The Winners: MasterChef won with 1.829 million viewers, with Hamish & Andy’s Caravan of Courage: Great Britain & Ireland second with 1.749 million people for Ten at 8pm. Seven News was 3rd with 1.382 million and Today Tonight was next with 1.308 million. Nine News was 5th with 1.231 million and A Current Affair was 6th with 1.154 million. The 7pm ABC News averaged 1.123 million (and won the slot), with Sea Patrol on 1.101 million for Nine at 8.30pm. The 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.056 million, Law And Order SVU averaged 1.053 million at 9pm on Ten and Home and Away averaged 1.009 million at 7pm for Seven.

The Losers: Seven after 7 .30pm. The black hole really opened up and swallowed the schedule, with the exception of the Matty Johns Show in Sydney and Brisbane which was at least competitive. The rest flopped badly, especially Cougar Town which was snuck back into the scheme at 9.30pm and averaged 453,000. The World Cup football game between Argentina and South Korea beat Cougar Town with 593,000 viewers.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Sydney, as did Today Tonight. It reversed the results on a couple of nights earlier in the week when Nine was stronger in Melbourne than in Sydney. Ten News averaged 884,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 285,000. The 7.30 Report averaged 712,000. Lateline, 252,000, Lateline Business, 148,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 161,000. 7am Sunrise, 400,000, 7am Today, 332,000. Nine’s Nightline, 200,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine might have won the 6pm to midnight battle, but in the heart of prime time, 6pm to 10.30 pm, Ten was the winner, as we can see from the main channel figures. But in All People, Nine had a share of 26.7%, with Ten on 26.3%, Seven on a weak 21.3%, the ABC, 16.0% and SBS was on 9.7%. Nine won Brisbane, Ten won Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, Seven won Perth. Nine leads the week with 27.1%, from Nine with 24.9% and Ten on 24.1%. Ten won the demos again.

Main Channel: Ten won convincingly with 25.6%, from Nine on 22.6%, Seven on a low 19.0%, ABC 1, 13.3% and SBS ONE, 9.0%. Ten won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Nine won Brisbane. Nine leads the week with 24.2%, from Ten with 23.2% and Seven on 22.4%.

Digital: GO won with a share of 4.0%, from 7TWO with 2.4%, ABC 2, 2.1%, ONE and SBS Two on 0.7% each and ABC 3 on 0.6%. That’s a total share for the six FTA digital channels of 10.5%, with the peak shares in Adelaide (12.9%) and Perth (12.5%).

Pay TV: Nine had a share of 22.6%, Ten, 22.3%, Seven, 18.1%, the ABC, 13.5%, Pay TV, 12.7% and SBS, 8.2%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 87.3%, while Pay TV’s 100 plus channels shared in the lowish figure of 12.7%.

Regional: A big win for WIN/NBN with 32.4%, from SC Ten with 23.8%, Prime/7Qld with 22.9%, the ABC on 15.0% and SBS, 5.8%. WIN/NBN won the main channels with a share of 28.0% from SC Ten with 23.2% and Prime/7Qld with 20.9%. GO won the digitals with 4.4%, 7TWO was on 2.1% and ABC 2, 1.3%. WIN/NBN leads the week with a share of 31.7%, from Prime/7Qld with 25.3%.

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

Glenn Dyer’s comments: TV viewers in Sydney and regional Australia turned off the second State of Origin Rugby League game played in Brisbane Wednesday night which was won easily by Queensland. Delayed ratings figures for the TV broadcast on the Nine Network showed that around 19% fewer people watched in Sydney; 946,000 vs. a record 1.179 million for game one.

Viewing was up in Queensland by 25,000 at 849,000. But the number of people watching the live game in Melbourne fell sharply, down 17%, or 57,000 to 271,000. The audience in Brisbane was a record, in Sydney it was a two year low, in Melbourne it was the lowest since 2006.

The telecast in Sydney peaked briefing for a quarter of an hour just after kickoff after 8pm at 1.007 million. The total metro audience was 2.156 million for the game, against 2.455 million for game one on May 26.

In regional areas, the audience sank 8% to 1.029 million for game 2 from 1.120 million for the first game in the current series. That overwhelmingly came from viewers in regional areas of NSW and Queensland. Game 3 is not looking good for Nine as a result.

Nine won Wednesday night with Origin, but Ten won last night with solid programming: 7pm Project, MasterChef, Hamish and Andy and Law and Order SVU.

Seven’s Matty Johns Show averaged 253,000 in Sydney and 181,000 in Brisbane. Nine’s NRL Footy Show averaged 123,000 in Sydney and 155,000 in Brisbane. It’s one of the few times the Nine program has had more viewers in Brisbane than in Sydney. That tells us the show is doomed in its current format.

On the Matty Johns Show last night Johns described his brother Andrew, as “pre-historic” for making racist comments that split the NSW origin camp, forced Andrew Johns to quit as assistant coach and helped motivate Queensland even more for the game Wednesday night. That’s what fans wanted to see and hear.

Nine’s AFL Footy Show lost thousands of viewers and averaged 285,000 from 9.30pm in Melbourne. That wasn’t enough to do the usual trick of getting Nine home in Melbourne on the night.

It’s a bye round for many AFL clubs this weekend, so there’s plenty of World Cup games to make up for the loss.

TONIGHT: NRL, AFL on Nine and Seven. Soccer on SBS, Ms Marple on the ABC and MasterChef‘s master class on Ten.

SATURDAY: AFL on Ten and NRL on Foxtel. Doc Martin and Midsomer Murders on the ABC, Soccer on SBS. The second Australian England Rugby Union Test on Seven from 7pm, and that’s it.

SUNDAY: The morning chats, NRL and AFL on Nine, and Foxtel. Underbelly on Nine at 8.30pm, Sunday Night on Seven, MasterChef and The Good Wife on Ten. The final Hercule Poirot on the ABC and perhaps Dr Who. Football on SBS, Australia vs. Ghana at 12am Sunday.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports