The Winners: Only one thing mattered last night. Cricket, as the Twenty20 game rated its pads off for Nine, with an average 1.684 million people tuning in over the three hours. Seven News was second with 1.284 million, followed by A Current Affair (1.160 million), Today Tonight (1.153 million), Nine News (1.143 million) and the 7pm ABC News (1.137 million).

The Losers: Nothing really, it’s summer and the international cricket is hard to beat. Police Ten-7, another Kiwi program on Nine at 7.30pm, 738,000. Not original and not a good warm-up for the cricket.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally but lost Melbourne and Brisbane (Nine was under 300,000 in Sydney). Today Tonight lost to ACA which won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane (TT was under 300,000 viewers in Sydney). The 7pm ABC News was the top news bulletin in Sydney and second in Melbourne. The 7.30 Report finished with 890,000; the Late News, 324,000. Ten News, 804,000; the Late News/Sports Tonight, 438,000. Nightline, 670,000 after the cricket. SBS News, 153,000 at 6.30pm; 184,000 at 9.30pm. 7am Sunrise, 440,000; 7am Today, 248,000.

The Stats: Nine won with a share of 38.5% from Seven with 22.1%, Ten with 20.0%, the ABC with 15.3% and SBS with 4.1%, Nine won all five metro markets and leads the week 29.7% to Seven with 26.5%. In regional areas the cricket pushed WIN/NBN to a 40.4% share from prime/7Qld with 21.6%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 20.7%, the ABC with 13.4% and SBS with 3.8%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: With the first ODI between Australia and NZ on Friday, Nine will win the week easily. Tonight it’s the ABC with the first of two parts of the Vicar of Dibley and then another edition of the Worst Jobs in History. Seven has A Touch Of Frost, a repeat but a goodie. Poor Nine has the failures, Men in Trees and ER, from 7.30pm to 9.30pm and then a program called Moonlight. Ten has the delightful Starter Wife at 8.30pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Network reports