Rove v Insiders: a no-brainer for Kevin07. You can imagine the chagrin among the Insiders yesterday morning as Kevin07 spurned Barry Cassidy and his panel in favour of an appearance on Rove last night. But Baz and his mates shouldn’t really get too miffed: the 1.368 million viewers for Rove easily outweighed the 214,000 watching Insiders from 9am. No contest: never get between a pollie and voters. But Cassidy could be proud of something else yesterday. Insiders crushed Sunday by more than 30,000 voters, as Sunday could only draw 179,000: a miserable showing for the revamped program. However, the earlier start for the cricket at 10am hurt Sunday, restricting it to just one hour on the east coast. And the time difference with Adelaide and Perth further confused the comparison. Seven’s Weekend Sunrise was still well in front with 410,000 from 8am to 10am (that helps David Koch’s Business Builders at 10am, 272,000). — Glenn Dyer

Seven easing but still too strong. The Seven Network won again thanks to its now dominant performances on Monday and Tuesday nights, plus winning efforts on low viewing Friday and Saturday nights. This is the penultimate week of 2007 ratings but Seven had it in the bag months ago. Nine has come with a late surge in the past three weeks, but it has really been Seven easing off the pedal on Wednesday and Thursday nights that has given Nine some heart. Nine’s share was the highest for 14 weeks, but Seven still won last week with a share of 28.8% (28.6% the week before) from Nine on 26.7% (26.3%), Ten on 22.1% (21.8%), the ABC on 17.2% (18.2%) and SBS on 5.1% (unchanged). Seven won all five metro markets, with clear wins in Sydney and Perth. Seven won Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights. Nine won Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday. Seven News and Today Tonight again won the news and current affairs battle. — Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV ratings
The Winners: CSI was tops with 1.445 million people, followed by Nine News with 1.404 million, Rove with 1.368 million and 60 Minutes averaged 1.364 million. Australian Idol was next with 1.324 million, followed by Seven News (1.273 million), CSI New York (1.210 million), My Name Is Earl (1.206 million), the repeat of Kath and Kim (1.155 million), Ten’s repeat of Thank God You’re Here (1.136 million), Singing Bee (1.092 million), the 7pm ABC News (1.089 million) and Captain Cook on the ABC at 7.30pm (1.018 million). Nine’s Commercial Breakdown, 985,000. Rain Shadow, 828,000.

The Losers: Seven. With the exception of My Name Is Earl at 8pm, nothing rated from 6pm onwards. National Bingo Night is dead, 797,000, the Kath and Kim repeat is stale, 1.155 million, and the movie Red Eye was poor with 854,000. A pale imitation of Seven’s Sunday nights for much of the year. Bingo destroyed the night for Seven, again.

News & CA: Nine News won the night easily. SBS News, 198,000. Ten News, 844,000 (high considering the cricket was on Nine and Australia was batting). Meet the Press on Ten, 59,000. Inside Business, 127,000; Insiders, 214,000; Offsiders, a solid 125,000; Landline, 212,000. Sunday truncated by the cricket, 179,000. Weekend Sunrise, 410,000.

The Stats: Nine won with a share of 30.4% (31.9%) from Ten with 26.4% (24.1%), Seven with 23.0% (unchanged), the ABC with 16.2% (16.6%) and SBS on 3.9% (4.5%). Nine won all five metro markets and also won regional areas with 31.9% for WIN/NBN, 24.1% for Southern Cross (Ten), 23.0% with Prime/7Qld next with 23.0%, the ABC on 16.6% and SBS on 4.5%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: There was a strong echo of 2004 and 2005 in last night’s figures: Ten and Nine battling it out through CSI and Idol, Seven falling in a hole to finish third. But this time, it’s Seven running dead as Idol ends its season and Nine running hard, wasting new eps of CSI and CSI New York in an attempt to convince media buyers this week and next that it’s coming back. How three to four weeks of moderately solid improvement can translate into a promise for 2008 is one of those mysteries of commercial TV. It’s a form of advertising alchemy. But Nine has form; it promised the same at the end of last year, and then again mid year, and failed to deliver. But that’s the way Seven used to finish the year when Nine was dominant in days gone by: solid programs, lots of promise and then a fade out in the following ratings year. Idol‘s second last program for the year didn’t lift. Tonight City Homicide, the second best new show of 2007 (after The Circuit on SBS), ends for the year.

Source: OzTAM, TV Network reports