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Crikey
Crikey
National
Glenn Dyer

Hard Quiz and Fisk the sole saviours of last night’s free-to-air TV

Another one of those late spring evenings when TV had to be streamed from one of those services you pay for — but not Foxtel — simply because there was a mental cost in watching the free-to-air stuff. Well, not the ABC’s Hard Quiz, 757,000 nationally, or Fisk, 675,000 nationally.

The rest was just drivel, like the aptly named Kitchen Nightmares on Seven (749,000) for the contrived quality of the whole program. Even worse, though, were the reheated leftovers from the 60 Minutes Melissa Caddick conwoman story on Nine — 541,000, and then 216,000 for a repeat of the Caddick story on Underbelly (it should have come with a health warning and a use-by date), and whatever Ten had: the repeat of The Dog House Australia (390,000) and something called The Real Love Bite — sorry, that’s Boat Australia (178,000), which was clearly inedible for most viewers.

Seven’s night from Nine, the ABC and Ten — of little interest to anyone but a few jaded TV programming executives.

Network channel share:

  1. Seven (29.3%)
  2. Nine (27.7%)
  3. ABC (18.8%)
  4. Ten (14.6%)
  5. SBS (9.6%)

Network main channels:

  1. Seven (20.1%)
  2. Nine (19.0%)
  3. ABC (14.4%)
  4. Ten (8.7%)
  5. SBS ONE (4.6%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

  1. 7TWO (3.7%)
  2. Gem (3.2%)
  3. 10 Peach (3.0%)
  4. 7mate (2.8%)
  5. 7flix (2.6%)

Top 10 national programs:

  1. Seven News 6.30pm — 1.387 million
  2. Seven News — 1.370 million
  3. Nine News 6.30pm  — 1.009 million
  4. Nine News — 961,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 861,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 855,000
  7. Home and Away (Seven) — 765,000
  8. Hard Quiz (ABC) — 757,000
  9. Kitchen Nightmares Australia (Seven) — 749,000
  10. The Chase Australia 5.30pm (Seven) — 744,000

Top metro programs: none with a million or more viewers.

Regional top 5: Seven News 6.30pm, 499,000; Seven News, 490,000; Home and Away, 300,000; Kitchen Nightmares Australia, 280,000; ACA, 277,000.

Losers: Another weak Wednesday night except for Fisk and Hard Quiz.

Metro news and current affairs:

  1. Seven News 6.30pm — 889,000
  2. Seven News — 880,000
  3. Nine News 6.30pm — 733,000
  4. Nine News — 687,000
  5. 7pm ABC News — 602,000
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 578,000
  7. 7.30 (ABC) — 461,000
  8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 301,000
  9. Ten News First — 262,000
  10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 193,000

Morning (national) TV:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) — 382,000/216,000
  2. Today (Nine) — 275,000/178,000
  3. ABC News Breakfast (ABC, ABC News) — n/a
  4. The Morning Show (Seven) — 219,000
  5. ABC News Mornings — n/a
  6. Today Extra (Nine) — n/a
  7. Studio 10 (Ten) — n/a

Top five pay TV programs:

  1. T20 World Cup: Innings Break India vs Bang (Fox Cricket) — 138,000
  2. T20 World Cup: India vs Bang (Fox Cricket) — 99,000
  3. T20 World Cup: India vs Bang (Fox Cricket) — 88,000
  4. T20 World Cup Mini: India vs Bang; T20 World Cup Mini, Zimb vs Ned (Fox Cricket) — 80,000
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