The Winners: Seven News was tops with 1.450 million, followed by Today Tonight with 1.368 million. Enough Rope was third with 1.188 million people. The Howard Years was fourth with 1.163 million and the 7pm ABC News was next with 1.136 million. Nine News was sixth with 1.110 million and A Current Affair was seventh with 1.109 million. The Rich List on Seven at 7.30pm averaged 1.094 million for eighth and Bones was next on Nine at 8.30pm with 1.055 million. Temptation perked up and averaged 1.032 million in 10th at 7pm for Nine and eleventh was Nine’s 7.30pm repeat of Two and a Half Men with 1.018 million. Seven’s 7pm program How I Met Your Mother was next with 985,000. Top Gear on SBS at 7.30pm, 977,000.

The Losers: Big Bang Theory on Nine at 8pm, 816,000. Fringe on Nine at 9.30pm, 573,000. How To Look Good Naked on Ten at 7.30pm, 586,000. The repeat of CSI on Nine at 8.30pm, 879,000. Army Wives on Ten at 8.30pm, 567,000. Walking wounded everywhere last night.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market. Today Tonight won everywhere Melbourne. The 7pm ABC News had more viewers in Sydney than Nine News again: 363,000 to 326,000. The 7.30 Report averaged 909,000. The ABC should be running a 15-minute to half-an-hour late news and a couple of longer reports from 10.30pm. There is now nothing there except the late news on Ten, which is now later than normal because of Out Of The Blue. Ten’s late News/Sports Tonight averaged 225,000; not bad given that it is getting closer to midnight. Ten’s News averaged 835,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 229,000, 163,000 for the 9.30pm edition. 7am Sunrise, 390,000; 7am Today, 310,000. They were the closest they have been for some time: not in audience numbers, but in their top 100 positions; Sunrise 33, Today 34, but 80,000 viewers behind.

The Stats: Seven won easily at 28.8% for 6pm to midnight All People (27.3% the week before). The ABC was second with 23.9% (22.3%), thanks to the last eps of Enough Rope and The Howard Years. Nine was on 23.1% (25.2%). Ten was fourth with 14.6% (16.0%). The ABC was on 9.7% (9.2%). Seven leads the week 27.5% to 24.5% for Nine, 20.4% for the ABC and 18.6% for Ten. In regional areas, a win for Prime/7Qld with 28.3%, from WIN/NBN with 24.6%, the ABC with 21.3%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 15.5% and SBS on 10.4%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: The night belonged to Andrew Denton and the final edition of Enough Rope on the ABC. It was worth the wait up past bedtime for many of the 1.1 million people who tuned in. The Ben Stiller interview was good and the chat with Wendy Whiteley was far more interesting than I though it could have been. The end interview was a nice touch. All in all, six years of intelligent TV from Denton and his crew. He will be missed and though many will parade and volunteer, none will be able to replace him, which is as it should be.

Top Gear was close to boring and self-indulgent last night. After a couple of decent ideas in the first two programs, last night they ran out of gas, just as some of their vehicles do. There was life in Temptation at 7pm last night. It finished ahead of Seven and Ten, but not the ABC News, which will now do its summer thing and still rate well over the next eight weeks.

Tonight, should we bother? Party Animals on the ABC at 8.30pm. Ten has Friends, The Simpsons, Rules of Engagement, NCIS and In Plain Sight, a new series.

Seven has shunted Dirty Sexy Money from 9.30pm to 11.30pm, making it the first summer program to be sent to the graveyard. Eli Stone at 8.30pm should follow, like it has done in the US. Seven has had to bring repeats of Ghost Whisperer out of the vault to fill the 9.30pm gap. Prison Break is on at 10.30pm. What a collection of losers tonight on Seven. Ugly Betty at 7.30pm as well.

Nine is just as appalling. Hands up all of you who have heard of or watched the following: Police Ten7; Sudden Impact. Nine’s movie stars Brangellina in Mr and Mrs Smith.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports