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

A weak night. Only Seven’s The Front Bar and its AFL grand final special showed any spark — 691,000 nationally and 324,000 in Melbourne. Nine’s Footy Show had 496,000 and 328,000 in Melbourne on Wednesday night, so Melbourne boasting rights will be claimed by Nine. And that was the night.

Nine’s Today remained weak in breakfast — 285,000 nationally and 189,000 in the metros against 459,000 and 275,000 for Sunrise on Seven. Unusually, Nine’s 6pm news could only muster 706,000 metro viewers against the 896,000 for Seven’s 6pm news, and the 7pm ABC News managed to top ACA nationally for the first time in a very long time. In the regions the usual suspects were in the top five — Seven News/TT with 487,000, then Seven’s 6pm news with 479,000 (another unusual result), then Home and Away with 350,000, The Chase Australia 5.30pm with 308,000 and the 7pm ABC News with 298,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (32.9%)
  2. Nine (24.4%)
  3. Ten (18.2%)
  4. ABC (17.9%)
  5. SBS (6.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (22.0%)
  2. Nne (16.3%)
  3. ABC (12.4%)
  4. Ten (11.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.9%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.2%)
  2. 10 Bold (4.0%)
  3. ABC Kids/Comedy (3.2%)
  4. GO (3.0%)
  5. 7mate (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.376 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.371 million
  3. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 1.011 million
  4. Nine/NBN News — 976,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 912,000
  6. Home And Away (Seven) —911,000
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 859,000
  8. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) —  795,000
  9. Gogglebox Australia (Ten) — 781,000
  10. RBT (Nine) — 734,000

Losers: Nine and Ten.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 896,000
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 884,00
  3. Nine News 6.30 — 737,000
  4. Nine News — 706,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 615,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) – 590,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) —507,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 394,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 330,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 235,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) National: 459,000, Metro 275,000
  2. Today (Nine) — National: 285,000, Metro: 189,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 232,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 212,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 127,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 69,000

Top five pay TV programs: N/A

  1. RWC: England v USA (Fox Sports 503) —75,000
  2. RWC: England v USA Pre-Game (Fox Sports 503) —56,000
  3. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 53,000
  4. Family Guy (Fox8) — 45,000
  5. RWC: Italy v Canada (Fox Sports 503) —43,000