The Winners: MasterChef Australia topped the night with 1.978 million viewers, followed by Seven News with 1.668 million people, just in front of Nine News in third spot with 1.640 million. Dancing with the Stars was fourth with 1.357 million and Merlin averaged 1.299 million at 6.30pm for Ten. Nine’s 6.30pm program, Random Acts of Kindness averaged 1.224 million and Bones at 8.30pm for Seven averaged 1.075 million. That put it in front of Rove with 1.049 million (who takes a break next week to allow MasterChef to end). 60 Minutes struggled at 7.30pm to average 1.019 million people. Miss Marple ended on the ABC at 8.30pm with 876,000. Castle on Seven at 9.30pm, 831,000. Nine’s movie, The Pursuit of Happyness averaged 998,000 from 8.30pm, which was solid.

The Losers: None really, a real battle for viewers last night who exercised their viewing choice.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally but lost Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. Ten News averaged 701,000. The 7pm ABC News, 877,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 233,000. In the morning Weekend Sunrise on Seven, 401,000. Today on Sunday, 304,000. Landline on the ABC at noon, 241,000. Insiders on the ABC at 9am, 195,000. Inside Business at 10am, 158,000, Offsiders at 10.30am, 151,000. Meet the Press on Ten at 8am, 58,000.

The Stats: Ten won with a 6pm to midnight All People share of 25.0% (26.1%) from Seven with 23.7% (29.9%), Nine with 23.1% (23.8%), the ABC with 15.7% (15.9%) and SBS with 12.4% (4.4%). Ten won Sydney and Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Seven had a big win in Brisbane, which lifted it to second, despite third places in Sydney and Melbourne. In regional areas a win to Prime/7Qld with 23.7%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 22.5%, WIN/NBN with 22.1%, the ABC with 18.6% and SBS with 13.6%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won last week with 27.5% from Ten on 23.1%, Nine on 23.0%, the ABC with 16.1% and SBS with 10.4%. That was Nine’s lowest share of the ratings year to far.

The final day of the test on SBS (and to a lesser extent, on Foxtel) hit viewing levels last night across the board. Test cricket will be back from Thursday night and will be in full swing Sunday night on day four when MasterChef airs their final episode from 7.30pm to 9.10pm.

The cricket averaged 604,000 on SBS for the first session from 7.30pm to 10pm. The second session from around 10.30pm to 12.40am averaged 348,000 and there were 165,000 people watching from 1am to around 3am or so. The cricket hurt Dancing with the Stars in its second hour, as did MasterChef on Ten. 60 Minutes struggled to stay above 1 million viewers. These are good figures for SBS: for Seven or Nine it would be commercial suicide to run test cricket at night from the UK in winter, which is the best and highest TV viewing time of the year.

Nine’s programming will help it this week, but MasterChef will dominate the week and the second test on SBS will drain viewers from Thursday to Saturday.

TONIGHT. No cricket and a rest day for That Bike Race, which had a fairly sedate weekend as the riders perambulated their way over the Pyrenees. That opens the way for Top Gear and Flight of the Conchords on SBS. MasterChef Australia tonight will dominate from 7pm on Ten. That’s the highlight of the night. Nine’s is Sea Patrol at 8.30pm. Seven’s is Scrubs at 8pm and Desperate Housewives at 8.30pm. The ABC, Spooks, perhaps Media Watch. One to avoid is at 6.30pm on the ABC when the Talking Heads segment features Olivia Newton-John. Train-wreck TV remains THISafternoon on Nine at 4.30 pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports.