SAS Australia (Image: Supplied)

Watching TV most nights this week (apart from Sunday night’s NRL grand final) is really like SAS Australia — dull, boring, cruel and in the end mindless.

You know there will be the ritualistic bullying and yelling, attempts at humiliating and breaking down the contestants’ spirit and more — a bit like working in network TV actually. Bullying is supposed to be a big no-no — millions of dollars are being spent to try mitigate physical, mental and online bullying and other atrocities, and yet a TV network screens a program that has that at its core.

And viewers have twigged to that. For the first time in the series so far the national audience fell under a million where it will remain for a while until the final episode when some deserting viewers return to see who “won” and whatever that means in terms of accolades and loot.

The 986,000 national viewers last night was down another 100,000 from Monday night’s 1.09 million, and down just over 200,000 from the first ep’s 1.19 million. It should steady around this level, but if it loses another 10% next week then it is doomed.

Seven narrowly beat Nine in total people, but Nine narrowly beat Seven in the main channels.

Junior MasterChef on Ten, 629,000 (no audience build whatsoever), Outback Ringer on the ABC, 660,000 up a touch (30,000) on the debut a week earlier and The Block on Nine, 1.11 million, 50,000 better than a week earlier.

In breakfast Today got very close to Sunrise in the metros: Sunrise led with 437,000/250,000 viewers, Today was on 323,000/220,000. ABC News Breakfast averaged 303,000/204,000.

In regional markets Seven News, 568,000; Seven News 6.30, 542,000; Home and Away, 385,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 336,000; 7pm ABC News, 328,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (28.6%)
  2. Nine (28.1%%)
  3. Ten (17.5%)
  4. ABC (17.3%)
  5. SBS (8.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (20.9%)
  2. Seven(19.2%)
  3. ABC (12.5%)
  4. Ten (11.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.9%)

Top 5 digital channels:

  1. 7TWO (4.1%)
  2. 7mate, 10 Bold (3.4%)
  3. ABC Kids/Comedy (2.8%)
  4. 9Life (2.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.54 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.49 million
  3. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.23 million
  4. Nine/NBN News — 1.21 million
  5. The Block (Nine) — 1.11 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.06 million
  7. 7pm ABC News — 1.05 million
  8. SAS Australia (Seven) — 986,000
  9. Home and Away (Seven) — 955,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 885,000

Top metro programs: None with a million or more

Losers: Another weak night overall — SAS Australia and The Block, dull.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 973,000
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 950,000
  3. Nine News 6.30, Nine News — 945,000
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 762,000
  5. 7pm ABC News – 718,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC) — 618,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 496,000
  8. Ten News First — 327,000
  9. The Project 6.30 (Ten) — 304,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 437,000/250,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 323,000/220,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 303,000/204,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 221,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) – 166,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 53,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Alan Jones (Sky News), Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 74,000
  2. Credlin (Sky News) — 71,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 70,000
  4. PML Later (Fox Footy) — 51,000