Catalyst falls away for ABC as Home and Away tops non-news viewing in disjointed night

Home and Away was the most watched non-news show last night with only one program – Nine News at 6pm – topping one million in a fragmented Thursday night’s viewing as different programs aired in different states.

Seven’s long running soapie drew 881,000 in the 7pm slot, followed in the non-news category by the second part of ABC’s medicine documentary Catalyst which attracted 721,000 metro viewers. But that was a sharp fall of 120,000 from last week’s first instalment.

Nine won the night with 23.4 per cent of viewers on the main channels, with Seven on 18.2 per cent and Ten 13.1 per cent. ABC’s share slipped almost one percentage point from last Thursday to 12.1 per cent while SBS picked up 4.7 per cent.

In the 7.30 slot, Ten’s The Bachelor drew an audience of 681,000 viewers, 42,000 more than last Thursday on the back of sending “intruder” bachelorettes into the house to compete for the bachelor. The performance saw Ten have the highest audience of the night in the 25-54 demographic.