Masterchef was the most watched non-news program with 1.25 million people nationally — a good result for Ten — on a generally weak night. Not so good was the bombing of Common Sense, the Gogglebox Australia derivative which flopped badly on Foxtel on Wednesday night and again on Ten last night. Common Sense managed just 647,000 viewers (including 463,000 in the metros — it’s a program aimed at metro viewers really, so it didn’t click). It followed Masterchef at 8.40pm and was beaten by Janet King on the ABC which wrapped up last night with 787,000 national viewers. That was also more than watched 7.30 an hour earlier (733,000, which used to be a moderately tolerable figure for the program in metro markets).

Seven claimed more viewers in total people, the main channels were almost a draw and SBS saw a surge in viewers because of another stage of the Tour de France, which averaged 266,000 from 8.30 pm to well past 1 am Friday. Everything else was forgettable.

In regional markets, a near clean sweep for Seven. The news was top with 631,000 viewers, followed by Seven News/Today Tonight with 507,000, Home and Away was third with 463,000 and The Chase Australia’s 5.30 segment was fourth with 462,000. Rounding out the top five was A Current Affair with 342,000.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (27.2%)
  2. Nine (26.1%)
  3. Ten (20.8%)
  4. ABC (16.3%)
  5. SBS (9.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (17.7%)
  2. Nine (17.6%)
  3. Ten (14.8%)
  4. ABC (11.0%)
  5. SBS ONE (6.3%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. GO (4.8%)
  2. 7TWO (3.8%)
  3. ONE (3.4%)
  4. ABC 2 (3.2%)
  5. 7mate, Eleven (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News  — 1.561 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight — 1.469 million
  3. Masterchef Australia (Ten) — 1.255million
  4. Nine/NBN News (6.30pm) — 1.242 million
  5. Nine/NBN News — 1.231 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.145million
  7. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 1.137 million
  8. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.126 million
  9. 7pm ABC News — 1.069 million
  10. RBT (Nine) — 912,000

Top metro programs:

  1. Seven News — 1.019 million

Losers: Weak, except for Masterchef and the TDF (which is really a nice travelogue)

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News — 1.019 million
  2. Seven News/Today Tonight —962,000
  3. Nine News — 953,000
  4. Nine News (6.30pm) — 1.037 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) — 803,000
  6. 7pm ABC News – 781,000
  7. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 555,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) — 515,000
  9. Ten Eyewitness News — 499,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 352,000

Morning (National) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) – 470,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 396,000
  3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 245,000
  4. News Breakfast (ABC,  145,000 + 88,000 on News 24) — 233,000
  5. Today Extra (Nine) — 176,000
  6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 101,000

Top five pay TV channels:

  1. TVHITS  (3.0%)
  2. LifeStyle  (2.1%)
  3. Fox8, Sky News  (1.9%)
  4. Nick Jr (1.8%)

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 96,000
  2. Peppa Pig (Nick Jr) — 57,000
  3. NICIS (TVHITS) — 56,000
  4. World’s Most Extraordinary Homes LifeStyle) — 54,000
  5. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 53,000