There was irony for the Ten Network
in last night’s ratings. A day after winning ten Logies, Ten’s much
hyped but poorly-watched X-Factor was again beaten into last place by SBS’s mini hit, Mythbusters. Sure Nine’s Super Nanny, Seven’s Great Outdoors and the ABC’s 7.30 Report were way out in front, but around SBS HQ at Artarmon today in Sydney there will be a few wry smiles, while at Ten, gloom.

It was an ignominious result for Ten given the difference in resources at the two networks. Mythbusters attracted 649,000 viewers, the X-Factor elimination last night 647,000.

The Nine Network’s scoop of the Victorian budget didn’t have much of an impact last night. Nine News ratings were about where they have been this year, well in front of rival Seven, 479,000 to 383,000 viewers, helping Nine News to a national win.

Seven News
has been slowly closing in on Nine in Melbourne, but Nine remains
comfortably ahead. In Sydney it’s a different story, with Seven News
100,000 viewers ahead of Nine, 392,000 to 351,000. Certainly there was
no help for A Current Affair, beaten nationally and in Sydney and Melbourne by Seven’s Today Tonight. TT
won nationally by 185,000 viewers, while Nine News won by 30,000
viewers, so there was a net turnaround of 205,000 viewers. Not good
news.

Nine’s Monday night challenge on the back of Super Nanny USA faded last night as around 160,000 viewers deserted the nanny in her last program from America. Desperate Housewives still gathered more than two million viewers, but Super Nanny dropped from more than 1.8 million a week ago to 1.694 million last night.

The stalker helped Home and Away
to maintain third place nationally with 1.56 million, and with the
story continuing tonight it should be another good night for the Bec
Cartwright support crew at Summer Bay. Eddie McGuire’s Who Wants To be A Millionaire sagged a little under 1.2 million viewers as the Mothers special looked and sounded too much like a ratings grab.

Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope
jumped above the million mark (1.059 million) thanks to the interview
with Pat Rafter. Even in retirement Rafter is still a far more
charismatic and attractive person than Mr Bec Cartwright. The interview
last night was intelligent, amusing and self deprecating. Enough Rope clearly showed up the current poor performance by Four Corners and Media Watch. For the fourth week in a row the two programs seemed to be under performing, attracting just over 600,000 viewers. Four Corners attracted 632,000 and Media Watch (with a good go at Nine Network’s cheque book journalism over the Bali Nine) 618,000.

Worthy would be the best you could say for both programs and Liz Jackson at Media Watch still
can’t do irony nor has she any light or shade in her monotone. The
difference in communication skills can be seen between the ratings for
both programs (just over 600,000) and that of Enough Rope
(1.059 million). The audience jumped more than 400,000 people, or by
two thirds from the previous hour. There’s a lesson there for Four Corners and Media Watch!

Seven
won with a national share of 31.5% to Nine in 27.6%, Ten on a low
18.3%, the ABC on 16.2% and SBS on a high 6.2%, thanks to Mythbusters.