million
  4. Sunday Night (Seven)  — 1.261 million
  5. 60 Minutes (Nine) — 1.251 million
  6. Little Big Shots (Seven) — 1.215 million
  7. 7pm ABC News — 1.020 million
  8. NRL Second Elimination Final  (Nine) — 956,000
  9. Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures (Ten) — 817,000
  10. Russell Coight’s All Aussie Adventures (Ten) — 792,000

Top metro programs:

  1. The Block (Nine) — 1.296 million
  2. Nine News— 1.191 million
  3. Seven News– 1.068 million

Losers: Ten

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.191 million 
  2. Seven News — 1.068 million
  3. 60 Minutes (Nine) —896,000
  4. Sunday Night (Seven)  — 843,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 702,000
  6. The Sunday Project 7pm (Ten) — 367,000
  7. Ten Eyewitness News —264,000
  8. The Sunday Project 6.30pm (Ten) —225,000
  9. SBS World News — 152,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Offsiders (ABC, ABC News ) — 623,000
  2. Landline (ABC) — 415,000
  3. Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 399,000
  4. Weekend Today (Nine) — 348,000
  5. Offsiders (ABC) — 254,000
  6. Sports Sunday (Nine) — 249,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Brisbane v St George (Fox League) — 380,000
  2. NRL: Finals Footy With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 184,000
  3. Finals Footy On Fox (Fox League) —130,000
  4. A Place To Call Home (showcase) — 115,000
  5. The Edge (Fox League) — 94,000