Nine won closely from Seven, Ten and the ABC on what was generally a weak night of TV. The Checkout on ABC1 stood out with 1.226 million national/ 819,000 metro/ 407,000 regional viewers. Sadly it ends next week.  Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Seven won Adelaide and Perth by big margins. Seven also won regional markets quite convincingly while the ABC beat Ten into third place.

Nine split The Block into two parts — the first averaged 1.541 million national/ 1.073 million metro/ 468,000 regional viewers. The second bit, called “Unlocked” (it’s essentially a 30-minute free plug for the main sponsor, Mitre Ten), averaged 1.240 million national/ 821,000 metro/ 419,000 regional . The program average for the 90 minutes was 1.390 million national/ 947,000 metro/ 444,000 regional viewers, which is still OK. In fact the turn-off of 300,000 nationally from the main part of the program to the “Unlocked” segment should be a warning to Nine that viewers don’t really like the free ad.

Nine News and A Current Affair gave Seven News and Today Tonight another toweling last night in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. At 6pm, Nine news won Sydney by 132,000, Melbourne by 198,000 and Brisbane by 35,000. At 6.30pm A Current Affair beat Today Tonight by 120,000 in Sydney, 159,000 in Melbourne and 91,000 in Brisbane. Nine news topped the 2 million mark (2.030 million) nationally last night, which is rare for a Thursday night. Seven news was 242,000 viewers behind. Seven’s House Rules averaged 1.414 million national/ 898,000 metro/ 516,000 regional viewers (where it is now clearly beating The Block).

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (30.3%)
  2. Seven (29.1%)
  3. Ten (17.9%)
  4. ABC (16.6%)
  5. SBS (6.1%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (23.2%)
  2. Seven  (22.2%)
  3. Ten (12.8%)
  4. ABC1 (12.3%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.9%)

Top five digital channels: 

  1. GO (4.4%)
  2. 7TWO (4.3%)
  3. Eleven (2.9%)
  4. Gem (2.7%)
  5. 7TWO (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Nine News — 2.030 million
  2. Seven News — 1.788 million
  3. The Block (Nine) 1.541 million
  4. Mrs Brown’s Boys (Seven) – 1.461 million
  5. ABC1 News — 1.456 million
  6. House Rules (Seven) — 1.414 million
  7. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.384 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.379 million
  9. The Block (Unlocked) — 1.240 million
  10. The Checkout (ABC1) — 1.226 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.395 million
  2. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.187 million
  3. Seven News — 1.149 million
  4. The Block (Nine) — 1.073 million

Losers:  Viewers of ABC1 and the program Kristie’s Vintage Home ( 652,000 national/ 453,000 metro/ 199,000 regional). What a cosy little quilting effort of a program it was. How a weak UK homecrafts program from Channel 4 Pay TV snuck into ABC’s 8.30pm slot last night is beyond me. Next Spice up your Haggis in five easy steps? Seeing SBS ONE’s 8.30 program, The Spice Trip, was also a Channel 4 effort, we had a nice bit of cultural imperialism last night! 

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.395 million
  2.  A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.187 million
  3. Seven News — 1.149 million
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 958,000
  5. ABC1 News — 954,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 782,000
  7. Ten News — 675,000
  8. The Project (Ten) — 505,000
  9. Ten Late News  — 231,000
  10. Lateline (ABC1) — 189,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 369,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 358,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1) – 48,000 + 45,000 on News 24

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle – 2.7%
  2. Fox 8 – 2.4%
  3. TV1 – 2.3%
  4. A&E, Sky News — 1.7%
  5. Discovery, UKTV – 1.6%.

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Family Guy (F0x 8) – 102,000
  2. The Simpsons (Fox 8) – 98,000
  3. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 94,000
  4. Gold Rush  (Discovery) – 92,000
  5. Grand Designs Revisited (LifeStyle) — 78,000

Tonight? Weekend: Lots of sport — AFL, NRL, The Giro d’Italia. On Sunday night, Seven has quietly pulled the second episode of Kath and Kim’s Kountdown and send it to the holding room after last week’s weak ratings. It has been replaced by The Force and Highway Patrol, with Sunday Night at 6.30pm.

*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.