The Winners: Seven News was tops with 1.419 million. Today Tonight was second with 1.392 million and The Biggest Loser had a good night ending up 3rd with 1.226 million people watching for the hour. Law and Order SVU was 4th for Ten with 1.123 million and the 7pm ABC News was 5th with 1.085 million. Two and a Half Men was 6th with the repeat at 7pm on Nine averaging 1.082 million viewers. Seven’s Home and Away at 7pm averaged 1.064 million, Nine’s 20 to 1 at 8.30 pm, 1.054 million and Getaway at 7.30pm on Nine, 1,054 million. Nine News was 10th with 1.031 million, Seven’s 7.30pm program, Ghost Whisperer; 1.017 million in 11th spot and 12th was Ten’s 8pm episode of Bondi Vet with 1.012 million viewers. Grey’s Anatomy at 8.30pm on Seven, 936,000. The Footy Shows on Nine at 9.30pm, 924,000. Mad Men on SBS, 336,000 from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. Inspector Rex, 359,000 at 7.30pm; a repeat, beating Mad Men. I thought Mad Men last night was brittle. It’s still good TV, but there seems to be a deep seated cynicism about the storyline. Is the story of life in a 1960’s ad agency worth telling on TV in any form?

The Losers: Life on Mars at 9.30pm for Ten: 659,000. Private Practice on Seven at 9.30pm, 752,000. Not good for both. A Current Affair: 954,000. A million viewers every night has to be the minimum for this program, and the news and TT etc. ACA has failed. Not good. Looking at last night, TT looked better and fresher. It wasn’t, but it did.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and as did Today Tonight. Ten News averaged 912,000. The late News/Sports Tonight, 329,000. The 7.30 Report, 906,000. Q&A at 9.30pm, 560,000. Lateline, 335,000, Lateline Business, 189,000. Why is Lateline doing so many business stories now? What about Lateline Business? Is it irrelevant? It’s not, judging by recent ratings figures which show that it is slowly creeping up on Lateline. SBS News at 6.30pm, 206,000. 227,000 at 9.30pm. 7am Sunrise, 382,000, 7am Today, 317,000. If Today was watched by more than 300,000 people this morning (Friday), then that will be its best week’s viewing for around five years.

The Stats: Nine won with a 6pm to Midnight All People share of 26.8% (29.1%) from Seven with 25.1% (24.1%), Ten with 24.3% (23.8%), the ABC 18.2% (16.9%), SBS with 5.7% (6.3%). Seven won Sydney and Adelaide. Nine won Melbourne (The AFL Footy Show), Brisbane and Perth. Ten says it won 16 to 30 6pm to 10.30pm, Fusion Strategy says Ten won the broader 16 to 54 group. In regional areas WIN/NBN won with 28.2% to Prime/7Qld with 24.5%, Southern Cross (23.8%, the ABC with 17.5% and SBS with 6.1%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Hot Seat isn’t working at 5.30pm: 539,000 last night. The audience has fallen 12% in four nights from Monday’s debut. Last night Nine News and ACA were easily beaten: ACA didn’t make the 1 million viewer mark. Nine News was topped in the rankings by Seven News in Sydney and the 7pm ABC News nationally and in Sydney, The ABC 7pm News drew with Nine in Melbourne. That’s as good an indication of the failure of Hot Seat to leave a mark. The afternoon News program at 4.30pm is supposed to be coming. After Hot Seat‘s slide this week, will Nine persist? It will be a waste of valuable money that could be better spent improving the content of ACA and Nine News in Sydney. Andrew Daddo wasn’t on ABC 702 local radio Sydney in his shift last night. Has he gone to Nine already for the 4.30pm program?

Q&A was OK last night. PJ O’Rourke sounds like an old fogey/buffer. He’s no Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert. But Q&A out-rated the NRL Footy Show in Sydney and Brisbane. Some would argue that’s not a big deal, but I would argue that it’s a sign of how far Nine has fallen. In Melbourne, the AFL Footy Show did well with the second biggest national audience in any market of 413,000, after the 422,000 who watched TT at 6.30pm in the same market. They were the only programs with more than 400,000 viewers last night in any market.

TONIGHT: The AFL is in the south, a forgettable movie is in the north. The plods of Midsomer Murders chase the hobgoblins etc around the English countryside on the ABC. SBS has an interesting program, Paper Dolls, all about the pin ups of Australia in World War Two. That’s at 7.30pm. Ten has The Simpsons and other non sport in Medium and Law and Order X 2.

Glenn Dyer’s Anzac game: Tonight and tomorrow watch Seven, Nine, Ten and the ABC News to see who has more reporters at famous battlefields like Anzac, Western France etc. Will anybody be in PNG, or in Borneo or Timor? Wouldn’t it have been good to see a report on any of these networks (even SBS) as to what is happening in modern day Turkey? There’s quite a lot, or even France, or Japan, or in PNG. Some background to the brief reports tomorrow and Sunday of an event in Australian history that is now being exploited to the hilt by all in sundry. What we need is Hogan’s Heroes back on Free To Air TV to offset the sanctimonious claptrap that will threaten to overwhelm us tomorrow.

TOMORROW NIGHT: There’s Collingwood vs. Essendon in the AFL in the afternoon on Ten and Sydney vs. the Dockers from Perth in the evening. Standby for some nauseating rubbish from commentators etc about the importance of playing AFL on Anzac Day etc etc. They sprout it every year. It’s as though the two teams have played each other every day Anzac Day since 1915. They haven’t, it’s a fairly recent development.

That’s why everyone should watch the Japanese show, Iron Chef on SBS at 8.30pm to put some balance into their lives if they believe the tosh sprouted in the football calls. ABC has New Tricks at 7.30pm. A repeat, but it will be one of the top rating programs of the night because it is entertainment. Seven has repeats of The Vicar of Dibley, Kath and Kim and the movie, Independence Day. Nine has Home Videos, plus four movies in a row from 7.3 pm to 4am. Why not just go to black and close the station down for 12 hours?

SUNDAY NIGHT: Seven’s Sunday Night at 6.30pm needs to get a hurry along otherwise it will be curtains soon. It needs relevance. We know 60 Minutes doesn’t haven’t that, or cred, so both are important points of difference that Sunday Night should be trying to build to differentiate itself with viewers. On last week’s effort viewers felt there was only room for one lightweight current affairs program on Sunday night and that was 60 Minutes.

Nine also has Second Chance at 6.30pm. Get the tissues out, another tear jerker along the lines of the Domestic Blitz/You Saved My Life/Missing Pieces. Sob! Watch. Nine also has the CSIs at 8.30pm and in Miami at 9.30pm.

Ten has The Biggest Loser at 6.30pm which is building nicely and the final of SO You Think You Can Dance Australia at 7.30pm for two hours, pushing Rove back to 9.30pm. It will rate well and Ten will go close to winning the night in All People and in the major demos.

Besides Sunday Night Seven has Border Security USA and The Force, plus Bones at 8.30pm and Beyond The Darklands at 9.30pm.

The ABC has Dirt Game at 8.30pm which I will be watching.

SBS has Dateline at 8.30pm, which does have current affairs cred. Not many viewers, but cred.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports