The Winners: MasterChef was the most watched program last night with 1.652 million for another elimination. Seven News was second with 1.450 million and Today Tonight was 3rd with 1.339 million. Glee averaged 1.313 million for Ten at 8pm, its highest audience so far for Australia. Nine News was 5th with 1.239 million and Sea Patrol was 6th at 8.30pm for Nine with 1.228 million. A Current Affair was next with 1.114 million and the 7pm ABC News averaged 1.108 million people. 9th was Getaway on Nine at 7.30pm with 1.024 million, 10th was Home and Away with 1.019 million and the 7pm repeat of Two and a half Men averaged 1.011 million people. The 7pm Project averaged 905,000 for Ten and the Nine Footy Shows averaged 849,000, with 359,000 for the AFL Show in Melbourne.

The Losers: Seven’s 7.30pm black hole. The now usual story. The Matty Johns Show in Sydney and Brisbane is part of Seven’s plans to get the FTA rights to the NRL in a couple of years. In Melbourne, there just doesn’t seem to be any idea on how to fix the problem.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Melbourne. Today Tonight won everywhere. Both it and ACA saw big falls in Sydney from their respective news: TT fell to 328,000 from 403,000 for Seven News. ACA averaged 310,000, Nine News in Sydney, 335,000. Ten News averaged 914,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 227,000. The 7.30 Report 705,000. Lateline, 241,000, Lateline Business, 147,000. Nine’s Nightline, 280,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 163,000, 196,000 for the late edition. 7am Sunrise, 364,000, 7am Today, 354,000. (Close, again)

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won here, easily, with a share of 31.0%, from Seven with 24.8%, Ten on 23.3%, the ABC with 16.2% and the SBS with 4.8%. Nine won all metro markets and leads the week, 28.6% from Seven with 27.0%.

Main Channel: Nine won again with a share of 26.0%, from Ten with 22.2%. Seven was third with 22.1%, ABC 1 was on 13.5% and SBS ONE, 4.3%. Nine won everywhere but Perth, where Seven got up. Nine leads the week on 25.2%, from Seven with 24.3%.

Digital: A strong night, the six digital channels had a national share of 11.9%, with Adelaide the peak at 13.4%. GO won with a share of 5.0%, from 7TWO with 2.7%, ABC 2, 2.2%, ONE, 1.1%, SBS TWO, 0.5%, ABC 3, 0.4%. GO leads the week with 3.3%, from 7TWO with 2.7%.

Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 25.7%, from Seven with 20.6%, Ten, 19.4%, the ABC, 13.4% and SBS, 4.0%. Pay TV had a share of 14.6% for its 100 or so channels. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 85.4%.

Regional: WIN/NBN won the regionals with a share of 31.6%, with Prime/7Qld on 24.1%, SC Ten, 22.1%, the ABC, 15.3% and SBS was on 6.9%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with 27.9%, from Prime/7Qld with 21.8%. GO won the digitals battle with 3.7%, from 7TWO with 2.3%, and ABC 2 on 1.7%. WIN/NBN leads with 29.4%, from Prime/7Qld with 21.8%.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Glee and Italian Food Safari were the highlights last night. The Seven News in Sydney broke the David Campbell story and threw the NSW Labor Government into disarray. That left Nine struggling. Interestingly, the day before Seven had led its news with a Freedom of Information scoop on the initial report into a traffic hold up on April 13 where the minister in question, David Campbell, went missing. The report didn’t answer why he was missing for two hours when decisions needed to be made and no one could or would say where he was. Then the next night the story appears with vision of him visiting a gay club in Sydney’s Eastern suburbs. Odd timing.

Overall, Nine won the night and Ten again won the all demos with MasterChef, Glee and The 7pm Project. Seven’s  The Matty Johns Show with 259,000 viewers in Sydney and 140,000 in Brisbane, had weak numbers for 7.30pm, but had more viewers than the Nine NRL Footy Show two hours later, 215,000 in Sydney and 113,000 in Brisbane.

The Rolling Stones documentary at 8.30pm on the ABC, just 375,000 people. It was interesting for a while, but needed more music. After all that’s what Exile On Main Street is all about, isn’t it?

Digital channel viewing was again strong, which says something about what was on the main channels, especially Nine with GO averaging a high 5.0% nationally and out rating the combined total for SBS of 4.8%.

TONIGHT: AFL and NRL on Seven (the Collingwood-Geelong game in the south) and NRL in the north on Nine. Seven has Better Homes and Gardens nationally at 7.30pm. Ten has MasterChef’s masterclass, the ABC has Waking the Dead. Last week’s episode and the outline of tonight’s have a Midsomer Murder fruit loop feel.

Saturday: NRL on Foxtel, AFL on Ten, at night the AFL is live in the south and later in the north. Movies on Seven and Nine (ignore). Movies on Ten in the north, also ignore. The aforementioned Midsomer Murders at 9.15 pm on the ABC is the highlight.

Sunday: The morning chats will be full of Abbot/Hockey speak — avoid? NRL on Foxtel and Nine in some markets. AFL on Seven. Sunday Night on Seven at 6.30pm. Underbelly on Nine at 8.30pm and MasterChef on Ten at 7.30pm and The Good Wife at 8.30pm. SBS’s guide has Dateline down as “final” at 8.30pm. Foyle’s War is also final on the ABC at 8.30pm. Sadness.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports