The Winners: Seven News was the most watched program last night with 1.446 million people. Today Tonight was second with 1.372 million and Nine News was next with 1.255 million. Two and a Half Men at 7.30pm averaged 1.217 million (and a lot in Melbourne), and A Current Affair was 5th with 1.215 million people (and a lot of viewers in Melbourne). The 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.161 million people (and a lot of viewers in Melbourne). The 8pm repeat of The Big Bang Theory averaged 1.077 million for Nine in 7th and 8th was the 7pm ABC News with 1.064 million viewers. Home and Away averaged 1.027 million at 7pm for Seven. Nine’s 8.30pm repeat of The Mentalist averaged 985,000 and Ten’s elimination episode of The Biggest Loser averaged 944,000. Australian Story averaged 901,000 at 8pm for the ABC.

The Losers: Viewers over the weekend. Apart from the ABC on Friday and Saturday nights and Seven and Ten last night, Free To Air TV was a wasteland over Easter. And the FTA networks get money from the Federal Government as rebates against their licence fees for showing us pap. They should be fined for showing us rubbish (and sport doesn’t count because that coverage is part of ongoing deals and has to be shown). Seven’s repeat of an Abba special at 7.30pm, 771,000. The first Brothers and Sisters episode at 8.30pm, 782,000, the second at 9.30pm, 775,000.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne. Today Tonight lost Melbourne as well. The 7.30 Report averaged 749,000, Four Corners, 701,000, Media Watch, 583,000. Ten News, 965,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 167,000. Nine’s Nightline, 156,000. Lateline, 185,000, no Lateline Business last night. SBS News at 6.30pm, 206,000, 157,000 for the late edition. 7am Sunrise, 304,000, 7am Today, 263,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won with a share of 28.3% from Seven with 27.3%, Ten with 20.6%, the ABC with 16.3% and SBS with 7.5%. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Seven won Adelaide and Perth. Both Networks are tied on 27.6% each after two nights of the week.

Main Channel: A win to Nine as well, 25.4%, with Seven next on 22.9%, Ten on 19.1%, ABC 1, 14.7% and SBS ONE, 6.9%. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Seven won Perth and Adelaide. Seven leads the week, 24.2% to Nine with 23.4%.

Digital: 7TWO won with a share of 4.4%, from GO with 2.9%, ONE with 1.5%, ABC 2, 1.3%, SBS TWO on 0.6% and ABC 3, 0.3%. The six digital channels had a total share of 11%. GO leads with a share of 4.2%, from ONE on 3.7% and 7TWO on 3.4%.

Pay TV: Nine won with 22.7%, from Seven with 21.8%, Pay TV with 17.8%, ten with 16.5%, the ABC with 13.1% and SBS with 6.0%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 82.2%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels shared the reported 17.8%.

Regional: WIN/NBN won with a share of 29.4% from Prime/7Qld with 24.1%, SC Ten with 19.2%, the ABC with 18.2% and SBS, 9.1%. WIN/NBN won the main channels, 7TWO won the digitals from GO with ABC 1 third.

(All figures are on a combined overnight All People 6pm to midnight share basis)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: How to describe the Easter weekend on Free Tor Air TV. Appalling? Rotten, a perfect example of the conceit of TV Network executives? Or a plot to make those millions of Australians at home on Saturday and Sunday night to watch anything but Free To Air TV? All of those and more.

Take Saturday night. The nadir of TV this year (apart from Christmas and New Year, or maybe even worse because on both occasions there’s other things to do). Among the Free To Air channels, the six digital channels averaged a total 20.3% of the audience. Advertisers on the main channels must have been really pleased at that. Apart from ABC 1 with a 22.0% share, the six digital channels had more viewers than any of the main channels of Nine, Ten and Seven on Saturday night.

In fact when Pay TV is included, the 100 plus channels totalled 23.7% which was the highest share of any of the TV businesses on Saturday night. That’s not unusual, it has happened before. But between them the Pay TV and FTA digital channels had almost 40% of the viewing on a rotten Saturday night on Australian TV. The Nine Network finished fourth on Saturday night and just didn’t care what it screened. With solid figures Friday and Saturday nights, Seven won the night easily and snatched the week.

And it didn’t get any better on Sunday. With the second F1 race of the year on ONE, it had a 6.3% share and beat SBS combined overnight figure. Collectively the six FTA channels had a 16% share on Sunday evening in prime time. With Pay TV involved that fell to 12.3%, with Pay TV having a total share of 19.7%. Seven won Sunday night from Ten with Nine third. At least Seven and Ten went through the motions out of ratings. Nine didn’t really care over the weekend.

Last night: Nine won from Seven and Ten, but it was not a night that will stay in our minds forever. But at least it wasn’t as bad as Saturday night.

TONIGHT: Foreign Correspondent and Britain From Above on the ABC. Criminal Minds on Seven at 8.30pm. Top Gear is supposed to be fresh on Nine at 7.30pm. NCIS is a repeat on Ten at 8.30pm, but Bondi Rescue is fresh at 8pm. Insight on SBS at 7.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports