The Winners: Seven News was tops last night with 1.645 million (but beaten in Sydney and Melbourne). MasterChef was second with 1.627 million and Nine News was third with 1.530 million. Today Tonight was next with 1.444 million and Two and a Half Men was 5th with the fresh 7.30pm episode averaging 1.407 million (and 484,000 in Melbourne). A Current Affair was 6th with 1.336 million and The Bang Theory on Nine at 8pm averaged 1.266 million. 8th was the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men with 1.257 million, 9th was the 7pm ABC News with 1.113 million and next was The Mentalist on Nine at 8.30pm with 1.093 million. Good News Week on Ten at 8.30pm averaged 1.042 million and last on the list was Home and Away with 1.023 million at 7pm for Seven.

The Losers: Seven was weak again. Nothing really clicked after 7pm.

News & CA: Seven News may have won nationally, but it lost in Sydney and Melbourne as did Today Tonight. The 7.30 Report averaged 706,000, Four Corners, 609,000, Media Watch, 660,000. Q&A, 545,000, Lateline, 307,000, Lateline Business, 161,000. Nine’s Nightline, 203,000. Ten News, 931,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 202,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 193,000, 173,000 for the late edition. 7am Sunrise, 353,000, 7am Today, 316,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won with a share of 28.2%, from Seven with 27.4%, Ten on 22.9%, the ABC with 15.4% and SBS on 6.2%. Nine won Sydney and Melbourne. Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth because of the strength of 7TWO last night. Nine leads the week, 29.5%, with Seven on 27.3%.

Main Channel: Nine won here as well with a share of 26.1%, from Seven with 22.8%, Ten on 21.9%, ABC 1, 13.6% and SBS ONE, 5.8%. Seven didn’t win a market as Nine won Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Ten won Adelaide. Nine leads the week with 26.3% from Seven on 24.1%.

Digital: Another solid night here with 7TWO’s turn to win with a share of 4.6%, from GO on 2.0%, ABC 2, 1.4%, ONE, 1.0% ABC 3 and SBS TWO both on 0.4%. That’s a total share for the six FTA channels of 9.8%. Another big share for Adelaide, 15.2% for the six channels with 7TWO’s 7.5%, larger than SBS’s combined share of 7.3%. The six digital channels had a share of 11.5% in Perth.

Pay TV: Nine won with 23.1%, from Seven with 22.4%, Ten was 18.7%, Pay TV, 16.2%, the ABC, 12.6% and SBS, 5.1%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 83.8%. Pay TV’s 100 plus channels shared in the reported 16.2% which was boosted by the NRL and the soccer on Fox Sports last night.

Regional: WIN/NBN won here with a share of 28.7%, from Prime/7Qld on 26.7%, SC Ten was on 20.1%, the ABC, 16.8% and SBS, 7.5%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN with 26.7%, from Prime/7Qld with 23.5%. The digitals were won by 7TWO on 3.2%, GO on 2.1%, ABC 2, 1.4% and ONE, 1.2%. WIN/NBN lead the week from Prime/7Qld, 29.9% to 26.7%.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Not the most enthralling of nights of TV. MasterChef was a contrived bit of nonsense set around a trip to Melbourne. Episodes like this having nothing to do with cheffing, more a way of changing locations (with the help of some government tourism money no doubt) and PR. The program heads to London soon, which is another stunt.

But there were a couple of standouts, Four Corners (is the Fairfax media outsourcing its reporting to Four Corners, or is it the other way round?) and Australian Story, the first of two parts on a former soldier badly done by the military in Canberra. Apart from those, it was an average night.

Last night soccer went head to head on Foxtel with Rugby League. The Australia NZ soccer game was on Fox Sports 3 from the MCG and averaged 151,239, the NRL game between Penrith and Canterbury in Sydney averaged 155,046. But the NRL audience was concentrated in just one market, Sydney where more than 112,000 subscribers watched (Just over 30,000 in Brisbane, the other NRL Stronghold).

The soccer had a stronger audience in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth than the NRL which was all but unwanted in Adelaide and Perth. When regional audiences are added, the NRL would have a lot more viewers because it is the winter sport of choice for much of regional NSW and Queensland. But soccer would be the more encouraged by the national spread and SBS knows that if the game was on Free Tor Air TV, it would have been many times larger.

TONIGHT: Top Gear on Nine, which is a repeat of an episode that has aired on SBS. The look at the Honda electric car is interesting, but out dated. Foreign Correspondent looks at Icelandic ash, Insight on SBS at 7.30pm, Australia’s Got Talent at 7.30 pm on Seven. MasterChef and Modern Family from 7.30pm to 8.30pm on Ten. It’s a pity, but Modern Family and Foreign Correspondent are the night’s highlights.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports