The Winners: Seven News was the most watched program with 1.536 million viewers. Australia’s Got Talent was second at 7.30pm for Seven with 1.509 million and Today Tonight was third with 1.476 million. MasterChef was 4th with 1.464 million for the half hour program from 7.30pm, NCIS at 8.30pm averaged a solid 1.422 million for Ten and Bondi Rescue finished its current run with its highest ever figures, 1.328 million at 8pm. 7th was A Current Affair with 1.298 million and 8th was Top Gear at 7.30pm for Nine with 1.279 million. Nine News was next with 1.272 million and the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.151 million. Home and Away was next and 11th with 1.122 million and the 7pm ABC News was 12th with 1.032 million.

The Losers: People who watched the budget coverage on the ABC from 7.30pm to 8.30pm. The same old same old…

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally, but lost Brisbane to Nine News. TT won nationally, but it was closer than it seems. ACA won Sydney and drew Melbourne with TT. Ten News averaged 847,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 296,000. Lateline averaged 223,000, Lateline Business, 125,000. Nine’s Nightline, 225,000. Insight on SBS, 244,000, after 180,000 for the 6.30pm SBS News. The late edition averaged 258,000. 7am Sunrise, 397,000, 7am Today, 336,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Seven won with a share of 29.9% from Nine with 25.3% and Ten with 24.5%. The ABC finished with 15.0% and SBS, 5.3%. Seven won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Nine won in Brisbane with figures that were off the dial with the rest of the country. Nine still leads the week, 29.0% to 28.0% for Seven.

Main Channel: A similar result here, Nine won Brisbane, Seven won the rest, Ten though beat Nine into second. Seven had a share of 28.1%, Ten, 23.8%, Nine, 23.2%, ABC 1, 12.6% and SBS ONE, 4.9%. Nine leads the week, 26.3% from Seven with 25.4%. Nine was third in Adelaide and Perth behind Ten.

Digital: GO won with 2.1%, from AVC 2 with 1.9%, 7TWO was on 1.8%, ONE, 0.8% and ABC 3 and SBS TWO, 0.5%. That’s a total share for the six channels of 7.6%. GO leads the week with a share of 2.7% to 2.5% for 7TWO.

Pay TV: Seven won with 25.1%, Nine was on 21.2%, Ten was third with 20.6%, Pay TV was on 13.5%, the ABC, 12.6% and SBS, 4.5%. The 11 FTA channels had a share of 86.5%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels shared in the 13.5% share reported.

Regional: Prime/7Qld won with a share of 29.8%, from WIN/NBN with 24.3% and SC Ten with 24.3%, the ABC was on 15.3% and SBS, 6.3%. Prime/7Qld won the main channels with 28.7%, from SC Ten with 23.2%. GO won with 2.1%, from ABC 2 with 1.7 and 7TWO with 1.1%. WIN/NBN lead the week, 29.0% to 27.6% for Prime/7Qld.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nostalgia last night in the form of Australia’s Got Talent finally got over the top of MasterChef. It was a 30 minute episode of MasterChef from 7.30pm and it ran right over the top of Wayne Swan on the ABC (677,000).

Nine was second overall and third on the night on the master channels, which is a more accurate look at how the night went.

TONIGHT: Spicks and Specks on the ABC at 8.30pm. MasterChef on Ten at 7.30pm. The Pacific on Seven at 8.30pm (and another episode straight after), Hey Hey It’s Saturday is on Nine at 7.30pm. Inspector Rex is a repeat at 7.30pm on SBS.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports