The Winners: MasterChef Australia was top with 1.550 million for Ten, followed by Seven news with 1.514 million and Today Tonight with 1.410 million. Nine News was 4th with 1.226 million and Getaway was 5th with 1.217 million. Ghost Whisperer on Seven at 8pm averaged 1.150 million and Home and Away at 7pm on Seven averaged 1.143 million. A Current Affair was 8th with 1.137 million. Grey’s Anatomy had a double episode from 9pm with 1.109 million and 9th slot nationally. Nine’s 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 968,000 and the Ned Kelly special at 8.30pm on the ABC with Tony Robinson averaged a solid 901,000. Ten’s Law and Order CI at 8.30pm, 795,000, the 9.30pm, 810,000.

The Losers: No real losers simply because the cricket on SBS destabilised the night. But Nine would not be happy at the way it lost viewers all night, especially in Sydney.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne, as did Today Tonight. Nine has been strong between 6pm and 7pm in Melbourne this week. The 7pm ABC News averaged 877,000 nationally and The 7.30 Report, 810,000, Lateline, 185,000 (it is being hurt by the cricket) and Lateline Business, 112,000 (ditto). Ten News, 984,000, the late News/Sports Tonight with 324,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 188,000, 405,000 at 10pm in between cricket sessions. 7am Sunrise, 367,000, 7am Today, 293,000.

The Stats: Seven won 6pm to midnight All People with 28.0% (27% a week ago). Seven also won the major demos with female viewers dominating and male viewers split between the cricket, Ten and the Footy shows. Nine was on 24.1% (28.4%) and Ten was on 19.6% (22.4%). The ABC was on 14.4% (14.9%) and SBS was up to 14.0% (6.7%). Seven won all five metro markets and leads the week 28.6% to Ten with 24.1% and Nine with 23.1%. In regional areas a win to Prime/7Qld with 28.7%, from WIN/NBN with 23.8% Southern Cross (Ten) with 18.9%, the ABC on 15.2% and SBS with 13.5%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The Nine Network copped a hiding, especially in Sydney last night, from the cricket and the Tour de France on SBS. In fact Nine is now The Biggest Loser from the cricket on SBS after just two nights broadcasting. Seven’s share went up last night to 28% from 27% a week ago, with its female skewing line up of programs, such as Ghost Whisperer and two hours of Grey’s Anatomy.

Ten did OK, or rather MasterChef kept Ten respectable last night with another solid audience. No MasterChef and Ten would have lost more viewers than Nine did. The ABC was solid, only Nine lost ground heavily as the cricket drained viewers from Nine, especially for the Footy Shows from 9.30pm to 11pm.

But with the News (287,000) and A Current Affair (259,000) Nine was weak in Sydney from the start of ratings, so while the cricket hurt it, Sydney viewers had turned their backs on the network before the cricket started. THISafternoon saw its audience up to 232,000 yesterday, better than the day before, but still weak. The Bold and the Beautiful on Ten from 4.30m pm to 5pm, 547,000, an easy win.

The cricket averaged 632,000 for the first session (679,000 for session 1, day 1) and 353,000 for session 2 (363,000) and 149,000 after midnight to 2am. That 480,000 average or so for most of the night, from 7pm to midnight, hurts. It helped that Australia was batting later on after the Pommie tail wagged. But that’s the vagaries of cricket and of broadcasting it. The irony is that Nine is the cricket broadcaster in summer and its audience share in winter is being impacted by a series it didn’t want to broadcast because the audience wouldn’t have been big enough.

Last night’s Mediterranean special of Getaway was a typically sunny effort for the middle of an Australian winter. But the story on Sicily was a repeat from an earlier special on Italy. It was by Dermot Brereton. It’s a bit rich to repackage something that’s gone to air almost frame for frame. Nine’s getting cost conscious, but that was a bit rich, especially for a program that has free travel, or is the contra cost getting too much to bear and Nine’s revenue under that much pressure, that it has to go economy on a program that should have a first class look?

The Footy Shows averaged 785,000 last night (with over 40% of that in Melbourne where the AFL show averaged 356,000). Last week they averaged 998,000. Trouble In Paradise on Nine at 8.30pm averaged 871,000 last night, 1.094 million a week ago. The loss over the two and a half hours; more than 200,000 for Nine. In Sydney it finished third with surprisingly low 19.5% (26.4% a week ago) behind Seven and Ten. It also finished third in Adelaide and Perth and only finished second nationally because the Melbourne AFL Footy Show still delivered a big enough audience to offset the weakness elsewhere. It will now be very interesting to see will be the impact of the cricket and the bike race on tonight’s AFL (Seven) and NRL (Nine) broadcasts.

TONIGHT: Cricket and The Bike race on SBS (and Foxtel). Tonight, NRL and AFL on Seven and Nine. Ten has a bit of cooking from 7pm and some American dancing from 8pm. The ABC has Trial and Retribution starting a new series (It is a TV cop program past its prime in terms of ideas). Tonight’s stage in the Tour de France could be pivotal in sorting out the leaders. It’s the first time in the Pyrenees. Tough stuff.

TOMORROW: Besides the cricket and bike racing, there’s AFL on Ten and NRL on Foxtel (and AFL). New Tricks is worth missing the first bit of the cricket for at 7.30pm on the ABC, but not The Bill. Seven has four movies running for nearly nine hours from 6.30pm, as do Nine from 7.30pm. It has put a Hairy Potter movie at 7.30pm to try and make a dent in the cricket. Ten has a movie and football around the country at different times. It’s the Geelong Brisbane game. Worth a look in between overs from Cardiff.

SUNDAY: Cricket and biking, football (NRL and AFL) on SBS, Foxtel, Seven and Nine. MasterChef enters its final week, Rove is battling away; perhaps Merlin at 6.30pm. Seven has Dancing With The Stars and then Bones and Castle. Nine has 60 Minutes and a movie …The 2006 Will Smith The Pursuit of Happiness. (An Australian win in the first Test is the real answer, right?). The ABC has the last Miss Marple. After last week..?

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports