The Winners: MasterChef was tops with 1.761 million people for the half hour episode from 7.30pm for Ten. Seven News averaged 1.401 million and Today Tonight was third with 1.286 million. Nine News was 4th with 1.220 million and A Current Affair was next with 1.162 million. The 7pm ABC News averaged 1.126 million and Nine’s Sea Patrol averaged 1.125 million at 8.30pm.

The Losers: Nothing really except that a good swag of FTA viewers abandoned the main channels and watched the digital channels last night, even allowing for the AFL on ONE in some markets. How I Met Your Mother on Seven from 8.30pm, 726,000, Cougar Town on Seven at 9.30pm, 523,000. Both were double episodes as Seven screens them with the obvious intent of writing their first run cost off against whatever revenue they can generate from the timeslots.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally but lost Melbourne to Nine (by 1000 viewers, but won Sydney from Nine by 2000 viewers). TT won nationally but ACA won Sydney and Melbourne. The 7.30 Report averaged 746,000. Lateline, 268,000, Lateline Business, 149,000. Ten News, 834,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 277,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 173,000, the late edition, 216,000. 7am Sunrise, 365,000, 7am Today, 326,000, its first audience this week over 300,000.

Comment: Talk around Sydney TV is whether Nine will bring back Nightline next week when the Wimbledon tennis is finished. It’s still in the advance schedules, but there’s talk that Nine is thinking about its future and that of its reader, Kellie Connolly. Part of the problem with the program is the low ratings it gets from being consigned to the 11.30pm (or later occasionally) timeslot.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won with a share of 27.6% from Seven with 25.2%, Ten on 23.4%, the ABC on 18.8% and SBS with 4.9%. Nine won Sydney and Brisbane. Ten won Melbourne with the AFL, Seven won Adelaide and Perth. Seven leads the week with 27.6%, from Nine with 26.4% and Ten with 23.6%.

Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 22.9%, Ten was second with 21.9% and Seven was third with 21.3%. ABC 1 was on 15.2% and SBS ONE with 4.4%. Nine won Sydney and Brisbane, Ten won Melbourne and Seven won Adelaide and Perth.

Digital: A big night for the digital networks as a lot of viewers voted with their remotes and even watched some programs that they had watched on the main channels. GO won with a share of 4.7%, from 7TWO with 3.9%, ABC 2, 3.0%, ONE with 1.5% (The AFL simulcast in southern markets, which added viewers to the total), ABC 3, 0.6% and SBS TWO, 0.5%. The six FTA digital channels had a total share of 13.2% (Adelaide 15.9% and Perth 14%, Melbourne 13.7%, all boosted to an extent by the AFL on ONE). GO leads the week with 3.2% and 7TWO, 2.6%.

Pay TV: Nine won with 23.0%, from Seven on 21.0%, Ten on 19.5%, the ABC with 15.7%, Pay TV with 14.3% and SBS on 4.1%. The six FTA digital channels had a total share of 11.9% with Pay TV included. All up, the 11 FTA channels had a total share of 85.7%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels shared the 14.2% reported.

Regional: WIN/NBN won with 31.0% from Prime/7Qld with 24.9%, SC Ten with 19.6%, the ABC on 19.1% and SBS on 5.4%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with a share of 26.6% from Prime/7Qld with 21.2%. GO won the digitals with a share of 4.4%, from 7TWO on 3.7% and ABC 2 on 2.3%. The six FTA digitals had a high share of 12.8% last night in regional areas, without much of an impact from ONE’s AFL broadcast.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The ABC, Nine and Ten all continued with normal programming this morning and didn’t take the press conference with the PM announcing a reworking of the resource rent tax. So much for the thrill of the hunt from last week’s political happenings. It was Gillard’s first big policy decision and Nine and Seven were in their morning “news” programs, Today and Sunrise just after 8.30pm.

Last night, Nine won with its digital channel, GO solid with repeats of programs like The Big Bang Theory and Top Gear in prime time. Some nights, GO resembles Nine’s main channel.

A Current Affair had a catch up story on scientology’s tax lurks last night that was a pale echo of Today Tonight‘s scoop the week before. It was OK, but not in the class of Seven’s effort.

The Matty Johns Show on Seven at 7.30pm averaged 231,000 in Sydney and 163,000 in Brisbane. The Nine Network’s NRL Footy Show at 9.30pm averaged 136,000 in Sydney and 109,000 in Brisbane. Ten’s AFL game between Carlton and Brisbane averaged 344,000 in Melbourne and 611,000 nationally. The Matty Johns Show show averaged 395,000 across Sydney and Brisbane, the Nine show, 245,000 across the two cities.

TONIGHT: There’s AFL on Seven, NRL on Nine, fabulous World Cup soccer on SBS around 11.30pm (Holland vs. Brazil the highlight). Better Homes and Gardens on Seven at 7.30pm, MasterChef master class on Ten. The ABC has the last of the repeats of Miss Marple.

SATURDAY: Movies on Seven, snore! The last One Day cricket from London between Australia and England at 7.30pm. Then the women’s final from Wimbledon (AKA, the Serena Williams benefit), then it’s back to the cricket. Ten has a movie and or AFL. The ABC has Midsomer Murders at 9.20pm. SBS has more soccer, Argentina vs. Germany is the hilight. NRL/AFL on Foxtel.

SUNDAY: AFL, NRL, on Seven, Nine and Foxtel. Dancing With The Stars on Seven for two hours from 6.30pm. A Bones repeat at 8.30pm. Nine switches CSI to 8.30pm and returns Cold Case to 9.30pm. Ten has MasterChef and The Good Wife. Sunday morning chats. Men’s final from Wimbledon on Nine at 10.30pm. Tour De France at 10pm on SBS, Stage 1, Rotterdam to Brussels via Antwerp.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports.