The Winners: Seven’s My Kitchen Rules finished with the final averaging 1.525 million viewers from 7.30pm to 9pm. Seven News was 2nd with 1.391 million and Today Tonight was 3rd with 1.346 million. Two and a Half Men averaged 1.311 million in 4th at 7.30pm for Nine and A Current Affair was 5th with 1.252 million. Nine News was next with 1.233 million and The Mentalist was 7th for Nine at 8.30pm with 1.171 million. The 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.159 million for Nine and Desperate Housewives on Seven at 9pm averaged 1.094 million and lost a third of My Kitchen Rules‘ audience. The Big Bang Theory on Nine at 8pm averaged 1.092 million for 10th, the 7pm ABC News was next with 1.065 million and Home and Away averaged 1.065 million for Seven at 7pm and 12th spot.

The Losers: Nothing really last night. Reasonable choice, reasonable viewing.

News & CA: Seven News won nationally, but lost Melbourne to Nine. ACA won Sydney and Melbourne, but lost the rest and Today Tonight won nationally. The 7.30 Report averaged 799,000, Four Corners, 595,000, Media Watch, 576,000, Q&A, 442,000, Lateline, 224,000, Lateline Business, 103,000, Nine’s Nightline, 185,000. Ten News, 855,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 297,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 184,000, the late edition, 146,000. 7am Sunrise, 391,.000, 7am Today, 344,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Seven won with a 6pm to midnight All People combined overnight share of 32.8%, from Nine with 28.2%, Ten with 19.2%, the ABC 14.3% and SBS with 5.5%. Seven won all five metro markets and leads the week 32.7% to 27.7%. With My Kitchen Rules doing well Seven won 16-39s, 18-49s and 25-54s, as well as All People..

Main Channel: Seven with a combined overnight All People 6pm to midnight share of 29.5%, from Nine with 25.4%, Ten with 18.1%, ABC 1 with 12.8% and SBS One on 5.2%. Seven won all five metro markets and leads the week 29.7% to 23.9% for Nine.

Digital: 7TWO won with a combined overnight All People share of 3.3% from GO with 2.8%, ONE and ABC 2 with 1.1% each, ABC 3, 0.5% and SBS TWO, 0.3%. The six FTA channels had a combined share of 9.1%, GO leads the week with a share of 3.8% from 7TWO with 3.0%.

Pay TV: Seven won with a combined overnight All people 6pm to midnight share of 32.4%, from Nine with 27.2%, Ten on 15.9%, Pay TV, 15.0%, the ABC, 11.9% and SBS, 4.6%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 85%, Pay TV had 15.0% for its 100 plus channels.

Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People share of 30.2% from WIN/NBN with 28.6%, Ten (Southern Cross ) with 17.6%, the ABC on 17.4% and SBS with 6.1%. Prime/7Qld won the main channel battle from WIN/NBN, 28.3% to 26.9%. 7TWO won the digital battle with a combined overnight All People 6 pm to midnight share of 2.0%, from WIN/NBN with 1.7% and ABC 2 with 1.2%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A win to Seven as My Kitchen Rules shows we love a cooking show. (It was shot last December). Ten launches MasterChef Australia‘s 2010 season in Sydney tonight and will be hoping for a better result and the same level of secrecy as it got last year and My Kitchen Rules had this year. MasterChef‘s success will determine how well Ten does this year. It has started slowly, as it usually does.

Last night’s ratings figures from Perth seem to be impacted by the huge storm that hit the city in the early evening. AGB Nielsen issued this statement to ratings clients: “CAUTION: Production and viewing levels for Perth ratings data for 20100322 have been affected by severe weather conditions. Care should be exercised when analysing ratings data in Perth for 20100322 as results may be more variable than normal.”

Q&A averaged 442,000 last night. It was a flat discussion. Too many politicians and not enough humour. Tony Jones’ handling of some parts was good, in others he was a bit at sea.

The audience though was less than half of what Enough Rope was generating for the ABC in the same timeslot on Monday nights. The ABC is reported to be planning to move the unfunny Miles Barlow Show from ABC 2 to ABC 1 in a few weeks time. Watch for a lot of publicity about this edgy show that will remain unwatched on ABC 1 after a week or two.

TONIGHT: Top Gear on Nine. Border Security on Seven, Foreign Correspondent on the ABC. NCIS on Ten. Insight on SBS.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports