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Nine might have won the night with MAFS (1.45 million), up by 32,000 or so from the previous Tuesday, but the story of the night was yet another massive lift in audiences for the news and current affairs programs from 5pm to 8pm.

Last night an extra 1.86 million people watched those three hours in total compared with a week earlier, again illustrating how old fashioned TV news has it all over any other form of broadcasting when it comes to live events and breaking news.

All programs were winners to varying degrees because they all dragged in thousands of extra viewers from breakfast to 10 pm. The networks saw figures they thought would not be repeated for news and current affairs programming. It was a similar story on pay TV with Sky News’ Paul Murray’s audience jumping by around 66,000, up to 133,000.

In breakfast ABC News Breakfast ran second nationally with 411,000 viewers behind Sunrise with 597,000 and ahead of Today with 386,000. That was a big margin for News Breakfast over Today. Nearly 1.3 million people watched the breakfast programs of Nine, Seven and the ABC yesterday, also an enormous figure (for the second morning running).

In the regions it was Seven News 677,000, Seven News 6.30 670,000, 7pm ABC News 438,000, The Chase Australia 5.30 401,000 and The Latest: Seven News 400,000. 

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (30.0%)
  2. ABC (22.8%)
  3. Seven (22.2%)
  4. Ten (17.6%)
  5. SBS (6.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (25.1%)
  2. Seven (17.2%)
  3. ABC (13.6%)
  4. Ten (13.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. ABC News (6.1%)
  2. Gem (3.0%)
  3. 10 Bold (2.8%)
  4. ABC Kids/Comedy (2.4%)
  5. 7mate (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.952 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.902 million 
  3. Nine/NBN News   — 1.556 million
  4. Nine/NBN News 6.30   — 1.540 million
  5. MAFS (Nine) — 1.454 million
  6. Nine News Covid 19 Special — 1.440 million
  7. 7pm ABC News —1.435 million
  8. ACA (Nine) — 1.240 million
  9. 7.30 (ABC) —1.288 million
  10. Australian Survivor AllStars (Ten) — 1.041 million

Top metro programs: 

  1. Seven News — 1.275 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 —  1.235 million
  3. Nine News — 1.196 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.141 million
  5. MAFS (Nine) — 1.072 million
  6. Nine News The Latest — 1.072 million

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.275 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 —  1.235 million
  3. Nine News — 1.196 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.141 million
  5. Nine News Covid 19 Special — 1.072 million
  6. 7pm ABC News — 977,000
  7. ACA (Nine) — 886,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 863,000
  9. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) — 688,000
  10. The Latest – Seven News — 630,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise: National: 597,000, Metro: 347,000 
  2. Today: National: 386,000, Metro: 261,000 
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 412,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 256,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 225,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 95,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 133,000
  2. PML Later (Sky news) — 96,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 58,000
  4. Jones & Credlin (Sky News) — 72,000
  5. Credlin, (Sky News) — 71,000