It was a big win to Seven last night in the ratings as Nine’s news and current
affairs and the various footy shows which screen in different states were well
beaten. Seven won everywhere as Nine slipped to third in Adelaide and Perth.
And Seven again ran My Restaurant Rules ten minutes over in a sneaky ploy to upset Nine’s ER.

The footy shows collectively finished 16th with 975,800 viewers, a bit better
than the 2005 start a week earlier. But in Sydney the NRL show finished third
behind Seven’s The Amazing Race and Ten’s Medical Investigation, and in Melbourne Eddie’s mob was beaten by The Amazing Race into second spot. In Brisbane it was the same story, with the NRL Footy Show running a distant third.

While Lost did well, Seven’s Today Tonight was the second most-watched show nationally with 1.364 million viewers, more
than 380,000 ahead of A Current Affair on Nine, which fell under the magic million viewer market to 978,000.
It’s a sign that the program itself, not the host, is on the nose with viewers
who are voting with their remotes. Seven News won nationally despite losing in
Melbourne to Nine while Today Tonight won in both Sydney and Melbourne.

It’s no wonder there are reports of Nine’s CEO demanding his executive team
produce ideas for new shows and stories. Nine doesn’t have many winners in its
schedule, and previous powerhouses like ER are being crushed by Lost. The latter was watched by 1.88 million people, ER by 1.014 million. Getaway, another faded powerhouse, was watched by 1.14 million.

Overall, Seven won easily with a 33.1% share to Nine’s 25.6% and Ten close up
on 23.0%. The ABC finished down on 13.9% while SBS ended with a 4.4% share.
Seven narrowly leads the week 30.3% to 29.0%.