The Winners: Hey Hey its Saturday! returned on Nine from 7.30 pm with 2.169 million. It squashed Celebrity MasterChef Australia with a still solid 1.357 million (Ten said it had a peak of 1.9 million). Seven News averaged 1.316 million, Today Tonight was 4th with 1.271 million and Two and a Half Men (the 7pm repeat) averaged 1.140 million. Home and Away averaged 1.127 million in 6th, with Nine News next with 1.087 million. The 7pm ABC News averaged 1.042 million and A Current Affair averaged a weak 1.012 million people. Nine repeated showed the first episode of The Apprentice right after Hey Hey and it averaged 953,000, more than 260,000 that the number who watched the first episode. NCIS Los Angeles averaged 953,000 at 8.30pm for Ten, Seven’s latest version of World’s Strictest Parents averaged 912,000 at 7.30pm for Seven and Spicks and Specks averaged 842,000. City Homicide on Seven averaged 796,000. Inspector Rex‘s repeat at 7.30pm on SBS, 219,000.

The Losers: None really, the one-off Hey Hey return was a stunt too big for the rest of the networks to handle.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market as did Today Tonight. That lift for Nine on Tuesday vanished completely last night, with the 7pm ABC News getting more viewers in Sydney with 329,000 than the 311,000 for Nine (and 341,000 for Seven). Today Tonight‘s audience in Sydney fell sharply, to 278,000. The 7pm ABC News in Melbourne with 343,000 beat Nine News (327,000) and ACA (307,000) and finished just behind Seven News with 354,000, and had more viewers in Melbourne than TT (323,000). The 7.30 Report averaged 649,000 nationally. Lateline averaged 235,000; Lateline Business, 117,000. Ten News averaged 766,000. The late News/Sports Tonight, 336,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 201,000, 108,000 for the 9.30pm edition. 7am Sunrise, 334,000, 7am Today, 316,000.

The Stats: Nine won with a share of 40.0% (26.8%) from Seven with 21.7% (28.2%), Ten with 20.8% (23.4%), the ABC with 13.8% (17.2%) and SBS with 3.6% (4.4%). Nine won all five metro markets and now leads the week 29.1% to 28.5%.

Digitally: ABC 2 averaged 1.30% and ABC 1, 12.50%. Nine’s Go was next with 1.20% (There were some people who wouldn’t watch Hey Hey on the main channel, but preferred to stay with Nine). Nine’s Main channel averaged 38.70%. Ten’s ONE averaged 0.70% (Ten’s main channel), 20.10%), SBS TWO, 0.40%, SBS ONE, 3.30%. In regional areas a big win as well for WIN/NBN with 42.7% from Prime/Southern Cross on 21.0%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 17.2%, the ABC with 14.4% and SBS with 4.7%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Hey Hey‘s return changed the night and that was that. It’s back next week for a second episode — will it be back on air permanently?

Hungry Beast on the ABC at 9pm, 551,000. Normally should be in the loser’s section, but it’s new, a different sort of program and it was up against the Hey Hey return. And it will be in a similar situation next week.

TONIGHT: After last night Nine will be hoping that switching CSI‘s return episode to Thursday night helps it win. But it is also a sign that CSI is now in its dying days. Its return in the US was low, just as it finished the previous season on the skids. If Nine felt it was a strong program, it would be on Sunday or Monday nights where it spent many of its past years (or Tuesdays).

Nine has the Grand Final version of the NRL Footy Show (which is live in Melbourne and Brisbane). Seeing Nine started the AFL GF program at 8.30pm last week in Melbourne, which is in real prime time, the decision to start the NRL at its usual time of 9.30pm is a vote of no confidence in its ability to maintain a strong audience. It has started at 8.30pm in the past.

Seven has The movie The Chronicles of Narnia. Ten has the fading The 7pm Project (which is getting like a Network Ten PR outlet), plus Rush. SBS has My Family Feast and Costa’s Garden Odyssey. The ABC has Q&A.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports