• Seven and My Kitchen Rules midweek winners with help from Murder Uncovered
• TEN’s midweek share climbs, ABC still in single figures despite Kerri-Anne Kennerley
• Vikings season final helps lift SBS midweek share as viewers learn fate of King Ecbert
Seven has won Wednesday with dominant primary and combined channel shares. Seven was the leader in all metro markets. My Kitchen Rules was the #1 program, Seven News again ranked #1 news across the five cap cities and a double episode of Murder Calls kept over 650,000 watching until 11pm, which delivered strong last night share.
Seven did have its challenges though – My Kitchen Rules is getting perilously close to falling below the 1m mark and the program was outrated by both parts of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! in Melbourne.
TEN’s share continues to climb each week from Sunday night onwards and the pattern repeats this week where Thursday should again be the high point of the week.
ABC share was stuck below 10% for a second successive night despite the presence of Kerri-Anne Kennerley as a contributor after 8.30pm.
Seven
After Seven News again won the network hour at 6pm, Home and Away did 704,000 at 7pm.
My Kitchen Rules featured an Aussie beach barbecue challenge. Judges Pete and Colin subsequently sent siblings Amy and Tyson and married sweethearts Damo and Caz through to a sudden death elimination, which will take place at Kitchen HQ on Sunday night. The midweek episode of MKR floated just over 1m, down from 1.10m a week ago.
Seven then screened a special double episode of Murder Uncovered which saw host Michael Usher on location with convicted murderer Graham Stafford, who had the case overturned after serving 14 years. Presented with new evidence by the Murder Uncovered team last night, Stafford said the claims that link him with the crime are “absolute rot”. The two episodes had audiences just over 650,000, which is a big win for a program screening until 11pm.
Nine
Grant Hackett and unemployment hotspots featured on A Current Affair. The midweek episode did 794,000 and was a timeslot winner. And don’t miss Martin King chasing Dennis the menace tonight.
Planet Earth II continued in the 7.30pm timeslot with 678,000 last night after 641,000 a week ago.
Nine’s real crime doco series from Screentime, Murder Calls, did 501,000, which was an improvement on last week’s 405,000. The third episode explored one of Sydney’s most gruesome double murders where the victims were 34-year-old single gay man Stephen Dempsey and 42-year-old Lebanese-Australian father of seven and devoted husband Ezzedine Bahmad, a taxi driver.
TEN
Guests on The Project included Sesame Street’s Elmo, Dr Susan Carland and I’m A Celebrity’s Ash Pollard. The episode was on 537,000 after the 6.30pm half hour did 304,000.
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! was on 785,000 to start with and then 865,000 for the elimination of Lisa Curry. The last Wednesday episode of the series for 2017 featured some great highlights with Nazeem Hussain and Steve Price.
This Is Us is just hanging on over 500,000 after 508,000 last week.
The underrated US drama Madam Secretary followed with 210,000.
ABC
It was Dr Susan Carland night on TV. After her appearance on The Project, 30 minutes later she was the special guest on Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery. The Julia Zemiro program did 448,000 after 460,000 last week.
Kerri-Anne Kennerley featured in Hard Chat on The Weekly with Charlie Pickering along with plenty of President Trump updates with 480,000 tuned in after 518,000 last week.
Walliams and Friend featured Sheridan Smith with 272,000, down from 327,000 last week.
Adam Hills: The Last Leg then did 248,000.
SBS
The final of the second half of season four of Vikings helped the channel to its best midweek share in seven weeks. Vikings started with a plan to ransack England in season one and the marauders were back again to end season four. Some major characters died this season and that continued in the final too. The audience after 9.30pm for the episode was 225,000.
Earlier in the night the final of Tony Robinson Down Under did 281,000 and then the exploration of the tech boom on The Eighties attracted 279,000.