The Winners: MasterChef was the most watched program last night with 1.741 million, from Seven News with 1.579 million and Nine News, 1.483 million. Today Tonight was 4th with 1.377 million with A Current Affair next with 1.358 million. Two and a Half Men was 6th for the fresh episode at 7.30pm on Nine with 1.385 million (and a big audience in Melbourne). The 8pm episode of The Big Bang Theory on Nine averaged 1.183 million and the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.159 million. Nine’s 8.30pm program The Mentalist averaged 1.158 million and Home and Away averaged 1.064 million for Seven at 7pm. The 7pm ABC News averaged 1.060 million and was the last million viewer program on the night.

The Losers: Seven’s post 7pm line up. Another underperformance. Seven’s best program after the 6pm News and Today Tonight was Home and Away with 1.064 million at 7pm. Desperate Housewives is being squashed at 8.30pm and squashing itself.

News & CA: Seven News may have won nationally, but lost Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Nine. Today Tonight lost Sydney and Melbourne to ACA, but won nationally, like the news because of the usual big wins in Adelaide and Perth. The 7.30 Report averaged 790,000 with the Abbott outburst. Four Corners at 8.30pm, 821,000 and Media Watch, 719,000. Lateline, 321,000, Lateline Business, 173,000. Nine’s Nightline, l206,000. Ten News, 933,000. The late News/Sports Tonight, 171,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 221,000, 217,000 for the late edition. 7am Sunrise, 391,000, 7am Today, 306,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won here with a share of 28.2%, from Seven with 25.8%, Ten on 22.5%, the ABC, 17.0% and SBS, 6.5%. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Seven won Adelaide and Perth. Nine leads the week, 29.4% from Seven with 27.1%.

Main Channel: Nine won here as well with a share of 25.6%, from Seven on 21.9%, Ten on 21.4%, ABC 1, 15.0% and SBS One, 6.1%. Nine won a clean sweep, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Nine leads the week on 25.8%, from Seven with 23.9%. Nine (PBL Media’s Nine ignored the Adelaide and Perth wins in its morning boast).

Digital: Another solid night. 7TWO won with 3.9%, from GO with 2.5%, ABC 2, 15.0%, ONE, 1.1%, ABC 3, 0.5% and SBS TWO, 0.4%. That’s a total share for the six digital channels of 9.9%. But in Adelaide, they had a total share of almost 15% and over 10% in Perth and Sydney. GO leads the week with a share of 3.6%, from 7TWO with 3.2%.

Pay TV: Nine won with 23.4%, from Seven with 21.5%, Ten on 18.7%, pay TV with 14.9%, the ABC, 14.1% and SBS, 5.4%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 85.1%. the 100 plus Pay TV channels shared the rest.

Regional: WIN/NBN won with a share of 31.0%, from Prime/7Qld with 25.2%, SC Ten with 19.7%, the ABC on 17.0%, and SBS with 7.1%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 28.9% from Prime/7Qld with 21.6%. 7TWO won the digitals with 3.5%, from GO with 2.1%, ABC 2 on 1.5% and GO with 1.0%. WIN/NBN leads the week with 31.9%, from Prime/7Qld with 26.3%.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Last Thursday it was Kerry O’Brien and the Kevin Rudd having a mild joust and last night it was Tony Abbott. Later in the night it was Joe Hockey tap dancing furiously on Q&A and Lindsay Tanner gloating gloriously.

Q&A though is just a long political rave. It might be OK on issues like global warming, which have genuine community interest (pro or against), but the Federal Budget? Didn’t we do that last week? Q&A had a high 597,000 people watching and everyone there will be happy. But if it’s going to be all about politics, get rid of the civilians and stay with the pollies.

Nine won All People last night easily. Seven was again weak. Ten won the 16 to 39s, 18 to 49s and 25 to 54s with The 7pm Project, MasterChef and Good News Week.

TONITE: Foreign Correspondent on the ABC (and on China — watch — it should be very good). MasterChef on Ten, Australia’s Got Talent on Seven, Top Gear on Nine, Insight on SBS. Try Modern Family on Ten tonight.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports