What a disagreeable bunch congregated on Married at First Sight. Self-promoters, nasties, tragics, and the odd sociopath. Great for train wreck TV and did the job (just) for Nine last night in the main channels and the demos. But from tonight, Seven’s My Kitchen Rules will rule and Nine will lag. Nine ran back to back episodes of House Husbands to give it a chance of finishing in front of Seven by 10.30pm (when the “prime” part of prime time ends). The double episode averaged 814,000 across the two hours from 9.40pm to 11pm after Married had averaged 1.98 million and MKR 1.82 million.

Ten was again weak. Modern Family’s two episodes attracted 452,000 nationally viewers, barely more than The Biggest Loser did. Ten’s metro main channel share was 9.9%, up on 8.8% a week ago. 

The ABC had a stronger night with more viewers from 7pm, especially for a very solid Four Corners at 8.30 pm (1.05 million national viewers) and Media Watch straight after with 1.04 million.

Sunrise won nationally in breakfast, 539,000 to Today’s 484,000, but Today had more (309,000) metro viewers, than Sunrise (288,000) for the first time in weeks. So the bragging rights are modest.

In the regionals Seven News was again tops with 657,000, MKR was second with 610,000, Married with Children was 3rd with 599,000, then Seen News/Today Tonight with 540,000 and Home and Away was 5th with 496,000. 

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (30.9%)
  2. Nine (29.9%)
  3. ABC (18.6%)
  4. Ten (14.8%)
  5. SBS (5.9%)

Network main channels:

  1. Nine (23.9%)
  2. Seven (22.8%)
  3. ABC (14.5%)
  4. Ten (9.9%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (4.1%)
  2. 7mate (2.8%)
  3. ABC 2 (2.6%)
  4. Eleven (2.5%)
  5. GO (2.4%))

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Married At First Sight (Nine) — 1.98 million
  2. Seven News  — 1.83 million
  3. MKR (Seven) — 1.82 million
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.69 million
  5. Nine/NBN News 6.30  — 1.46 million
  6. Nine/NBN News — 1.41 million
  7. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.32 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.31 million
  9. 7pm ABC News — 1.20 million
  10. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.08 million

Top metro programs:

  1. Married at First Sight (Nine) — 1.38 million
  2. MKR (Seven) — 1.21 million
  3. Seven News — 1.17 million
  4. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.15 million

Losers: Ten, again.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.17 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.15 million
  3. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.08 million
  4. Nine News — 1.06 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) – 939,000
  6. 7pm ABC News — 803,000
  7. Australian Story (ABC) — 716,000
  8. Media Watch (ABC) — 708,000
  9. 7.30 (ABC) — 676,000
  10. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 563,000

Morning (national) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 539,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 484,000
  3. News Breakfast (ABC,  184,000 + 99,000 on News 24) — 283,000
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 233,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 189,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 152,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TVHITS (2.5%)
  2. UKTV/Fox8/LifeStyle/Nick Jr/Disney Jr (1.6%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) – 115,000
  2. AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) — 85,000
  3. The Walking Dead (Fx)  — 83,000
  4. The Walking Dead (Fx)  — 70,000
  5. Monday Night With Matty Johns (Fox8) — 70,000

Peter Fray

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