Shuffles at the Herald Sun: In his first flurry of senior editorial appointments, new Herald Sun editor in chief Brice Guthrie today released the following all-staff missive:

Appointments

After five years overseeing the Herald Sun’s features sections MATTHEW KITCHIN is moving into a new role. He has been appointed Assistant Editor (Online) and will oversee the future development of our website, reporting directly to me. Matthew’s appointment is further evidence of our growing commitment to online and its integration with the newspaper.

I’m also delighted to announce that Matthew’s replacement as Assistant Editor (Features) is JILL BAKER. A former editor of The Sunday Age, Jill was most recently a Group Publisher at ACP Magazines and publishing director of Random House. Jill began her journalism career at The Herald.These appointments will take effect in June.

— Jonathan Green

Executive exodus continues at SBS Radio. More troubles at SBS Radio as the revamp of its management structure and personnel continues. With the imminent departure of Anne Edwards, the radio division is in disarray. Edwards was head of the digital content development unit at SBS Radio and would have been an important player in the move to full digital radio. All senior execs have left in recent weeks (with the exception of Victorian station manager Mike Zafiropoulos) and with no talented insiders displaying any interest in applying for new positions, together with fact that good media managers are thin on the ground, it’s looking pretty forbidding. The newish Head of Radio, Paula Masselos, doesn’t have much in the way of radio experience and some of those departing are doing with a sense of relief, such has been the pressure and dispiriting nature of SBS Radio in recent months. — Glenn Dyer

Last night’s TV ratings
The Winners: Another convincing win to Seven as Nine’s Monday night line-up took a bit of a battering, but the ABC jumped sharply with the return of Andrew Denton to Monday nights. Seven News was tops with 1.615 million, followed by Today Tonight with 1.526 million. Desperate Housewives was third with 1.444 million, followed by Nine News (1.387 million) and A Current Affair (1.333 million). The Rich List won the 7.30pm timeslot with 1.291 million and Home And Away averaged 1.274 million to win the 7pm slot. 1 vs 100 averaged 1.245 million, Temptation had 1.150 million and the Big Brother Live Nominations averaged 1.118 million at 7.30pm. The 7pm ABC News had 1.060 million, Nine’s What’s Good For You averaged 1.057 million and the 7pm Big Brother averaged 1.041. Seven’s 9.30pm program Brothers and Sisters averaged 990,000 and won the slot. Australian Story averaged 989,000 and CSI New York had 982,000. Andrew Denton’s God On My Side at 9.35pm averaged 942,000 and Mythbusters on SBS at 7.30pm, 730,000.
 
The Losers: Ten’s evening schedule isn’t working. BB down; Supernatural, 838,000 at 8.40pm (the odd start time didn’t help) and Cops, 663,000 at 9.40pm. BB needs to lift.
 
News & CA: Seven News and Today Tonight won nationally but in a more traditional break up, lost Melbourne and Brisbane to Nine. Seven News beat Nine News in Sydney by a massive 116,000. An odd result. The Ten News averaged 953,000; the Late News/Sports Tonight, 351,000. Nine’s Nightline just 235,000, buried close to midnight. The 7.30 Report, 956,000; Lateline, 251,000; Lateline Business, 98,000; Four Corners, 966,000 with a buy-in. Media Watch had 873,000. SBS News, 260,000 at 6.30pm; 128,000 at 9.30pm. 7am Sunrise, 410,000; 7am Today, 257,000..
 
The Stats: Seven won with 29.6% (29.4% a week earlier) from Nine with 25.5% (26.7%), Ten with 19.5% (19.7%), the ABC with 18.1% (16.4%) and SBS with 7.4% (7.8). Seven leads the week 29.1% to 27.3%. Seven won Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, Nine won a very close battle in Brisbane. in regional areas a much different result with WIN/NBN winning for Nine with 29.8% from Prime/7Qld with 26.9%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 19.6%, the ABC with 15.5% and SBS with 8.2%.
 
Glenn Dyer’s comments: Andrew Denton’s doco, God On My Side has been in art house cinemas already and yet 942,000 people tuned in from around 9.35pm, more than doubling the audience Difference of Opinion was achieving in the same timeslot and boosting the back end of a solid night for the national broadcaster. Four Corners, Media Watch and Australian Story all did well. Nine battled manfully but none of its programs were capable of winning a timeslot. Tonight Seven will move further ahead with the combination of It Takes Two and All Saints and then tomorrow night Nine will rebound with the State of Origin. Nine has repeats tonight, 20 to 1 and two hours of CSI. Ten has Big Brother (an intruder ep) and NCIS, the ABC has the nice Choir of Hard Knocks.