The Winners: MasterChef averaged 1.692 million for its first up episode for 2010 on Ten from 7.30pm to around 9pm. Seven News was second with 1.577 million and was third with 1.521 million. Nine News was 4th with 1.404 million and the fresh 7.30pm episode of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.382 million for Nine at 7.30pm. A Current Affair was 6th with 1.283 million and The Big Bang Theory was next for Nine at 8pm with 1.160 million. The 7pm ABC News averaged 1.158 million. Home and Away averaged 1.146 million for Seven and the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.063 million. Nine’s Carl Williams special, Carl Williams – Baby Faced Killer,  was 11th with 1.060 million. The 7pm Project had its highest ever audience, 974,000 viewers for Ten.

The Losers: Seven was the one that was squeezed last night. The Zoo (861,000), Find My Family (762,000) and Desperate Housewives (847,000) all performed poorly as MasterChef drew viewers away from Seven.

News & CA: Seven News won nationally and everywhere, especially in Melbourne where it beat Nine in the battle of the Carl Williams coverage. Today Tonight lost Sydney to ACA, but won the rest, especially Melbourne with its view on Carl Williams. ACA seemed constrained by Nine having the Williams special on later in the evening. It was something of a race to the bottom. The 7.30 Report averaged 725,000. Four Corners, 641,000. Media Watch, 566,000. Q&A, 454,000, Lateline, 280,000, Lateline Business, 140,000. Ten News, 959,000, the Late News/Sports Tonight, 304,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 189,000, 180,000 for the late edition. Nine’s Nightline, 222,000. And a win for Today (361,000) over Sunrise, 351,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won with a share of 27.3%, from Seven with 26.1% and Ten on 25.5%, with the ABC on 15.1% and SBS on 6.0%. But it wasn’t so clear cut. Nine and Ten drew Sydney, Nine won Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, Seven won Perth. Nine leads the week with 28.5% from Ten with 26.6% and Seven on 26.2%.

Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 24.8% from Ten with 24.5%, Seven back on 22.2%, ABC 1 on 13.7% and SBS ONE on 5.5%. Ten won Sydney and Adelaide. Nine won Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Nine leads the week with 25.1%, from Ten with 24.9% and Seven on 23.2%.

Digital: 7TWO won this one with a share of 3.9%, from GO with 2.5%, ABC 2, 1.1%, ONE on 1.0%, SBS TWO on 0.5% and ABC 3 with 0.3%. The six digital channels had a total share of 9.3%. GO leads the week with 3.3%, with Seven on 3.0%.

Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 22.6%, from Seven with 22.6%, Ten on 21.1%, Pay TV, 14.8%, the ABC on 12.5% and SBS with 5.0%. The 11 FTA channels had a share of 85.2%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels, 14.8%.

Regional: Ten’s MasterChef didn’t do it for regional viewers. Nine won easily with WIN/NBN on 27.9%, Prime/7Qld on 25.2%, SC Ten back on 22.9%, the ABC on 16.6% and SBS on 7.4%. WIN/NBN won the main channels from SC Ten. &TWO won the digitals from GO and ABC 1. WIN/NBN leads the week.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine rushed a sort of Underbelly obituary of Carl Williams to air at 8.30pm, dropping the fresh episode of The Mentalist. We viewers were the loser. The report as a waste of time and continues Nine’s morbid fascination with gangsters. It did moderately in the ratings, 1.060 million from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. That was second for a while. Nine gave up 200,000 viewers from dropping The Mentalist to run this dross.

MasterChef returned last night to TV on Ten. At first I thought the program had gone and become too serious and pretentious for its own good, but the way the three judges handled some of the rejections and the failures last night was very good, an example to the rest of the TV industry. They were once again generous, critical and understanding. A class act.

Ten would have done better if it had had a program at 9pm that did better than Good News Week. That was the difference between besting Nine and Seven and finishing third in All People. But in the demos, Ten was king, which is what counts. Ten had more viewers overall than Seven and Nine from 6pm to 10.30 pm.

The 7pm Project was boosted by around 100,000 viewers from the turn on in the second quarter hour from viewers looking for MasterChef.

TONIGHT: More MasterChef and a fresh NCIS on Ten; Nine has Top Gear (100 minutes, including ads), Seven has Australia’s Got Talent, Foreign Correspondent‘s report on Greece on the ABC, Insight on SBS.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports