The Winners: Seven News was tops with 1.526 million people. Today Tonight was second with 1.376 million and Ten’s Law and Order SVU averaged 1.205 million. Getaway on Seven at 7.30pm averaged 1.160 million for 4th (and won the timeslot) and A Current Affair averaged 1.154 million and 5th. Ten’s The Biggest Loser averaged 1.145 million from 7pm to 8pm for Ten. Nine’s Adults Only 20 to 1 (it’s a show for droolers and knuckledraggers who are conned by the name) averaged 1.127 million. Nine News was 8th with 1.124 million (strongish for a Thursday night). Home and Away won the 7pm slot for Seven with 1.111 million and Two and a Half Men averaged 1.066 million for the repeat at 7pm for Nine. The 7pm ABC News was 11th with 1.057 million and Grey’s Anatomy averaged 1.023 million for Seven at 8.30pm. Bondi Vet averaged 1.010 million at 8pm for Ten and 13th spot, and Ghost Whisperer was 14th with 1.003 million for Seven at 7.30pm. The Footy Shows were 16th with 934,000 for Nine at 9.30pm. Bombora on the ABC averaged 718,000 at 8.30pm. Inspector Rex averaged 329,000 for the 7.30pm repeat on SBS. The 8.30pm repeat of The Gruen Transfer on ABC averaged close to 116,000. That’s almost double its previous week’s figure of 63,000. Last night’s figure would put it in the top half dozen programs so far on ABC 2.

The Losers: Private Practice on Seven at 9.30pm: 786,000 wasn’t good, but better than the Footy Show in Sydney and Brisbane, Life on Mars on Ten at 9.30pm, 691,000. Dying, signal fading as batteries exhaust themselves.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Today Tonight won everywhere bar Brisbane. Even though Nine News had a better audience nationally … it went back to being weak in Sydney. The 7pm ABC News and The 7.30 Report again had more viewers than Nine news (329,000) and ACA (317,000). It’s just not good enough. Seven News had 430,000 viewers in Sydney, the ABC News was on 349,000. The 7.30 Report averaged 906,000. Q&A, 549,000, Lateline, 354,000, Lateline Business, 200,000 (it’s slowly increasing its audience). Ten News, 942,000. Ten News late/Sports Tonight, 293,000. SBS News at 6.30pm 157,000, the 9.30pm News, 177,000. 7am Sunrise, 357,000, 7am Today, 287,000.

The Stats: Nine won with an All People 16 to 39 share of 28.5% (23.6%), from Seven with 26.2% (25.0%), Ten with 23.1% (30.6% for the first AFL game of the season proper), the ABC with a high 17.8% (16.2%) and SBS with 4.5% (4.6%). Seven won Sydney, comfortably, Nine won the other four markets, Melbourne comfortably. Nine leads the week, 28.1% to 26.7% for Seven and 24.7% for Ten. Seven won 18 to 39 and had more viewers under 55 than the other networks. Ten says it won 16 to 39. In regional areas a win for WIN/NBN with 28.5%, from Prime/7Qld with 25.4%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 22.6%, the ABC with 18.3% and SBS with 5.2%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A curious night. The Footy Show helped Nine win nationally, in Melbourne (not unexpected) but Nine won Brisbane despite the NRL program being broadcast from there last night. It didn’t help in Sydney and Nine lost there, Q&A had slightly more viewers in Sydney with 196,000 people than the NRL show on 194,000, which was its lowest audience since returning three weeks ago. The Footy Show had 142,000 people in Brisbane, which was also its lowest audience so far in 2009.

Nine won because the AO version of 20 to 1 did better than Seven’s program nationally. The Footy Shows collectively did a lot better than Private Practice did on Seven at 9.30pm (but not in Sydney and Brisbane). On last night’s showing (and on the last two weeks actually), the NRL Footy Show is beyond help in the eyes of viewers.

Getaway was solid, and a winner at 7.30pm for Nine. The Ten show, Guerrilla Gardeners is being picked up by the network for a full 26 weeks and could be moved from that tough slot at 8pm on Wednesdays. Would it slide into Sundays? Maybe when The Biggest Loser finishes? Bondi Vet had its biggest audience so far last night. With Bondi Rescue working well for Ten, it’s the hottest address in TV. When will someone try a sort of 90210 type program based on the area. A friend has done the screen treatment. he calls it ….? Can’t say because it’s such a good idea.

TONIGHT: AFL on Seven in the South. Better Homes And Gardens nationally, a movie in Sydney and Brisbane. Nine has Rugby League in the North, other stuff in the south. It won’t help. Ten has The Biggest Loser, three episodes of The Simpsons, two episodes of Medium and Law and Order. The ABC has Rebus and Vincent which is turning out to be tosh. SBS is bare, although the repeat on cosmetic testing at 7.30pm might bare watching.

TOMORROW NIGHT: AFL on Ten in the afternoon and night. And The Simpsons and Futurama: all repeats. Nine has Home Videos from 6.30pm to 7.30pm and then four movies from 7.30pm to 2.10am (beancounter TV). And Seven is no better: repeats of Kath and Kim and The Vicar of Dibley and then three movies from 8.40pm to 2.30am. The ABC has a repeat of New Tricks at 7.30pm, then nothing else. SBS has Iron Chef and ignore the rest. Nine has horse racing in the afternoon.

Don’t forget to change your clocks Saturday night/Sunday morning (apart from WA) as Daylight saving ends. Check yourr VCR’s, DVDs and PVR’s as well because sometimes the “smart software’ won’t do it.

SUNDAY NIGHT: The Easter fortnights of repeats, repeats and poor shows starts. It’s beancounter TV. Nine has NRL from 4pm to 6pm, then the News, then a repeat of 20 to 1, a fresh 60 Minutes, then a repeat movie, and then another repeat movie. Seven has Sunday Night, a repeat of Border Security, a Kiwi program called Coastwatch and a repeat of Bones and then another repeat. Ten has The Biggest Loser and So You Think You Can Dance Australia program, plus Rove, plus Dexter. If Ten doesn’t win this night then there’s something wrong, unless So You Think You Can Dance Australia is really a filler. SBS has Dateline at 8.30pm. The ABC has the India history program at 7.30pm, then Hercule Poirot at 8.30pm to 10.05pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports