The Winners: Nine’s 8pm program, Customs, was the most watched with 1.349 million people. Seven News was second with 1.308 million and A Current Affair was 3rd with 1.294 million. Today Tonight averaged 1.228 million in 4th spot and Criminal Minds won the 8.30pm slot of Seven with 1.199 million viewers. RPA was second for Nine with 1.131 million and the 7.30pm episode of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.117 million for Nine in 7th spot. 8th was Nine News with 1.105 million and 9th was the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men with 1.082 million. 10th was Spicks and Specks, back over the million mark with 1.079 million and Home and Away was 11th and last on the million viewer list last night with 1.035 million.

The Losers: Because of the mixed programming, some shows looked losers, but weren’t. For example, RSPCA Animal Rescue on Seven at 7.30pm didn’t air in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and only Sydney and Brisbane and averaged just 605,000. There was probably another half a million people not watching, but many of whom watched the first episode of Seven’s new AFL footy show, The Bounce.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne. ACA beat TT in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and nationally. The 7pm ABC news averaged 994,000. The 7.30 Report, 801,000. Lateline, 198,000, Lateline Business, 92,000. Nine’s Nightline, 187,000. Ten News, 821,000. The late News/Sports Tonight, 234,000. SBS News at 6.30 pm, 173,000, 155,000 for the late edition. In the very early morning, Ten’s early news from 6am, 38,000, ABC2’s three hour news from 6am with the high profile Virginia Trioli and Joe O’Brien fronting, 21,000. 7am Sunrise, 367,000, 7am Today, 314,000 — the gap opens again.

The Stats:

FTA: Seven won with a combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People share of 30.7% to 30.0% for Nine, 18.9% for Ten, 16.4% for the ABC and 4.1% for SBS. Nine won Sydney and Melbourne, but Seven had a big win in Brisbane and small wins in Adelaide and Perth. Seven leads the week 31.3% to 28.1% for Nine.

Main Channel: A win to Seven with a combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People share of 28.4%, 26.9% for Nine, 18.1% for Ten, 14.5% for ABC 1 and 3.8% for SBS ONE. Nine won Sydney narrowly, Melbourne clearly, Seven won the rest. Seven leads the week 28.6% from Nine with 24.8%.

Digital: GO won with a combined overnight All People share 6pm to midnight of 3.1%, from 7TWO with 2.2%, ABC 2 with 1.5%, ONE with 0.8%, ABC 3 with 0.4% and SBS TWO with 0.3. That’s a total share of 8.1%. GO leads the week, 3.2% to 7TWO with 2.7%.

Pay TV: Seven won with a combined overnight All People 6pm to midnight share of 25.4%, Nine with 24.9%, Ten, 15.7%, Pay TV, 15.1%, the ABC with 13.6% and SBS with 3.4%. The 11 FTA channels had a share of 84.9%, the 100 plus Pay channels had shared 15.1%.

Regional: A win to WIN/NBN with a combined overnight 6pm to midnight, All People share of 31.5%, from Prime/7Qld with 29.7%, the ABC with 17.3%, Ten (Southern Cross), 16.3%, and SBS, 5.3%. WIN/NBN won the main channel battle, 29.4% to Seven’s 28.2%. GO won the digital battle, 2.6% to 1.5% for 7TWO. Prime/7Qld leads the week from WIN/NBN, 29.3% to 28.4%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: A mixed night with Seven and Nine not doing national schedules from 7.30pm last night because of the AFL football programs in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Seven won, Nine won, it was a “dirty” night in that no clear message emerged. Ten was weak. Seven won All People and the 18 to 49 and 25 to 54s.

The highlight of the night was the solid, aggressive reporting by ACA of the Hey Dad abuse story. ACA forced Today Tonight to get serious and cover the program. TT ripped off parts (repurposed is the TV term these days) of the ACA story, seemingly as it went to air. It was a good example of solid reporting by a program that has toughened its game. TT hasn’t, it’s still a bit lose, except when it comes to scientology stories.

The New Seven NRL footy show with Matthew Johns starts tonight at 7.30pm to 8.30pm, up against Getaway on Nine and before The NRL Footy Show on Nine at 9.30pm. Seven will be hoping for a repeat of last night’s first up success for its AFL program called The Bounce, which beat had more viewers than the Nine Footy show, 546,000 to 437,000 for Nine’s program. That was in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and Seven’s show had more viewers in each. In Melbourne it was 326,000 to 293,000. Next week the programs return to Thursday nights and it will the big question will be, how many viewers return to The Bounce.

TONIGHT: Another confusing night ahead. The new NRL show, The Matty Johns Show,  for Seven in Sydney and Brisbane at 7.30pm and the Richmond-Carlton game live in southern markets on Ten at the same time.

Nine has Getaway. Ten has Law and Order SVU in NSW and Qld (Sydney and Brisbane). Seven has Cougar Town and How I Met Your Mother. The ABC has a program about a psychopath. Why? The Top Gear on Go will be more attractive, or Stargate Atlantic on 7TWO. Where’s Inspector Rex, when we need him?

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports