Hard Quiz host Tom Gleeson (Image: ABC)

A midweek slump on hump day for Wednesday’s breakfast and evening news/current affairs programs, with the tune-in numbers down from earlier in the week and a touch lower than the Wednesday before.

The ABC’s Hard Quiz again displayed its dominance with 956,000 viewers, effortlessly overpowering Nine’s tepid copycat reboot of The Weakest Link, which couldn’t even attract 400,000 viewers the night before. 7.30 did well with a national average of 908,000 nationally, and 802,000 caught a dash of full-frontal male nudity on Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell. 882,000 was an OK get for Seven’s Big Brother, but MasterChef struggled on Ten with 720,000.

Between 7.30pm and 9pm at least, the ABC lorded it over the so-called commercial networks by averaging 891,000 national viewers and topping Seven, Nine and Ten. It was Seven’s night in total people and the main channels, but if we’re talking money spent v ratings gained it was victory for the ABC. Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot of money to amuse and hold viewers — just a bit of wit and creativity, which remain in short supply at Seven, Nine and Ten.

Breakfast: Sunrise, 447,000 nationally/251,000 metro; Today, 310,000/204,000; News Breakfast, 294,000/201,000

Regional top five: Seven News, 573,000; Seven News 6.30, 556,000; Home and Away, 390,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 358,000; ABC 7pm News, 307,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.2%)
  2. Nine (26.2%)
  3. Ten (18.9%)
  4. ABC (17.5%)
  5. SBS (8.1%)


Network main channels:

  1. Seven (19.5%)
  2. Nine (18.8%)
  3. ABC (13.1%)
  4. Ten (11.2%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.8%)


Top 5 digital channels:

  1. 10 Bold (4.6%)
  2. 7TWO (4.3%)
  3. 7mate (3.0%)
  4. 10 Peach (2.7%)
  5. Gem (2.3%)


Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.620 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.568 million
  3. Nine News — 1.269 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.203 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 1.023 million
  6. Home and Away (Seven) — 956,000
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 958,000
  8. Hard Quiz (ABC), The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 956,000
  9. Travel Guides (Nine) — 913,000


Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.047 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 —1.017 million
  3. Nine News — 1 million


Losers: MasterChef, Doctor Doctor


Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.047 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.017 million
  3. Nine News — 1 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 946,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 716,000
  6. ACA (Nine) — 705,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 626,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 487,000
  9. Ten News First — 388,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 298,000


Morning (national) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 447,000/251,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 310,000/204,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC) — 294,000/201,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 271,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 163,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 60,000


Top five pay-TV programs:

  1. Credlin (Sky News) — 75,000
  2. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 70,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 67,000
  4. Alan Jones (Sky News) — 62,000
  5. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 61,000