The first part of the dietary villains special on ABC1’s Catalyst program really struck gold last night. It was the most-watched program after 7pm  in metro, regional and national markets with 1.491 million national/ 944,000/ 547,000 regional viewers. It was the most-watched program in viewers 55 plus which was to be expected. But the 688,000 metro viewers in that demo alone would have made the program a hit on the night. It was also number two among grocery buyers and number three among women 35 plus.

Catalyst was intelligent TV — it made you think. And the same can be said about the third and final episode of Redesign My Brain with Todd Sampson (1.269 million national/ 874,000 metro/ 395,000 regional viewers). It was the second most-watched post  7pm program in metro markets and fourth nationally.

Nine gave us the usual Big Brother pap (1.138 million nationally/ 818,000 metro/ 320,000 regional viewers). Seven gave the solid Home and Away (1.384 million national/ 864,000 metro/ 520,000 regional viewers) and then the insulting Beauty and The Geek Australia (1.187 million nationally/ 765,000 metro/ 422,000). Ten had Jamie Oliver in Food Fight (666,000 national/ 473,000 metro/ 193,000 regional viewers).

Seven’s Sunrise again dominated the morning with a sizable audience lift as it reported on the Sydney bushfires. Sunrise had 682,000 national viewers and 497,000 in metro markets. ABC News Breakfast also boosted its audiences on ABC1 and News24 yesterday to 196,000 nationally. That’s up more than a quarter on recent levels. But Nine’s Sunrise was again well behind with 519,000 nationally and 336,000 in metro markets). Has the ABC been taking viewers from Today? Interestingly, the metro audience for Ten’s The Project (6.30 to 7.30 pm) crashed to just 397,000, one of the lowest this year and 20% lower than the night before and 30% lower than a few weeks ago. That was out of the blue.

Dinosaur update: Everyone remember’s Murder She Wrote from the 1980s with Angela Lansbury starring? Well, US media reports say that a revival is in pilot production for NBC in the US. ABC has revived the Six Million Dollar Man with the new series Intelligence, Charlie’s Angels have come and gone. Next Happy Days?

High cost Ten. Network insiders tell us that Wake Up, the new breakfast program that will come from Queenscliffe Surf Club near Manly in Sydney’s northern beaches, will be an expensive operation. The program’s set will have to be dismantled every Friday and then reassembled every Sunday night. Let’s hope the set is guarded over the weekend, wouldn’t want it to go missing. Ten did a deal with the surf club that requires the set to be bumped out on Fridays and bumped in on Sunday nights to allow the club to be available to members on the weekend. That will add to the costs of the program, which with the new news broadcasts and the morning program starts on Monday, November 4. And, by the way, the ABC reminded us yesterday that the ABC’s News Breakfast celebrates its 5th birthday on Monday November 4. In those five years, Ten has already run through three strategies for breakfast and news, one of which was ‘boned’ in last year’s cost cuts and purges.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (27.7%)
  2. Nine (27.5%)
  3. ABC (22.4%)
  4. Ten (16.9%)
  5. SBS (5.5%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (20.1%)
  2. Nine (18.4%)
  3. ABC1 (16.4%)
  4. Ten (11.8%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.8%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (5.2%)
  2. 7TWO (4.3%)
  3. Gem (3.9%)
  4. ABC 2 (3.7%)
  5. 7mate (3.2%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News –– 1.583 million
  2. Nine News — 1.567 million
  3. Catalyst (ABC1) — 1.494 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.384 million
  5. ABC News — 1.314 million
  6. Redesign My Brain (ABC1) — 1.269 million
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) — 1.264 million
  8. Beauty and The Geek Australia (Seven) — 1.187 million
  9. Big Brother (Nine) — 1.138 million
  10. How I Met Your Mother (Seven) — 1.115 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Nine News — 1.040 million

Losers: Apart from the ABC, the SBS foodie programs and Home and Away, it was a weak night.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.040 million
  2. Seven News — 977,000
  3. ABC News — 877,000
  4. Today Tonight (Seven) — 873,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 818,000
  6. 7.30 (ABC1) — 801,000
  7. Ten News — 538,000
  8. The Project (ABC1) — 397,000
  9. Revealed (Ten) — 307,000
  10. Lateline (ABC1) — 172,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 407,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 336,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC1, 71,000 + 54,000 on News24) — 125,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. LifeStyle  (3.5%)
  2. Fox 8  (3.1%)
  3. TV1 (2.7%)
  4. Disney Jr (2.0%)
  5. UKTV  (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. Grand Designs Australia  (LifeStyle) – 157,000
  2. Grand Designs (LifeStyle) — 88,000
  3. Family Guy, Futurama (Fox) — 59,000
  4. Austin & Ally (Disney) — 54,000
  5. Selling Houses Australia Extreme  (LifeStyle) – 51,000

*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.