A night when so far as viewers were concerned, only the News broadcasts mattered. The 6pm broadcasts of Seven and Nine did best of all, followed by the ABC. A Current Affair was again very weak (and I know it is a low viewing Thursday evening). Ten News was weaker as was the 6.30pm of The Project, not to mention Family Feud at 6pm. Sagging Home and Away was the most watched non-news program, which tells us how dire the rest of the night was. And how weak was the night? Well the first six programs were all news and current affairs from 6 to 8 pm on Nine, Seven and the ABC. That is a sure sign the rest of the night is just ratings spak filla.

Seven’s Sunrise had another big win in the metros over Today: 346,000 to 298,000 and is heading for one of its biggest wins of the year.

Seven returned Australia’s Cheapest Weddings to our TV screens last night, in a low viewing Thursday night when it couldn’t do too much damage. It ran back-to-back eps and they averaged 766,000 nationally for the two hours, which easily won the timeslot from 8.30 to 10.30pm, which was the whole point of screening this rubbish. There is no comparison with First Dates (which could be seen as the first step towards Australia’s Cheapest Weddings/TV program). And on a night where a solid ABC program has the chance to shine — say Silvia’s Italian Table — nope: 678,000 (482,000 metro and 195,000 regional). Barely there.

The top five regional programs were: Seven News, 469,000; Home and Away, 439,000; Seven News/Today Tonight, 420,000; The Chase Australia 5.30pm, 333,000; The Big Bang Theory episode 1 317,000

Ten is now promoting the Big Bash madly. It has nothing left to flog in the next week or so of official ratings.

And it was goodbye to Vanessa O’Halloran on ABC News Breakfast this morning – off for the wilds of the new Nine/Southern Cross regional TV network. Good luck. — Click here for Glenn Dyer’s full TV ratings.