A Current Affair

Is the name A Current Affair a misnomer? A current affairs program or a TV promo? Based on what we saw last night, it’s hard to say. Last night it covered the wedding between two Married At First Sight contestants. Viewers were not impressed. ACA slipped from its usual top spot at 7pm to third with 861,000 national viewers. The 7pm ABC News won with 936,000 and Home and Away (who have screen weddings all time time) had 911,000.

All three programs were down on the previous Wednesday, ACA by most — 185,000. Talk about a fall in standards.

Nine and ACA could have taken a lesson from Love On The Spectrum on the ABC from 8.30pm — 567,000 national viewers — modest, yes, but it won the timeslot, beating movies on Seven (Dunkirk, 449,000 nationally) and Nine (My Big Fat Greek Wedding — 433,000 nationally). Love is like Old People’s Home For 4 Year Olds — low-key, well made with a lot of openness and joy — unlike the caricatures on MAFS and ACA.

In regional areas it was again Seven’s 6pm news with 525,000, Seven News/TT with 516,000, Home and Away, 345,000, The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 331,000 and the 7pm ABC News with 311,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (28.5%)
  2. Seven (27.3%)
  3. Ten (19.0%)
  4. ABC (16.9%)
  5. SBS (8.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (18.4%)
  2. Seven (17.4%)
  3. ABC, Ten (11.9%)
  4. SBS ONE (5.0%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (5.2%)
  2. Gem (4.5%)
  3. 10 Bold (4.4%)
  4. 7TWO,GO (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.467 million
  2. Seven News/TT — 1.407million
  3. Nine/NBN News 6.30  — 1.095 million
  4. Nine/NBN News  — 1.083 million
  5. 7pm ABC News  — 936,000
  6. Home And Away (Seven) — 911,000
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 861,000
  8. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 851,000
  9. 7.30 (ABC) — 828,000
  10. The Amazing Race (ten) — 748,000

Losers: Zumbo’s Just Desserts — viewer warning, too much sugary content.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News —942,000
  2. Seven News/TT —891,000
  3. Nine News  — 809,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 807,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 625,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 617,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) —570,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 419,000
  9. Ten News First — 347,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 252,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise: National: 483,000, Metro: 300,000
  2. Today: National: 283,000, Metro:187,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 234,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 204,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) —134,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 65,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Jones & Credlin (Sky News) — 71,000
  2. The Bolt Report, Paul Murray Live (Sky News)  — 67,000
  3. Family Guy (Fox8) — 48,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox8) — 46,000