A night of contrasts on ABC1. The Checkout was a gutsy, well directed effort. It’s the old consumer rights type of program, but with a more up-to-date, social media friendly and direct style of attack. Well worth its presence on ABC1 in prime time last night at 8pm.

Then Orbit on ABC1 at 8.30pm (1.004 million national/ 678,000 metro/ 326,000 regional) which raises the question: why do we have to know about the way the earth moves around the sun from a BBC point of view? The first part last night program ended on December 22, the winter solstice in Britain, but that’s the summer solstice in Australia — and no mention of it. It’s cheap filler material better suited to ABC2.

And on Nine we had the first part of a Top Gear Africa special (1.128 million national/ 740,000 metro/ 388,000 regional) that was everything wrong with the program — indulgent, witless entertainment. No wonder the ABC’s 7pm News (1.490 million national/ 1.018 million metro/ 472,000 regional), 7.30 (1.134 million national/ 771,000 metro/ 363,000 regional) and The Checkout (1.080 million national/ 748,000 metro/ 332,000 regional) had more viewers, especially with a bit of news, information and entertainment. Top Gear lacked that and with Nine running dead, you can see why the network scheduled it into Thursday night as the lead in to The Footy Shows at 8.30pm (1.170 million national/ 851,000 metro/ 319,000 regional).

In Melbourne last night, Nine’s 6pm News thrashed Seven News by 168,000 viewers, 418,000 to 250,000 (and Nine won Sydney and Brisbane, but by smaller margins). A Current Affair beat Today Tonight in Melbourne by 98,000. The pain continues for Seven in Melbourne.

Tonight/ the weekend: Lots of football — A League soccer, NRL and AFL on Foxtel, AFL on Seven, NRL on Nine tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. A bike road race on SBS on Sunday night. The last of the Dr Blake Mysteries of the current series (hopefully a second series will happen) is on tonight on ABC1 — watch, and another must watch is the second episode of Last Tango in Halifax on ABC1 on Saturday night. Ratings resume Sunday morning, so there are the morning chats with the ABC programs (Insiders etc) back from the Easter break. The Voice and My Kitchen Rules square off on Sunday at 6.30pm, then Nine has the Logies, starting with the train wrecks on the red carpet. Seven has Downton Abbey as well. Ten has a fresh Elementary and of course, The Biggest Loser which is facing a big loss (of viewers, that is).

Network channel shares:

  1. Nine (29.7%)
  2. Seven (24.9%)
  3. Ten (19.5%)
  4. ABC (19.4%)
  5. SBS1 (6.6%)

Main channels:

  1. Nine (22.1%)
  2. Seven (17.6%)
  3. ABC1 (14.3%)
  4. Ten (12.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (5.8%)

Top 5 digital channels:

  1. GO (4.8%
  2. 7TWO (4.6%)
  3. Eleven (3.7%)
  4. ABC2 (3.0%)
  5. Gem (2.9%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News  – 1.645 million
  2. Seven News — 1.607 million
  3. ABC1 News  – 1.490 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.436 million
  5. RSPCA Animal Rescue (Seven) — 1.239 million
  6. The Footy Show (Nine) — 1.170 million
  7. Today Tonight (Seven) — 1.154 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.136 million
  9. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.134 million
  10. Top Gear (Nine) — 1.128 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.143 million
  2. Seven News — 1.089 million
  3. ABC1 News — 1.018 million

Losers: Apart from ABC1 and SBS, the rest of the offerings from Seven, Nine and Ten. Weak to snoring. The fact that the top programs were news broadcasts tells us how bad the offerings were on the three commercial networks. Viewers have been treated as a joke this week.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News (6pm) – 1.143 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) – 1.089 million
  3. ABC1 News — 1.018 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) – 958,000
  5. Today Tonight (Seven) — 918,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC 1) – 771,000
  7. Ten News — 636,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 510,000
  9. Lateline (ABC 1) — 183,000
  10. Ten Late News — 178,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 329,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 328,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 56,000 + 24,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. Fox 8 , LifeStyle – 3.2%
  2. TV1, UKTV  – 2.2%
  3. Discovery — 1.8%
  4. Cartoon Network, A&E — 1.7%
  5. Crime & Investigation  – 1.5%

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Grand Designs (LifeStyle) – 115,000
  2. AFL 360 (Fox Footy) – 95,000
  3. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 90,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox 8) – 82,000
  5. Gold Rush (Discovery) – 76,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) and network reports.