Did the Queen watch Four Corners too?

Well, the Queen’s Birthday honours didn’t see me or millions of other Australians gonged for doing what we do voluntarily: watch the mostly pap product on Australian free-to-air and cable TV. The legacy linear programming is a tough ask for us all to tackle night after night. It’s no wonder we chose to go elsewhere for our escapist thrills: Netflix, Stan, Amazon, Binge, Apple and Prime. All were enjoyed over the long break and I hope the Queen tuned out as well after soloing at the G7.

Thanks to the free publicity from the prime minister and News Corp (including the ravers on Sky News led by our newly ennobled P. Credlin), Four Corners saw a surge in its audience size last night to the point where it was the sixth most-watched program nationally with 1.06 million people — 722,000 in the metros and 341,000 in the regions.

As always, ordinary Australians had the last word and they stuck with the program — only 52,000 people went elsewhere or to bed. Media Watch averaged a high 985,000 and along with Four Corners, easily dominated the evening timeslots. More people tuned into Four Corners than on MasterChef on Ten, 778,000; Big Brother on Seven, 833,000; Have You Been Paying Attention? on Ten, 855,000; and Celebrity Apprentice, 831,000 across the whole program.

Seven won the night (from Nine, Ten and the ABC, but the ABC was third in the main channels behind Seven and Nine). Seven won because the 6pm news averaged 1.99 million and the 6.30 to 7 part averaged 1.85 million. That was straight out of the last rites for Nathan Buckley’s time as coach at Collingwood (and a final gloria for the departing coach with a win) and The Big Freeze half-time entertainment to raise funds for motor neurone disease, which averaged 602,000 nationally and was the highlight for non-AFL fans. A great cause, as always.

Sunday night saw Seven win from Nine, Ten and the ABC.

Holiday Monday breakfast saw audiences for Today and ABC News Breakfast slide sharply, but not for Seven’s Sunrise with 429,000 nationally and 252,000 metro (hardly changed from the previous non-holiday Monday); Today, 365,000 and185,000 (down more than 60,000 viewers); ABC News Breakfast, 224,000 and144,000 (down 22,000).

Regional top five: Seven News 6.30, 706,000; Seven News, 663,000; Home and Away, 418,000; Australian Story, 357,000; 7pm ABC News, 350,000.

Network channel share:

1. Seven (27.2%)
2. Nine (25.6%)
3. Ten (21.0%)
4. ABC (19.2%)
5. SBS (7.0%)

Network main channels:

1. Seven (19.1%)
2. Nine (18.7%)
3. ABC (15.2%)
4. Ten (13.2%)
5. SBS ONE (4.0%)

Top 5 digital channels:

1. 10 Bold (4.7%)
2. 7TWO (3.5%)
3. 7mate (3.2%)
4. 10 Peach (2.6%)
5. Gem (2.4%)

Top 10 national programs:

1. Seven News — 1.999 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.856 million
3. Nine News — 1.371 million
4. Nine News 6.30 — 1.266 million
5. 7pm ABC News — 1.072 million
6. Four Corners (ABC) — 1.063 million
7. Home and Away (Seven) — 1.035 million
8. 7.30 (ABC) — 1.032 million
9. Australian Story (ABC) — 1.009 million
10. A Current Affair (Nine) — 1.008 million

Top metro programs:

1. Seven News — 1.293 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.194 million
3. Nine News — 1.055 million

Losers: Celebrity Apprentice; MasterChef; Big Brother.

Metro news and current affairs:

1. Seven News — 1.293 million
2. Seven News 6.30 — 1.194 million
3. Nine News — 1.055 million
4. Nine News 6.20 — 971,000
5. ACA (Nine) — 727,000
6. Four Corners (ABC) — 722,000
7. 7pm ABC News — 718,000
8. 7.30 (ABC) — 682,000
9. Media Watch (ABC) — 681,000
10. Australian Story (ABC) — 651,000

Morning (national) TV:

1. Sunrise (Seven) — 429,000/252,000
2. Today (Nine) — 265,000/185,000
3. The Morning Show (Seven) — 267,000
4. News Breakfast (ABC) — 224,000/149,000
5. Today Extra (Nine) — 201,000
6. Studio 10 (Ten) — 55,000

Top five pay TV programs:

1. AFL: Melbourne v Collingwood (Fox Footy) — 212,000
2. NRL: Canterbury v St George (Fox League) — 173,000
3. AFL: On The Couch (Fox Footy) —114,000
4. AFL: Monday Pre-Game (Fox Footy) — 99,000
5. AFL: 360 (Fox Footy) — 80,000