The Winners: The fresh episode of Two and a Half Men at 7.30pm averaged 1.455 million and topped the rankings, ahead of Seven News with 1.401 million and then A Current Affair which jumped strongly to average 1.245 million. Nine’s 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.222 million. In 4th place was Highway Patrol at 7.30pm on Seven averaging 1.217 million. Today Tonight was weak with 1.205 million in the spot. Nine’s The Mentalist averaged 1.186 million and won the 8.30pm slot. Seven’s 8pm program, Destroyed in Seconds, averaged 1.166 million in 8th spot and Nine News was 9th with 1.162 million. Nine’s 8pm program, The Big Bang Theory, averaged 1.156 million, with Seven’s Home and Away next with 1.096 million in 11th spot. 12th was Seven’s 8.30pm program FlashForward with 1.090 million. Seven’s Criminal Minds won the 9.30pm slot with 1.017 million viewers. The Apprentice Australia at 9.30pm, 874,000. Good News Week on Ten from 8.30pm to 10pm, 921,000.

The Losers: Top Gear, 726,000 at 7.30pm for SBS isn’t a loser program. But it again emphasises the fading popularity of the program ahead of Nine’s taking it on next year. Nine’s biggest cost will be showing the back inventory of programs. The network has paid over the odds for that to get its hands on the new programs from the BBC, plus the local high cost episodes. Jamie’s American Road Trip, 708,000 at 7.30pm. Not really good enough.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne. ACA won nationally and in Sydney (by 1000) and Melbourne (by more than 100,000 viewers). TT won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. The trick now for ACA is to win tonight. The 7pm ABC News averaged 908,000, The 7.30 Report, 717,000, Four Corners, 679,000, Media Watch, 704,000. Lateline, 257,000, Lateline Business, 125,000. Ten News, 813,000, The late News/Sports Tonight, 309,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 174,000; the 9.30pm edition, 224,000. 7am Sunrise, 368,000, 7am Today, 311,000.

The Stats: Nine won 6pm to Midnight all people with a combined share of 29.0% (28.8%), from Seven with 28.4% (28.5%), with Ten on 18.7% (17.9%), the ABC on 15.6% (17.0%), and SBS with 8.4% (7.8%). Nine won Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven won Sydney, Adelaide and Perth.

In regional areas a win for Prime/7Qld with 27.3% from WIN/NBN with 27.0%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 18.5%, the ABC with 16.7% and SBS with 10.6%.

Digitally: Nine’s Go with 2% (Main channel 27.00%); 7TWO with 2% (Seven’s main channel, 26.40%), ABC 2 with 1.50% (ABC 1, 14.00%), Ten’s ONE with 0.90% (Ten’s main channel 17.80%), SBS TWO 0.20% (SBS ONE, 8.10%).

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine snuck home on both a combined and main channel basis. Seven’s 7TWO had its best performance last night, sharing the digital honours with Nine’s Go for the first time with a 2% share each. But Nine really won because of the popularity of Two And A Half Men in Melbourne which helped the network to a clear 6 point plus win over Seven. That gave it the narrow win overall. But it was a win.

The ABC’s Four Corners and Media Watch went on their usual long summer break. Two and a Half Men were very popular for Nine, especially in Melbourne where the 452,000 for the 7.30pm program audience again told us that when it comes to being discerning about TV programs, Melbourne viewers finish behind Sydney. To further confirm this point, the 7pm repeat in Melbourne averaged 382,000, which was the third highest audience in the country last night in any market.

TONIGHT: Well, Packed to the Rafters has a cliff hanger to hold our attention. Last week we had a wedding. Nine has, well, more Two and a Half Men, and 20 to 1. Ten has NCIS. The ABC is a no-watch zone. SBS has Insight and East West 101.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports