Meg Lanning in the Women's T20 World Cup Semi-Final (Image: AAP/Dan Himbrechts)

A weak night with the digital channels grabbing a 39.9% share in total — boosted by a reasonable audience for the Australia-South Africa semi final in the Women’s T20 World Cup on Nine Gem.

Thereby hangs a tale of a lack of guts at the Nine Network which has once again failed to fully support women’s sport. The thrilling game averaged 272,000 on Gem from 2.30pm to 6pm, but it could have been given a much bigger stage.

Nine could have easily switched the coverage of the semi to the main channel on Thursday afternoon. It was running a repeat of MAFS which averaged 162,000, then Tipping Point (158,000). At 4pm Nine’s afternoon news averaged 263,000 and Millionaire Hot Seat averaged 532,000. It was weak programming — a lack of courage.

Seven’s Pooch Perfect, hosted by Rebel Wilson showed no staying power — 922,000 last week for the debut, 678,000 last night. A loss of 244,000 viewers or around 25%. Heel, viewer, stay! 

Meanwhile Gogglebox Australia again did well — 935,000 and the most watched non-news program on the night.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (28.6%)
  2. Seven (26.4%)
  3. Ten (21.7%)
  4. ABC (16.3%)
  5. SBS (6.9%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (16.8%)
  2. Nine (16.6%)
  3. Ten (14.9%)
  4. ABC (10.1%)
  5. SBS ONE (2.6%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. Gem (5.6)
  2. 7TWO (4.2%)
  3. 10 Bold (4.0%)
  4. GO(3.7%)
  5. 7mate (3.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.439 million
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.406 million 
  3. Nine/NBN News   — 1.105 million
  4. Nine/NBN News 6.30  — 1.062 million
  5. 7pm ABC News —1.007 million
  6. Gogglebox Australia (Ten) — 935,000
  7. Home and Away (Seven) — 928,000
  8. ACA (Nine) — 904,000
  9. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 837,000
  10. 7.30 (ABC) — 799,000

Top metro programs: None with a million or more viewers

Losers: Nine — a dunce for not putting the Women’s T20 on the main channel.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News  —916,000
  2. Seven News 6.30 — 893,000
  3. Nine News  —84,000
  4. Nine News 6.30 — 823,000
  5. 7pm ABC News —687,000
  6. ACA (Nine) — 646,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) —539,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 392,000
  9. Ten News First — 368,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 237,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise: National: 454,000, Metro: 262,000 
  2. Today: National: 306,000, Metro: 203,000 
  3. News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — 299,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 245,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 160,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 62,000


Top five pay TV programs: N/A