The Winners: With the Carlton vs. Port Adelaide game as a lead in, Seven News averaged a huge 1.843 million viewers. MasterChef on Ten from 7.30pm averaged 1.671 million and Underbelly on Nine at 8.30pm, 1.645 million. Nine News was 4th with 1.547 million and Sunday Night on Seven at 6.30pm had a high 1.519 million viewers. 60 Minutes was 6th at 7.30pm with 1.343 million and Seven’s The Force at 8pm averaged 1.336 million. Nine’s 7pm program, Send in The Dogs, averaged 1.308 million and Customs at 6.30pm on Nine, 1.291 million. Seven’s Bones at 8.30 pm averaged 1.247 million and Border Security on Seven at 7.30pm, a solid 1.210 million for a repeat. That was the 12th and last million viewer program on the night.

The Losers: Even though Underbelly was watched by 1.6 million or more viewers last night, it was a disappointing episode. The second one last Sunday was just as disappointing. There was not enough dramatic tension created using the probing of police corruption by the independent, John Hatton. There was a mention of how the Royal Commission started, but a whole episode or more could have been devoted to it. There is more factual material from Hansard at the time on police corruption, that is as dramatic as the fiction we have been watching. This series of Underbelly could have done with another six months of plot and script development.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market, even in Sydney and Brisbane where Nine had an NRL game. Nine has been criticised for that choice and those critical comments were justified by the poor figures for the game and the fact that the News in Sydney was beaten by Seven (which is not common in the football season). Ten News averaged 648,000. The Jessica Watson special at 6pm, 400,000 (a case of Jessica who by yesterday). The 7pm ABC News averaged 946,000. And SBS News at 6.30pm averaged 167,000. Dateline at 8.30pm, 155,000. In the morning, Weekend Sunrise, 387,000, Weekend Today, 274,000. Insiders, 231,000, Landline at Noon on the ABC, 207,000; Inside Business, 179,000. Offsiders, 151,000. Meet The Press on Ten at 8am, 48,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won with 30.5%, from Seven on 28.45, Ten on 23.0%, the ABC, 14.9% and SBS, 3.2%. Nine won Sydney and Melbourne, drew Brisbane with Seven and Seven won Adelaide and Perth.

Main Channel: Much closer here with Nine ahead 26.0%, to Seven with 25.8%. Underbelly just doesn’t play as well outside Sydney and Melbourne. Ten finished with a share of 19.1%, ABC 1, 14.0% and SBS ONE, 3.0%. Nine won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Digital: GO did well with a share of 4.5%, from ONE with 3.9% (because of the Grand Prix telecast) and 7TWO on 2.5%. ABC 2 was on 0.6%, ABC 3, 0.3% and SBS TWO, 0.2%. The six FTA digital channels had a total share of 12%.

Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 25.7%, from Seven with 23.8%, Ten with 19.3%, Pay TV, 13.4%, ABC with 12.5% and SBS on 2.7%. The 11 FTA channels had a share of 86.6%, the 100 plus Pay TV channels shared the reported 13.4%.

Regional: Underbelly was more popular here than in the metro markets and powered WIN/NBN top a clear win with a share of 32.7%. Prime/7Qld was second with 27.3%, SC Ten was next with 19.8%, the ABC was on 15.7% and SBS, 4.5%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 28.0% from Seven with 25.2%. GO won the digitals with 4.7%, from 7TWO with 2.1%.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine won last week as Seven’s Thursday night black hole again cost it the week. Nine won the week in regional areas through WIN and NBN.

The highlight of the weekend was once again the high level of viewing of the digital channels on Saturday night. Seeing the networks either show sport (in some markets on Ten), movies or rubbish series (the ABC tries harder), it’s no wonder viewers are turning to what’s on the fresher looking digitals for entertainment, which is what the networks want to see. The six channels averaged 14.5% nationally.

The shares ranged from a low of 13.7% in Melbourne to 18.0% in Perth. Ten’s simulcasting of the AFL on Saturday helped, but GO and 7TWO were well ahead and dominated the night. It’s a sign of how boring the main channels of Nine and Seven have become on Saturday evenings. You could argue that Nine and Seven are actually driving people to their digital channels by telecasting rotten movies (yes, that includes the James Bond repeats on Seven).

Last night, two Jessica Watson interviews on Ten and Nine. Even without an interview, Seven’s Sunday Night easily beat 60 Minutes an hour later by attracting more viewers. Nine will counter that 60 Minutes was up against MasterChef.

For the second Sunday night in a row Australian TV viewers preferred to watch the Formula One race in HD on ten’s ONE, than on Ten’s main channel. And the difference was far clearer: 322,000 watched the race telecast on ONE from 10.30pm, compared with 186,000 on Ten.

TONIGHT: The Mentalist on Nine at 8.30pm. Ignore Q&A at 9.30pm on the ABC — it’s on the budget. MasterChef on Ten. Man vs. Wild on SBS. Desperate Housewives on Seven.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports