The Winners: Seven won thanks to the Men’s Final at the Australian Open Tennis titles which averaged 1.352 million people from 7.30pm. Seven News was second with 1.602 million and the first episode for 2010 of Ten’s The Biggest Loser at 6.30pm averaged 1.169 million people. The first episode of the So You Think You Can Dance Australian program on Ten averaged 1.166 million people from 7.30pm to 9pm. Nine News was 5th with 1.077 million. The first session of the cricket averaged 1.058 million for Nine, the second episode of House at 10pm averaged 1.040 million for Ten and the first episode at 9pm averaged 1.038 million.

The Losers: None really. Ten will be happy, Nine will be OK and so will Seven.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market. The 7pm ABC News averaged 886,000. Ten News averaged 686,000. SBS News averaged 179,000. Weekend Sunrise on Seven, 330,000, Weekend Today on Sunday, 249,000.

The Stats: Seven won with a Free To Air 6pm to midnight All People combined overnight share of 39.7%, Nine averaged 23.4%, Ten with 22.3%, the ABC with 10.1% and SBS 3.9%. Severn won all five metro markets. Ten’s main channel, with a 22.3% share, beat Nine’s with 19.5%, a better indication of the rankings last night.

In the battle with Pay TV, Seven won won with a combined overnight share of 34.0%, Nine was on 20.1%, Ten was on 19.6%, Pay TV was on 11.3%, the ABC, 8.7% and SBS, 3.3%. FTA’s 11 channels had a combined share of 88.7%, Pay TV, 11.3%.

Regionally, Prime/7Qld won with a combined overnight prime time share of 36%, from WIN/NBN with 25.0%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 20.5%, the ABC with 12.9% and SBS with 5.5%.

Digitally: Nine’s GO won with 3.9%, (quite strong given the tennis and the cricket), leaving its main channel on 19.5%. 7TWO was on 1.4%, with Seven’s main channel on 38.3%, Ten’s ONE was on 0.6%, Ten’s main channel was on 23.4%, ABC 2 was on 0.6%, (ABC 3 was on 0.3%, ABC 1, 9.2%), SBS TWO was on 0.2%, SBS ONE was on 22.9%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last night the tennis did it for Seven with the Men’s Singles final won by Roger Federer. Nine’s cricket was beaten on the main channel by Ten’s first outing for its 2010 ratings line up for Sunday evening: The Biggest Loser, So You think You Can Dance Australia and then House (which shifts to 9.30pm Sundays from next week and is on the slow slide out of the schedule).

Nine bailed out of the cricket at 6 pm for the news. It kept going on Friday night with the cricket. Why wasn’t this picked up by the herd of bleating sports journalists? The first session of the cricket (Pakistan’s innings) averaged 1.058 million viewers. The second session (mostly Australia batting), averaged just 863,000 people. It was up against the tennis on Seven and Ten’s strong schedule, both of which prevailed. The stronger offerings on Seven, Ten and Nine squeezed Pay TV. The main channel offerings also squeezed the networks’ Digital channels, with the exception of Nine’s GO, which won easily.

The 2.352 million viewers who watched Federer win topped last year’s 2.246 million. On Saturday night 1.12 million people watched Serena Williams beat Justine Henin.

TONIGHT: Seven’s My Kitchen Rules at 7.30 pm is worth a look, if only to see what a genre destroyer is. Seven is running this cooking competition now, at the start of 2010 ratings, for the very simple reason that it hopes viewers will be satiated by food by the time Ten’s second series of MasterChef Australia starts later in the year. It’s what Seven did to home renovation and property after The Block blasted into the Nine schedule seven years ago. Seven will grab all the ratings it can, and the revenue, but it will be very pleased if Masterchef’s ratings fall from their high levels of last year.

Seven also has Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters returning to the schedule at 8.30pm and 9.30pm. Ten has more The Biggest Loser at 7.30pm, Good News Week returns at 8.30pm for 90 minutes. At 10pm is the highlight of the night, and probably the week, Ross Noble’s Australian Trip. Nine has Two and a Half Men, repeat at 7pm, fresh at 7.30pm and fresh Big Bang at 8pm. SBS has Man vs. Wild after Mythbusters, the ABC has a historical doc The Great Wall Of China. Lateline and Lateline Business return at 10.25pm and 11pm respectively.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports