love island tv ratings
(Image: Nine Entertainment)

A tale of two programs last night. The Bachelorette was suitably tearful (brought to you by Australia’s tissue-making sector) and full of doubt — whimpering, hand holding, kissing, face rubbing. Then the post decision selling started, with social media posts and FM radio appearances, and all the faux emotion over for another year. About 1.31 million tuned in for Angie’s decision, and 1.12 million for the lead up. That was a solid turn-on of 185,000 which is good news for Ten.

Compare that to the final episode of Love Island on Nine — 425,000 for the lead up and 311,000 for the winner’s announcement. What? That means 114,000 viewers turned off Flop Island because they couldn’t be bothered hanging around watching the ending and the “winner”. That is the ultimate insult from viewers for a program that has already been roundly rejected by viewers in the target (younger) demos.

In the regions it was Seven’s 6pm news with 507,000, Seven News/TT with 479,000, The Chase Australia 5.30pm with 323,000, The Bachelorette final decision with 317,000 and Home and Away with 311,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.7%)
  2. Nine (25.7%)
  3. Ten (23.0%)
  4. ABC (14.9%)
  5. SBS (6.7%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (18.0%)
  2. Nine (17.3%)
  3. Ten (16.9%)
  4. ABC (9.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.6%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7mate (4.9%)
  2. 7TWO (4.1%)
  3. 10 Bold (3.9%)
  4. Gem (3.1%)
  5. GO (3.0%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.380 million
  2. Seven News/TT — 1.318 million
  3. The Bachelorette – Final Decision (Ten) — 1.310 million
  4. The Bachelorette – Final (Ten) — 1.125 million
  5. Nine/NBN News 6.30 — 988,000
  6. Nine /NBN News   — 976,000
  7. 7pm ABC News  — 905,000
  8. A Current Affair (Nine) — 843,000
  9. Home And Away (Seven) — 821,000
  10. David Attenborough (Nine) — 815,000

Losers:  Flop Island — dead and gone.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 873,000
  2. Seven News/TT —839,000
  3. Nine News   — 703,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 703,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 612,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 572,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 469,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 426,000
  9. Ten News First — 323,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 241,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise: National: 476,000, Metro: 286,000
  2. Today: National: 280,000, Metro: 192,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) —224,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 222,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) —130,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 63,000

Top five pay TV programs: N/A

  1. The Great Australian Bake-Off (LifeStyle) — 89,000
  2. Opal Hunters (Discovery) — 62,000
  3. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 51,000
  4. Paul Murray Live(Sky News) — 50,000
  5. Love It Or List It Australia (lifeStyle) — 47,000