leaders' debate
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten shake hands before the first leaders forum. (Image: AAP/The West Australian)

The second leaders’ debate bombed badly. Only 95,000 people watched nationally, easily beaten by the North Queensland-Gold Coast NRL game at the same time which attracted 258,000 viewers (North Queensland won).

The top Pay TV program of the night was the Melbourne-Cronulla NRL game with 268,000. The debate was split in two with the second part “The Verdict” being so interesting to the audience that 28,000 viewers went off to watch the NRL or AFL games, leaving just 67,000 to hear the result. The first debate on Seven, in contrast, grabbed 881,000 viewers on Monday night.

Nine managed to survive a 21% drop in the number of viewers for the start of the second week of Lego Masters (1.50 million compared with 1.91 million a week ago). Still good figures, but not the sustained ratings monster that Nine had been suggesting a week ago. The ABC did well with Vera (1.03 million for the final of four eps) and the first part Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders pulled in 855,000. Both overshadowed Ten’s Masterchef Australia (845,000 nationally), while House Rules had 1.08 million national viewers. Just enough.

Nine won from Seven, the ABC and Ten. Seven would have been closer if it had a program more interesting than the Netflix replay, Fyre Fraud — 248,000 for two hours from 9.30pm. In mornings, Insiders again dominated with 644,000 national viewers.

In regional markets Seven News won with 546,000, from Lego Masters with 412,000, House Rules with 402,000, Nine/NBN News, 389,000, 7pm ABC News, 351,000.

Network channel share:
Nine (29.9%)
Seven (27.0%)
ABC (20.0%)
Ten (15.9%)
SBS (7.3%)

Network main channels:
Nine (23.2%)
Seven (17.4%)
ABC (15.0%)
Ten (11.7%)
SBS ONE (3.3%)

Top 5 digital channels:
7mate (4.7%)
ABC Kids/Comedy (3.3%)
7TWO (2.7%)
GO (2.6%)
Gem, 10 Bold (2.4%)

Top 10 national programs:
Seven News — 1.64 million
Lego Masters (Nine) — 1.50 million
Nine/NBN News — 1.39 million
House Rules (Seven) — 1.08 million
7pm ABC News — 1.05 million
Vera (ABC) —1.03 million
Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders (ABC) — 855,000
Masterchef Australia (Ten), 60 Minutes (Nine) — 845,000
AFL (Seven) —779,000

Top metro programs:

1. Seven News — 1.095 million
2. Lego Masters (Nine) — 1.091 million
3. Nine News — 1.00 million

Losers: Ten’s Masterchef — beaten by the ABC and Nine and Seven

Metro news and current affairs:
Seven News  —1.09 million
Nine News — 1.00 million
7pm ABC News — 708,000
60 Minutes (Nine) —586,000
Sunday Night (Seven) — 434,000
The Project 7pm (Ten) — 420,000
The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 234,000
10 News First — 221,000
SBS World News — 152,000

Morning (National) TV:
Insiders (ABC, ABC News) — 644,000
Landline (ABC), Weekend Sunrise (Seven) — 390,000
Weekend Today (Nine) — 274,000
Offsiders (ABC) — 265,000
Sports Sunday (Nine) — 178,000

Top five pay TV programs:
NRL: Parramatta v St George (Fox League) — 261,000
NRL: Auckland v Newcastle (Fox League) —184,000
AFL: Adelaide v Fremantle (Fox Footy) —167,000
AFL: Geelong v Essendon (Fox 506) —163,000
AFL: Carlton v North Melbourne (Fox Footy) —147,000