My Kitchen Rules (2.446 million national/ 1.659 million metro/ 892,000 regional viewers) was back on top of the most watched program list last night, climbing above a still solid The Block’s ooh-ing and aah-ing room reveal episode by the contestants (million 2.226 million national/ 1.554 million metro/ 672,000 regional viewers). But that didn’t help Seven. Its other programming — the news hour from 6pm and Revenge after My Kitchen Rules — didn’t perform. In fact Love Child on Nine (1.890 million national/ 1.289 million metro/ 601,000 regional viewers) easily accounted for Seven’s fading Revenge with 1.294 million national/ 854,000 metro/ 410,000 regional viewers. That near 600,000 viewer difference proved to be the difference on the night between the two networks. And Ten, that old heartbreaking network? Well, it was off its all-time low of Sunday night, but was again a distant fourth last night, with the ABC safely in third and showing the network a clean pair of heels. Secrets and Lies at 8.30pm managed  445,000 national/ 316,000 metro / 129,000 regional viewers. Still dead in the water.  The ABC’s line up of news and current affairs was OK.

Four Corners had a BBC story about the Chinese economy (more doom and gloom). Seeing China is vital to Australia’s health, you would have liked to have seen the country’s most serious current affairs program taking China seriously by covering it with one of its own reporters and with an Australian eye, not a cheap buy in from the BBC (which is located off the coast of northern Europe and has huge problems of its own, that the media’s “experts” failed to spot in the years before the GFC). Four Corners had 916,000 national / 617,000 metro/ 299,000 regional viewers. It looked and sounded like the BBC had rounded up the usual suspects and told us China had fooled us all. More of the same and nothing that you don’t read from the bears in Australia, Europe or the US (who have been wrong about China for so long that they have lost their capacity to shock). For a more nuanced view, read the farewell story on the Chinese economy from The Economist’s Asian economics editor in the current edition.

In the morning Today again got close to Sunrise, 342,000 metro viewers to 339,000. Nationally, Sunrise  had 581,000; Today, 508,000. At 6pm, Nine News won Sydney (by 95,000 viewers), Melbourne (by 111,000) and Brisbane by (30,000). Seven won Adelaide and Perth, but not by enough to make up the shortfall on the east coast.

Network channel share:

  1. Nine (32.9%)
  2. Seven (31.6%)
  3. ABC (17.9%)
  4. Ten (13.3%)
  5. SBS (4.4%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (26.9%)
  2. Seven (23.3%)
  3. ABC1 (13.1%)
  4.  Ten (8.2%)
  5. SBS ONE (3.5%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.2%)
  2. 7Mate (4.1%)
  3. GO (3.2%)
  4. Eleven (2.8%)
  5. Gem (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 2.446 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 2.267 million
  3. Love Child (Nine) — 1.890 million
  4. Nine News — 1.814 million
  5. Home and Away  (Seven) — 1.533 million
  6. Seven News — 1.507 million
  7. ABC News — 1.351 million
  8. Revenge (Seven) — 1.294 million
  9. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.269 million
  10. Nine News 6.30 — 1.166 million

Top metro programs:

  1. My Kitchen Rules (Seven) – 1.659 million
  2. The Block (Nine) — 1.554 million
  3. Love Child (Nine) — 1.289 million
  4. Nine News — 1.220 million
  5. Nine News 6.30 — 1.167 million
  6. Seven News – 1.150 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.063 million
  8. Seven News / Today Tonight — 1.061 million
  9. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.006 million

Losers: Sorry, Ten, again.Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Nine News — 1.220 million
  2. Nine News 6.30 — 1.167 million
  3. Seven News – 1.150 million
  4. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.063 million
  5. Seven News / Today Tonight — 1.061 million
  6. ABC News — 931,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC1) – 704,000
  8. Australian Story (ABC1) — 683,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 661,000
  10. Four Corners (ABC1) — 617,000

Metro morning TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 342,000
  2. Today (Nine) – 339,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 145,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC1 – 66,000 + 43,000 on News 24) — 109,000
  5. Mornings (Nine) — 91,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 57,000
  7. Wake Up (Ten) — 40,000

Top pay TV channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1 (3.2%)
  2. TVHITS!  (2.2%)
  3. Fox 8, LifeStyle   (2.1%)
  4. A&E (1.6%)
  5. Disney / Foxtel Movies (1.5%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. NRL: Gold Coast v North Qld (Fox Sports 1) — 205,000
  2. Monday Night With Matty Johns (Fox Sports 1) — 133,000
  3. Good Luck Charlie (Disney) – 91,000
  4. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 90,000
  5. AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) – 76,000

*Data © OzTAM Pty Limited 2013. The data may not be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of OzTAM. (All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight all people.) and network reports.

Peter Fray

Fetch your first 12 weeks for $12

Here at Crikey, we saw a mighty surge in subscribers throughout 2020. Your support has been nothing short of amazing — we couldn’t have got through this year like no other without you, our readers.

If you haven’t joined us yet, fetch your first 12 weeks for $12 and start 2021 with the journalism you need to navigate whatever lies ahead.

Peter Fray
Editor-in-chief of Crikey

JOIN NOW