Seven’s 2018 broadcast of Carols in the Domain had 612,000 metro viewers and 919,000 nationally, according to OzTAM’s preliminary overnight ratings.
Last year, the event screened on a Sunday and had a higher metro audience of 769,000, and in 2016 there were 721,000 viewers. 
The broadcast of the Sydney event, along with the strong performance of Seven News – 757,000 metro and 1.108m nationally – helped Seven to a primary channel win, with 25.9% of the audience.
Seven also had 489,000 metro viewers (711,000 nationally) for its new late-night news program The Latest, which screened around 10:30pm.
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Nine’s primary channel placed second for the evening with 25.9% of the viewing audience. Its most-watched program was Nine News, which had 632,000 metro viewers. With the addition of regional viewers, this number climbed to 830,000.
Nine’s prime-time offering of the film Arthur Christmas had just 289,000 metro viewers and 412,000 across the country.
The ABC rounded out the week by once again beating Ten in terms of audience share – making it every day this ratings week – with 13.1% for its primary channel, compared to Ten’s 6.2%.
The ABC’s most-watched program was its 7pm news bulletin, with 615,000 in the cities and 899,000 nationally. Victoria had 382,000 metro viewers (532,000 nationally), while Doc Martin had 376,000 (526,000 nationally).
Ten’s most-watched program was also its news offering, Ten News First. The 5pm broadcast had 220,000 metro viewers and 311,000 including regional viewers. Its most-watched entertainment program was a repeat of the UK edition of Ambulance – 176,000 metro viewers and 259,000 across the country.
The most-watched multi-channel for the night was Nine’s 9Go, which had 5.1% of the audience. 9Go’s screening of the movie The Hulk had 130,000 metro viewers, plus 69,000 in the regions.
With the addition of the multi-channels, Seven also won on a network basis, with 35.5%. Nine placed second with 25.5% and ABC held onto third with 19.2%.
Ten, which has less multi-channels than its commercial rivals, had an 11.4% audience share.
SBS’ primary channel had 5.6% and the network finished on 8.4%.
Nine will broadcast Melbourne’s Carols by Candlelight on Monday evening.