Ambulance Australia tv ratings
Ambulance Australia paramedics (Image: Network Ten)

Thursday night — a dire night even in the football season when the networks are serious about ratings. Now, with summer approaching, it’s another night for the quasi-reality programs that mine the emergency services genre.

This week has seen Ambulance Australia on Ten, Emergency Call on Seven and Paramedics on Nine. Paramedics won the battle this week with 1.1 million national viewers last night (the most watched non-news program on the night, plus a series high). RBT had 789,000 nationally and together they helped nine to a solid win on a night. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Orange Is The New Brown on Seven at 8.30 — 475,000 nationally — beat Ten’s weak How To Stay Married with 417,000. Seven topped the demos, Ten finished fourth in the main channels and total people, again, behind the ABC. 

The ABC’s News Breakfast averaged 296,000 from 7-9am — one of its highest figures this year from rough memory. Seven’s Sunrise with 482,000 beat Nine’s Today with 341,000. In regional markets Seven’s 6pm News was on top with 434,000, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 420,000, then Paramedics with 317,000, followed by Home and Away with 304,000 and the 5.30pm part of The Chase Australia with 294,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (31.3%)
  2. Seven (30.0%)
  3. ABC (17.6%)
  4. Ten (13.5%)
  5. SBS (7.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (21.6%)
  2. Nine (18.0%)
  3. ABC (12.6%)
  4. Ten (8.3%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (5.6%)
  2. 7TWO (4.1%)
  3. GO (3.8%)
  4. Gem (3.7%)
  5. 10 BOSS (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1.  Seven News — 1.251 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.233 million
  3. Paramedics (Nine) — 1.100 million
  4.  Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.070 million
  5.  Nine/NBN News — 1.069 million
  6. 7pm ABC News — 905,000
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 888,000
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 863,000
  9. RBT (Nine) — 789,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 758,000

Top metro programs: The national list tells the story.

Losers: Quite a few, too numerous to mention.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1.  Seven News — 817,000
  2.  Seven News/Today Tonight — 813,000
  3. Nine News — 805,000
  4. Nine News  6.30 — 798,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 637,000
  6. 7pm ABC News —633,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 496,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 389,000
  9. 10 News First— 365,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 217,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 482,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 341,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 296,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 182,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 136,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 81,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Love It Or List It Australia (LifeStyle) — 56,000
  2. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 48,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 46,000
  4. Seinfeld (111), Criminal Minds (TVHITS) — 42,000