War, floods fade away as brides and grooms draw all eyeballs

Married at First Sight was second nationally, with 1.4 million viewers, meaning it was Nine’s night as Seven goes MIA, as does Ten.

The news surge from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the floods in south-east Queensland, northern NSW and Sydney vanished for good with figures for morning and evening news broadcasts back to “normal”.

Except for one. For some unexplained reason, the audience for Nine’s Today slumped from 324,000/224,000 on Tuesday to 240,000/171,000 on Wednesday. Sunrise’s figures were not affected, nor was News Breakfast or the ABC morning news — which ended second in the 7am to 10am slot on Wednesday.

Now stop the presses, don the headgear, rub the joints, stretch the muscles and settle back for the start of the 2022 NRL on Nine and Foxtel with the usual parade of former stars and a new face or three. 

Network channel share:

1. Nine (35.5%)
2. Seven (23.7%)
3. ABC (17.1%)
4. Ten (15.6%)
5. SBS (8.0%)

Network main channels:

1. Nine (26.7%)
2. Seven (16.9%)
3. ABC (11.6%)
4. Ten (8.9%)
5. SBS ONE (4.7%)

Top 5 digital channels: 

1. 7TWO (3.8%)
2. ABC News, 10 Peach (3.2%)
3. Gem (3.1%)
4. 10 Bold (2.7%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 1.475 million
2. Married at First Sight (Nine) — 1.402 million
3. Seven News 6.30 — 1.393 million
4. Nine News — 1.16 million
5. Nine News 6.30 — 1.158 million
6. A Current Affair (Nine) — 987,000
7. 7pm ABC News — 922,000
8. Hard Quiz (ABC) — 834,000
9. Home and Away (Seven) — 808,000
10. 7.30 (ABC) — 794,000

Top metro programs: 
1. MAFS (Nine) — 1.015 million

Regional top 5: Seven News, 539,000; Seven News 6.30, 507,000; MAFS, 387,000; Home and Away, 321,000; 7pm ABC News, 318,000.

Losers: Seven — still lost.

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News — 939,000
2. Seven News 6.30 — 887,000
3. Nine News 6.30 — 859,000
4. Nine News — 850,000
5. ACA (Nine) — 698,000
6. 7pm ABC News — 604,000
7. 7.30 (ABC) — 528,000
8. The Project 7pm (Ten) — 347,000
9. 10 News First — 315,000
10. The Project 6.30pm (Ten) — 227,000

Morning (national) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 413,000/218,000
2. ABC News mornings — 313,000
3. News Breakfast (ABC) — 303,000/204,000
4. Today (Nine) — 240,000/171,000
5. Sunrise extended (Seven) — 240,000
6. Today extended (Nine) — 205,000
7. Studio 10 (Ten) — 33,000

Top 5 pay TV programs:

1. Celebrity Gogglebox Australia (LifeStyle) — 132,000
2. Paul Murray Live (Sky News) — 47,000
3. Credlin (Sky News) — 42,000
4. Paul Murray (Sky News) — 40,000
5. The Bolt Report (Sky News) — 37,000