(Image: ABC)

What a barren night. After two weeks of Olympics coverage on Seven (and pretty good coverage at that) I had forgotten how miserable Thursday nights have become. Foreign Correspondent on the ABC, 654,000, followed by Q+A with an average of 466,000 — it lost 188,000.

ABC viewers abandoned Win the Week on Wednesday night and repeated the dose last night when Q+A got under way. By the time it comes around it is just another circular talkfest.

Only the NRL — 578,000 nationally on Nine and 225,000 on Foxtel — provided colour and movement. It was a desert in Sydney. Lucky people in AFL states had The Front Bar at a reasonable hour. It averaged 459,000, almost as many as Q+A. The Bachelor on Ten had 512,000 after 493,000 on Wednesday night. It had no opposition last night and should have done better.

Regional top five: Seven News 6.30, 598,000; Seven News, 597,000; Home and Away, 408,000; Nine News, 400,000; 7pm ABC news and The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 378,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.3%)
  2. Nine (28.3%)
  3. Ten (18.7%)
  4. ABC (11.7%)
  5. SBS (7.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (19.5%)
  2. Seven (19.4%)
  3. Ten, ABC  (11.7%)
  4. SBS ONE (3.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (4.4%)
  2. 7TWO (3.8%)
  3. 10 Bold (3.3%)
  4. Gem (2.9%)
  5. 10 Peach (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.753 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.674 million
  3. Nine News  — 1.448 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.356 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 1.108 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.019 million
  7. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.013 million
  8. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 938,000
  9. Home and Away — late (Seven) — 931,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 869,000

Top metro programs: 
1. Seven News  — 1.156 million
3. Seven News 6.30 — 1.095 million
4. Nine News —1.048 million

Losers: The Bachelor and Q+A. Weak again.

Metro news and current affairs

  1. Seven News — 1.156 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 —1.095 million
  3. Nine News — 1.048 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 979,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 730,000
  6. ACA (Nine) — 713,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 584,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 468,000
  9. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) — 458,000
  10. Ten News First (ABC) — 429,000

Morning (national) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 486,000/285,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 374,000/251,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC) — 325,000/220,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 261,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 237,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) —  69,000

Top five pay TV programs: 

  1. NRL: Melbourne v Canberra (Fox League) — 225,000
  2. NRL: The Late Show With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 109,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 69,000
  4. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 68,000
  5. Credlin (Sky News) — 68,000