married at first sight tv ratings
Married at First Sight's 'relationship experts' (Image: Nine Entertainment)

Easter is a non-ratings period, or it’s supposed to be. In the past the networks sort of followed the tradition of resting shows over the Easter weekend (the ABC is resting Media Watch, Insiders, Offsiders, for example). But when you have a ratings hit, as Nine does with MAFS, non-ratings periods don’t matter — ad dollars do.

So Nine runs MAFS until Wednesday night and wins the night and the “non-ratings” week. MAFS last night had 1.39 million national viewers, and Under Investigation had 689,000. End of night except for the ABC remaining competitive. 7.30 with 1.03 million national viewers and Australian Story with 933,000. Both programs focused on women in politics and saw high audience numbers. This is an issue that is defining the media at the moment — MAFS is part of the problem.

So last night it was Nine, from a weak Seven, a solid ABC and a straggling Ten. Tonight it’s the third and final part of the ABC expose of the 1979 Luna Park ghost train fire. Nine papers have been revisiting the story — it has all the look of enabling them to say “See, we were onto the story back in 2007”.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (33.8%)
  2. Seven (23.6%)
  3. ABC (18.8)
  4. Ten (15.6%)
  5. SBS (8.2%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (26.8%)
  2. Seven (15.5%)
  3. ABC (13.9%)
  4. Ten (8.3%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.0%)

Top 5 digital channels:

  1. 10 Bold (4.4%)
  2. 7TWO (3.4%)
  3. 7mate (3.1%)
  4. ABC Kids/Comedy/Plus, 10 Peach (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.595 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.517 million
  3. MAFS (Nine) — 1.393 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.314 million
  5. Nine News — 1.282 million
  6. 7pm ABC News — 1.154 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) —1.112 million
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 1.037 million
  9. Australian Story (ABC) — 933,000
  10. Home and Away (Seven) — 795,000

Top metro programs:

  1. MAFS (Nine) — 1.065million
  2. Seven News — 1.030 million
  3. Nine News — 1 million

Losers: Seven, Ten again.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.030 million
  2. Nine News — 1 million
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 988,000
  4. Seven News 6.30 — 962,000
  5. ACA (Nine) — 803,000
  6. 7pm ABC News — 775,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 690,000
  8. Australian Story (ABC) — 634,000
  9. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 455,000
  10. Four Corners (ABC) — 441,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 455,000/268,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 313,000/2170,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC) — 265,000/167,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 218,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 157,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 47,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 83,000
  2. F1: Bahrain (Fox Sports 506) — 76,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 74,000
  4. Credlin (Sky News) — 69,000
  5. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 67,000