The Winners: MasterChef and The Oprah Winfrey Show did it for Ten last night. It won All People and the demos. Its best Thursday night of the year so far. Recipe For Murder on the ABC at 8.30pm, 836,000, deserved more. Good program. On SBS, Lyndey & Blair’s Taste of Greece, 234,000 after the 242,000 for the repeat of Italian Food Safari. Not bad for both programs.

  1. MasterChef Australia (Ten) (7.30pm) — 1.464 million
  2. Seven News (6pm) — 1.229 million
  3. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.191 million
  4. Nine News (6pm) — 1.099 million
  5. The Oprah Winfrey Show (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.057 million
  6. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.046 million

The Losers: No one really, but it wasn’t the greatest night of TV. Oh, I forgot, the NRL Footy Show in Sydney, 149,000 (ranked 23rd in Sydney last night), and in Brisbane, 72,000 (equal 27th). Weak as … after game one of Origin. And Queensland won the game.

Oh, and there’s Between The Lines, Nine at 8.30pm, 518,000. The loss of ratings is no laughing matter. It was 4th, beaten by Ten, the ABC and Seven in that order. At least Eddie McGuire’s other show, Hot Seat at 5.30pm, did better, 619,000. It beat Seven’s Deal Or No Deal with 563,000. But both were beaten by Ten News.

News & CA: Seven News had its worst night for months: lost Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Nine News. Winning Adelaide and Perth by big margins saw it in front nationally.

ACA won Sydney and Melbourne: TT won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. In fact, last night was a bit like 2005-06 as Nine was losing viewers and Seven was climbing past it. Seven News has been losing ground, in Sydney and Brisbane now for a while now: not every night, just enough to become noticeable.

  1. Seven News (6pm) — 1.229 million
  2. Today Tonight (Seven) (6.30pm) — 1.191 million
  3. Nine News (6pm) — 1.099 million
  4. The Oprah Winfrey Show (Ten) (8.30pm) — 1.057 million
  5. A Current Affair (Nine) (6.30pm) — 1.046 million
  6. ABC News (7pm) — 849,000
  7. The 7pm Project (Ten) (7pm) — 810,000
  8. 7.30 (ABC) (7.30pm) — 625,000
  9. Ten News (5pm) — 578,000
  10. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (6.30pm) — 396,000
  11. 6.30 with George Negus (Ten) (10.30pm) — 271,000
  12. Lateline (ABC) (10.30pm) — 231,000
  13. SBS News (6.30pm) — 186,000
  14. Late News/Sports Tonight (Ten) (11pm) — 175,000
  15. Lateline Business (ABC) (11.05pm) — 101,000

In the morning:

  1. Sunrise (Seven) (7am) — 410,000
  2. Today (Nine) (7am) — 366,000

The Stats:

  • FTA: Ten (3 channels) won with a share of 26.7%, from Seven (3) on 26.3%. Nine (3) was on 25.7%, the ABC (4) ended with 15.9% and SBS (2) was on 5.4%. Seven leads the week with 30.2% from Nine on 27.5% and Ten on 24.0%.
  • Main Channel: Ten won with 20.8%, with Nine and Seven tied on 19.4% each, ABC 1 was on 11.6% and SBS ONE was on 4.6%. Seven leads the week with 23.0% from Nine on 21.1% and Ten on 18.3%.
  • Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.1% from Eleven on 3.9%, GO on 3.3%, ABC 2 and Gem on 3.0% each, 7mate on 2.7%, ONE was on 1.9%, SBS TWO and ABC 3 were on 0.8% each and News 24 ended with 0.5%. That’s an FTA viewing share of 24.0% in prime time last night. 7TWO leads the week on 4.1% from GO on 3.6% and 7mate and Eleven on 3.1% each.
  • Pay TV: Ten (3 channels) won with a share of 21.6%, from Seven (3) on 21.3%, Nine (3) was on 20.8%, Pay TV (100 plus channels) ended with 154.8% (it’s best so far of the week), the ABC (4) ended with 12.9% and SBS (2) was on 4.4%. The 15 FTA channels had an 84.2% share of TV viewing in prime time last night. that was made up of 19.5% for the digitals and 64.7% for the five main channels.
  • Regional: Ten didn’t do as well in the regionals as Ten did in metro areas. WIN/NBN (3 channels) won with a share of 29.8% from Prime/7Qld (3) on 27.2%, with SC Ten (3) on 22.7%, the ABC (4) was on 14.5% and SBS (2) was on 5.9%. WIN/NBN won the main channels from Prime/7Qld and then SC Ten. The digitals were won by GO with 4.6% from 7TWO on 4.0% and Eleven on 3.7%. The 10 digital channels had an FTA prime time share last night of 27.4%. WIN/NBN lead the week on 31.4% from Prime/7Qld on 30.7%. MasterChef was the third most watched program in regional areas with 491,000 people. It was the most watched program in the main demos.

Major Markets: A solid night for Ten. It was Sydney and Adelaide overall and the main channels from Seven and Nine. Seven won Perth in both measures from Ten and a weak Nine. Nine won Melbourne from Ten and Seven. In the digitals Ten won Brisbane from Nine and Seven. 7TWO won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. GO won Brisbane. Nine leads Sydney and Brisbane from Seven and Ten. Seven leads Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth from Ten and Nine.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Not the most entertaining of nights, unfortunately. Still after Wednesday night’s fun and games, some of us probably needed a settler or two.

TONIGHT: NRL and AFL on Seven (in southern markets) and Nine. MasterChef on Ten, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Thorne: Scaredy Cat on the ABC. Poor Getaway is on Gem at 7.30pm. A slow boning by Nine.

Saturday: NRL and AFL on Ten and Foxtel. Seven has a fleet of movies. And on Nine a special event. The first screening for 2011 of Crocodile Dundee at 9.40pm. Later than usual, a sign that it has worn out its welcome, even among desperate Nine programmers. Apart from Dr Who, the ABC is a black hole of indifference. Inspector Morse (a repeat) is on 7TWO at 8.40pm, the highlight of the night.

Sunday: The European Cup final from London, Manchester United vs. Barcelona, at 4.15am on SBS. Then NRL and AFL on Foxtel and Seven. Seven has the highlight of the week, Downton Abbey, the UK frocking-up top notcher. Well worth a look. That’s after Dancing With The Stars.

Ten has MasterChef and the go fast race, the Monaco GP for tax avoiders. (ONE has it as well). Nine has In Their Footsteps and a fresh Mentalist and a repeat. The ABC has the second part of the miniseries The Kennedys. Downton Abbey is a far better class of fiction and better acted.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports