Siosifa Talakai during the match between the Cronulla Sharks and the Manly Sea Eagles (Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)

Nine ran the NRL (and what a boring game as ScoMo’s Sharkies beat Ziggy’s Sea Eagles) and managed to win a close night with 449,000 viewers for the battle of the beaches.

Ten ran MasterChef, which benefited from not having The Voice and Lego Masters in its face — and its audience lifted to 582,000 from 466,000 the night before. Ten also had Gogglebox, 643,000, and was very much in a mature, “we’re a bit bored” mode for its core audience. Foreign Correspondent brought in 480,000 with a solid report from Sicily, and Q+A drew 370,000. A friend says it should be Q+E: Questions and Evasions.

Regional top 5: Seven News, 514,000; Seven News 6.30, 479,000; 7pm ABC News, 293,000; Nine News 6.30, 289,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, Home and Away, 281,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (26.9%)
  2. Seven (25.7%)
  3. Ten (21.9%)
  4. ABC (16.4%)
  5. SBS (9.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (18.8%)
  2. Seven (17.7%)
  3. Ten (15.6%)
  4. ABC (10.5%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.6%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (3.4%)
  2. 10 Bold (3.3%)
  3. ABC Kids/Plus (2.9%)
  4. 7mate (2.8%)
  5. Gem, 10 Peach (2.5%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.398 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.367 million
  3. Nine News — 1.057 million
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.041 million
  5. 7pm ABC News — 862,000
  6. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 783,000
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 761,000
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 733,000
  9. 7.30 (ABC) — 653,000
  10. Gogglebox (Ten) — 643,000

Losers: Weak night overall, except for Ten

Metro news and current affair

  1. Seven News 6.30 — 888,000
  2. Seven News — 885,000
  3. Nine News — 778,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 752,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 569,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 530,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 436,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 353,000
  9. Foreign Correspondent (ABC) — 324,000
  10. 10 News First — 317,000

Morning (national) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 393,000/238,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 271,000/189,000
  3. ABC News Breakfast (ABC) — 265,000/169,000
  4. ABC News Mornings — 218,000
  5. The Morning Show (Seven) — 208,000
  6. Today Extra (Nine) — 149,000
  7. Studio 10 (Ten) — 38,000

Top 5 pay TV programs: N/A

  1. NRL: Cronulla vs. Manly (Fox League) — 219,000
  2. NRL: The Late Show With Matty Johns (Fox League) — 115,000
  3. NRL: Thursday Night League (Fox League) — 62,000
  4. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 59,000
  5. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 54,000