Ratings the front bar
The Front Bar (Image: Channel 7)

Married At First Sight – 1.94 million nationally and 1.45 million in the metros . It was Nine’s night, with the network doubling the competition as it hit a new Wednesday night high.

But another black hole has opened in Nine’s schedule — Seven’s The Front Bar returned for the AFL season last night with 511,000 viewers nationally (number 18 nationally) and 278,000 in Melbourne, and well and truly whacked the latest version of Nine’s AFL Footy Show which could only manage 343,000 nationally. With MAFS and its 447,000 audience the lead-in for the returning AFL Footy Show just 193,000 stayed around. 

And even that little burst of sunshine in the morning — Today’s metro audience above 200,000 on Monday and Tuesday — vanished on Wednesday when the program could only muster 178,000 metro viewers. The national audience was 273,000, while Sunrise pulled in 444,000 and 270,000. The Weekly returned with solid 845,000 national viewers and Judith Lucy filled those shoes more than adequately. 

In regional markets Seven’s 6pm News led with 511,000, then Seven News/Today Tonight with 498,000, MAFS was third with 488,000, MKR was next with 377,000 and Home and Away had 347,000

Network channel share:

Nine (35.3%)
Seven (27.6%)
ABC (16.0%)
Ten (13.7%)
SBS (7.5%)

Network main channels:

Nine (27.1%)
Seven (20.7%)
ABC (12.1%)
Ten (7.5%)
SBS ONE (4.9%)

Top 5 digital channels:

10 Bold (4.0%)
9Life (3.2%)
GO, 7TWO (2.9%)
ABC Kids/Comedy, 7mate (2.2%)

Top 10 national programs:

MAFS (Nine) — 1.94 million
Seven News — 1.46 million
Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.45 million
Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.16 million
Nine/NBN News — 1.14 million
MKR (Seven) — 1.11 million
A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.10 million
7pm ABC News — 1.03 million
Home and Away (Seven) — 995,000
Hard Quiz (ABC) — 973,000

Top metro programs:

MAFS (Nine) — 1.454 million

Metro news and current affairs:

Seven News/Today Tonight — 959,000
Seven News — 953,000
Nine News — 894,000
Nine News 6.30 — 891,000
A Current Affair (Nine) – 797,000
7pm ABC News — 715,000
7.30 (ABC) — 593,000
The Project 7pm (Ten) — 431,000
10 News First — 386,000
The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 249,000

Morning (National) TV:

Sunrise (Seven) — 444,000 (Metros: 270,000)
Today (Nine) — 273,000 (Metros: 178,000)
News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 265,000
The Morning Show (Seven) — 198,000
Mornings (Nine) — 135,000
Studio 10 (Ten) — 89,000

Top five pay TV programs:

Gogglebox Australia (LifeStyle) — 123,000
Selling Houses Australia (LifeStyle) — 104,000
Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 57,000
AFL 360 (Fox Footy) — 54,000
Blaze And The Machines (Nick Jr), Border Security (Fox8) — 50,000