The Winners: The third episode of Underbelly was tops with 1.921 million viewers. Seven News was second with 1.591 million and the winner announcement of Ten’s The Biggest Loser averaged 1.568 million and the lead up, 1.380 million. Nine News was 5th with 1.368 million and 60 Minutes averaged 1.339 million. Ten’s 7.30pm program Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation averaged 1.236 million and 8th was Seven’s The Force at 8pm with 1.227 million. The 7.30pm repeat of Border Security averaged 1.202 million for Seven with Seven’s 8.30pm program Bones 10th with 1.173 million Sunday Night on Seven at 6.30pm averaged a lowish 1.156 million, ahead of the 6.30pm weigh-in program for The Biggest Loser at 6.30pm. Dr Who averaged 1.033 million at 7.30pm for the ABC and 13th overall, while Nine’s Domestic Blitz departed the schedule averaging 1.032 million and 14th.

The Losers: V on Nine after Underbelly, 611,000, or more than 1.3 million fewer than Underbelly. It’s why the night ended up much closer than the 1.9 million figure for the third Underbelly episode would indicate. The Biggest Loser flattened Nine and Seven.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally thanks to a good lead in Melbourne from an AFL game. Nine News won Sydney with a good NRL game as a lead-in. The NRL game did nothing for Nine in Brisbane. Seven won Adelaide and Perth. Ten News averaged 536,000. The 7pm ABC News averaged 966,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 185,000. In the morning, Weekend Sunrise on Seven, 393,000, Weekend Today on Nine, 262,000, Landline at Noon on the ABC, 262,000 as well. Insiders, 179,000, Inside Business, 123,000, Offsiders, 117,000. Meet The Press on Ten, 61,000. Dateline last night on SBS at 8.30pm, 134,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won with a share of 29.6% Ten with 27.6%, Seven third with 26.2%, the ABC on 12.7% and SBS on 3.9%. Nine won Sydney and Adelaide. Ten won Melbourne and Brisbane, Seven won Perth. A close night.

Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 26.2%, from Ten with 25.2%, Seven with 24.1%, ABC 1 on 11.9% and SBS ONE on 3.6%.Nine won Sydney, Ten won Melbourne and Brisbane, Seven won Adelaide and Perth. A close night.

Digital: GO won with 4.2%, from ONE with 2.4%, 7TWO on 2.1%, ABC 2 on 0.6%, SBS TWO, 0.3% and ABC 3, 0.2. That’s a total of 9.8% for the six FTA digital channels.

Pay TV: Nine finished with a share of 25.0%, with Ten on 23.3%, Seven, 22.1%, Pay TV 13.1%, the ABC, 10.7% and SBS, 3.3%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 86.9%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels, 13.1%.

Regional: The Biggest Loser wasn’t so popular in the bush. WIN/NBN won with a share of 31.0%, from Prime/7Qld with 27.7%, SC Ten with 23.5%, the ABC 13.3% and SBS, 4.4%. WIN/NBN won the main channels from Prime/7Qld and GO won the digitals from 7TWO.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People )

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine was too strong for Seven last week. Underbelly, Hey Hey it’s Saturday, Top Gear and a strong Thursday night won the week. Go! also won the digital battle.

Saturday night was a real wasteland. The six FTA digital channels had a solid night with a national share of 17.9%, thanks in part to Ten simulcasting the AFL on its ONE sports channel as well as its main channel. But including ONE, the six channels had a bigger total share than Ten in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine News and A Current Affair won the Monday to Friday battle with Seven News and Today Tonight in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven news and TT won nationally thanks to their usual dominance in Adelaide and Perth. WIN/NBN won the regional market from Prime/&Qld.

Last night: Ten squeezed back against Nine and Seven and did well. Ten pushed Nine and dropped Seven to third and beat Nine in several markets and Seven as well to be top in Melbourne and Brisbane. It pays to have a finale to end a reality series on a Sunday night. For Nine the fall in Underbelly‘s audience should be seen in the light of the 1.3 to 1.5 million people who watched the end of The Biggest Loser last night. The Biggest Loser peaked well after Underbelly had finished at 9.30pm. Underbelly won the head to head, but Nine had nothing to go on with and repeat the dominant win of last week.

In fact Underbelly was only really dominant in Sydney and Adelaide last night.

Ten now has a real problem with The Biggest Loser for 2011. Does it recommit, knowing that audiences won’t really go for it until the end? It may do OK in the female demos, but it’s a lot of money and headache for small wins like that.

With MasterChef starting tonight, Ten will be able to defer a decision on The Biggest Loser for next year for a while longer. Like Australian Idol, there’s a peak at the end, but the night to night stuff is now ratings fodder and doesn’t really grab the target audiences.

TONIGHT: MasterChef starts on Ten. The Zoo and Find My Family on Seven. Four Corners, Australian Story and Media Watch on the ABC. Q&A for those members of Young Labor and the Young Liberals with nothing better to watch. Nine has The Mentalist at 8.30pm. SBS has Man Vs. Wild at 8.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports