Seven’s night because of the innate year appeal of a certain Good Doctor — the Tuesday outing averaged 1.75 million national viewers, 1.12 million metro and 626,000 regional viewers. And that was the night. Seven’s Instant Hotel did well with 1.06 million viewers. It’s a good idea and like My Kitchen Rules and The Block, it all depends on the casting. 

What was interesting was the massive turn on from Instant Hotel to The Good Doctor — a huge 77% more viewers in the metros last night — from 633,000 for Instant Hotel to 1.12 million for the Doc. Nationally it was nearly 65% more viewers, or 688,000. That is ratings gold for a TV network. It shows viewers are actively looking for a program and flocking to it because they like it. 

It is very much against the grain of recent ratings experience in Australia where new or returning programs struggle to hold audiences, especially early solid audiences in the case of debuts. In these days of streaming video and fragmenting audiences (and twice a week screening by Seven), The Good Doctor is a surprise. What will be interesting is how viewers respond when it returns next year. 

In the regions The Good Doctor topped with 526,000, then Seven News with 529,000, followed by Home and Away with 448,000, Seven News/TT was fourth with 440,000 and Instant Hotel was fifth with 434,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (32.2%)
  2. Nine (26.7%)
  3. Ten (17.1%)
  4. ABC (16.6%)
  5. SBS (8.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (23.6%)
  2. Nine (18.0%)
  3. Ten (11.5%)
  4. ABC (10.0%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.4%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (3.7%)
  2. 7mate (3.5%)
  3. ABC 2 (3.4%)
  4. 7TWO, Gem (3.3%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. The Good Doctor (Seven) — 1.755 million
  2. Seven News  — 1.477 million
  3. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.349 million
  4. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.111 million
  5. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.108 million
  6. Nine/NBN News — 1.107 million
  7. Instant Hotel (Seven) — 1.067 million
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1027 million
  9. 7pm ABC News — 1.024 million
  10. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 925,000

Top metro programs:

  1. The Good Doctor (Seven) — 1.129 million

Losers: Apart from TGD it would have been a slow night.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 948,000
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 908,000
  3. Nine News — 861,000
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 858,000
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) —769,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 727,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 539,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 456,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 422,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 304,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 507,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 384,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, 176,000 + 93,000 on News 24) — 269,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 205,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 122,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 50,000

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. FFA Cup (Fox Sports) — 107,000
  2. FFA Cup  (Fox Sports) — 97,000
  3. The Great British Bake-Off (LifeStyle) — 66,000
  4. Jones & Co (Sky News) — 147,000
  5. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 114,000