The Winners: MasterChef was the most watched program with a season high so far of 1.968 million viewers. Seven News was second with 1.594 million and Today Tonight was 3rd with 1.475 million. Nine News was 4th with 1.279 million and A Current Affair was next with 1.211 million. Lie To Me averaged 1.192 million for Ten at 8.30pm and the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.155 million for Nine. Spicks and Specks averaged 1.124 million at 8.30pm for the ABC and Home and Away was 9th with 1.053 million. Hey Hey it’s Saturday averaged 1.003 million in 10th and the 7 pm ABC News averaged 1.002 million. The 7pm Project averaged 924,000, The Pacific on Seven at 8.30pm, 978,000.

The Losers: Hey Hey it’s Saturday.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Sydney. TT had the same result. The 7.30 Report averaged 759,000, Lateline, 218,000, Lateline Business, 127,000. Ten News, 914,000. the late News/Sports Tonight with 397,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 191,000, 2211,000 for the late edition. 7am Sunrise, 395,000, 7am Today, 314,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Ten won with a share of 27.0%, from Seven with 26.3%, Nine was third with 26.2%, the ABC was on 15.4% and SBS was on 5.1%. Ten won Brisbane, Nine won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven won Adelaide and Perth. Nine leads the week with 28.0%, from Seven with 27.2% and Ten on 25.0%.

Main Channel: Ten won here easily with a share of 26.1%, from Seven with 23.9%, Nine on 23.7%, ABC 1 on 13.4% and SBS ONE with 4.7%. Ten won Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Nine won Melbourne and Seven won Perth. Nine leads the week with 25.2%, from Seven on 24.4% and Ten on 23.4%.

Digital: GO won with a share of 2.5%, from 7TWO on 2.4%, ABC 2 on 1.5%, ONE on 0.9%, ABC 3, 0.5% and SBS TWO, 0.4%. that’s a total share of 8.2% for the six digital channels. Adelaide had the peak share of 11.2%. GO and 7TWO lead the week with 2.8% each.

Pay TV: Ten won with a share of 22.1%, from Seven on 21.5%, Nine, 21.4%, Pay TV with 15.7%, the ABC with 12.6% and SBS was on 4.2%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 84.3%, Pay TV’s 100 channels shared the 15.7% reported.

Regional: A rare occurrence here. Prime/7Qld and WIN/NBN drew the night with a share of 28.3%, drew the main channels with 26.0% and drew the digitals with 2.3% each for GO and 7TWO. SC Ten finished with a share of 21.2%, the ABC, 16.0% and SBS, 6.3%. WIN/NBN leads the week with a share of 29.6%, from Prime/7Qld with 28.6%.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Talk about tired, jaded and just plain boring. Last night’s episode of Hey Hey it’s Saturday was all that and more, but not to people in Melbourne who think anything local is worth supporting — the 1.003 million isn’t enough to justify the cost or the boredom factor. Big audiences in Melbourne, and slightly smaller ones in Sydney, are keeping the program on air. It’s been ignored in other markets.

MasterChef was interesting in that it was absurd. Providing canapés to people on a cruise ship before it sailed was a big test. And obviously too much. Contrived nonsense. And if the chicken had have been undercooked, as it seemed (and almost got thru) and fed to the guests, with food poisoning resulting, would MasterChef the program have survived?

But that’s mere canapés carping from me. Over 1.9 million other people didn’t agree as MasterChef had its biggest audience of the year so far and powered Ten to a sweeping win on the night in All People and the demos.

TONIGHT: Another Thursday night, another black hole for Seven. Italian Food Safari and Costa’s Garden Odyssey on SBS from 7.30pm to 8.30pm. MasterChef and Glee on Ten. Patrol Boat on Nine is you like average Australian dramas.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports