The Winners: Nine won last week fairly comfortably but last night Seven was in charge. Five programs with a million or more viewers. Seven News with 1.424 million was first, Seven’s Wild Vets at 6.30pm was next with 1.328 million, followed by the 7pm ABC News (1.143 million), Nine News (1.090 million) and the ABC’s Kalahari: The Flooded Desert at 8.30pm (1.008 million). Seven’s Whacked Out Sports averaged 988,000 at 7pm. Who Do You Think You Are? continues to do well for SBS at 7.30pm with 863,000 people tuning in to watch Jack Thompson.

The Losers: None really because it’s summer. The ABC’s Kalahari special was the only program after 7pm to average more than a million viewers.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market. The 7pm ABC News was second in every market bar Melbourne where Nine was second. Ten News averaged a high 922,000. Typical summer figures. People just want a bit of news and then they’re off to do something away from the TV. SBS News averaged 208,000. Weekend Sunrise averaged 430,000 yesterday from 8am to 10am, which is not all that different to normal ratings.

The Stats: Seven won with a 26.7% share from the ABC with 21.6%, Nine with 21.5%, Ten with 18.4% and SBS with 11.8%. Seven won everywhere, bar Melbourne where Nine won, but the most watched TV outlet was Foxtel with its myriad channels collectively averaged more than 25% share in 6.30pm-10.30pm primetime. Seven was on a 20.2% share.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: After a month away watching from watching Australian TV, it was a bit of a shock to return home to find nothing much had changed. Last night, the programming was mostly substandard summer fare and the viewing levels reflected it. Tennis and the cricket will go head to head in the afternoons from Wednesday this week and that will be watched closely by Nine and Seven to see who wins. It might be summer but the competitive juices don’t all dry up. We will be inundated with promotions for new and returning programs, but many of those from the US (House, Cashmere Mafia etc) are in short supply because of the writers’ strike. So the Networks will be taking a gamble promoting programs that may be pulled after a few weeks. Tonight it’s Top Gear on SBS for the revheads and the Elizabeth David Story on the ABC for all the cooking fans.

Source: OzTAM, TV Network reports