The Winners: The half hour episode of MasterChef from 7.30pm was the top program again last night with 1.531 million for Ten; followed by Today Tonight with 1.310 million and Seven News 3rd with 1.294 million. Glee returned for Ten at 8pm and averaged 1.181 million (and returned in style). Nine News was 5th with 1.137 million, with Home and Away scoring a rare win (these days) at 7pm with 1.092 million. Sea Patrol averaged 1.049 million for 7th for Nine at 8.30pm,(and again faded). The 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.038 million and A Current Affair was 9th and the last million viewer program with 1.028 million.

The Losers: Still Seven from 7.30pm in southern markets and after the NRL Footy show in the north. Better than last week, but still a disaster. For example,  The Amazing Race at 9.30pm, 626,000.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Sydney where Nine got up. Today Tonight won everywhere over an unusually weak ACA, especially in Melbourne. The 7pm ABC News averaged 952,000, The 7.30 Report, 683,000, Lateline, 256,000, Lateline Business, 126,000. Ten News, 787,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 254,000. Nine’s Nightline, 288,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 175,000, 204,000 for the late edition. 7am Sunrise, 346,000, 7am Today, 307,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won easily with a share of 30.1%, from Seven on 24.7%, Ten with on 22.5%, the ABC with 17.6% and SBS with 5.1%. Nine won all five metro markets and leads the week, 29.4%, with Seven on 28.0%.

Main Channel: Nine won the main channels with 25.4%, from Seven with 22.5%, Ten with 21.3%, ABC 1 with 14.5% and SBS ONE with 4.5%. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Seven won Perth and Adelaide. Nine leads the week with 25.9% from Seven’s 25.4%.

Digital: GO won with 4.7% (More than the SBS main channel), from ABC 2 with 2.5%, 7TWO on 2.1%, ONE with 1.2% and SBS TWO with 0.6, with ABC 3 also on 0.6%. The six FTA digital channels averaged 11.9%. GO leads the week with 3.5% from 7TWO with 2.6%.

Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 25.1`%, from Seven with 20.5%, Ten on 18.6%, Pay TV on 14.8%, the ABC on 14.6% and SBS on 4.2%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 85.2%, the 100 plus channels of Pay TV shared the 14.8% total.

Regional: A solid win to WIN/NBN with 30.7%, from Prime/7Qld with 24.1%, SC Ten on 19.6%, the ABC on 18.2% and SBS on 7.4%. WIN/NBN won the main channels as did GO. WIN/NBN lead the week from prime/7Qld with a share of 28.9% to 27.8%.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven did a little better by benching The Bounce in AFL markets and Cougar Town and How I Met Your Mother nationally. The Matty Johns Show did well in Sydney with 304,000 and well in Brisbane with 139,000. It beat the Nine NRL Footy Show in both centres (184,000 in Sydney and 111,000 in Brisbane). That 304,000 in Sydney saw the show beat Getaway in that market (261,000). Ten won the hour with MasterChef from 7.30pm to 8pm with 428,000 and Glee from 8pm to 9pm with 328,000.

But it was another poor night for Seven on the whole. The Amazing Race simply bombed at 9.30pm with 626,000. But it did beat the NRL Footy Show on Nine in Sydney with 203,000 viewers, which is a small mercy.

TONIGHT: AFL and NRL on Seven and Nine respectively. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven, Lewis on Seven in the north. MasterChef on Ten, Waking The Dead on the ABC at 8.30pm. Super 14 Rugby on Fox Sports.

SATURDAY: AFL on Ten, NRL and AFL on Fox Sports. Super 14 as well, Blue Murder on the ABC at 9.15pm. Movies and more movies on Seven and Nine. It’s beancounter’s night in.

SUNDAY: Chat in the morning, AFL and NRL in the afternoon on Nine and Seven and Fox Sports. Sunday Night on Seven, Bones later. MasterChef on Ten and The Logies on Nine from 7.30pm. Curiously Nine has “rested” 60 Minutes instead of sticking it on early at 6.30pm. This year it would have gone up against Seven’s Sunday Night head to head. The ABC has Dr Who at 7.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports