The Winners: Seven News was tops with 1.402 million (but a loss in Sydney). My Kitchen Rules won the 7.30 pm slot with 1.400 million, in front of the fresh episode of Top Gear on Nine with 1.385 million. NCIS was 4th for Ten at 8.30pm with 1.363 million (and won the slot). Today Tonight was 4th with 1.248 million and A Current Affair was 6th with 1.161 million and wins in Sydney and Melbourne over TT. The 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.153 million for Nine and the 8.30pm Top Gear episode averaged 1.152 million. Nine News was 9th with 1.134 million, Grey’s Anatomy was 10th with 1.046 million for Seven at 8.30pm and 11th was Home and Away at 7pm for Seven with 1.025 million. Bondi Rescue on Ten at 8pm averaged 934,000.

The Losers: Nine’s 20 to 1 after Top Gear, 662,000, the audience all but halved from the 8.30pm episode of Top Gear. Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones on the ABC at 8.30pm. Only one question: Why show such a boring program? Why not creeks, lakes or lagoons? The Biggest Loser on Ten at 7.30pm, 774,000.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally. But lost Sydney. TT lost Sydney and Melbourne to ACA, but won nationally. The 7pm ABC News averaged 937,000. The 7.30 Report averaged 705,000. Foreign Correspondent, 539,000. Lateline, 21,000, Lateline Business, 122,000. Ten News, 855,000. The late News/Sports Tonight, 703,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 175,000, 131,000 for the late edition. 7am Today, 357,000, 7am Sunrise, 335,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Seven won 6pm to midnight All People with a combined overnight share of 30.1% from Nine with 29.9%, Ten with 21.8%, the ABC with 14.4% and SBS with 3.8%. Nine won Sydney and Perth, Seven won the rest. Nine leads the combined overnight All People race with 30.8% to 30.4% for Seven.

Digital: 7TWO won with 2.2%, from GO with 2.0%, ABC 2 with 1.4%, ABC 3, ONE, SBS TWO with 0.5% each. That’s a total of 6.1%, which was low. 7TWO leads the week 3.3% to 3.2% for GO.

Main Channel: Nine and Seven tied with a combined overnight prime time All People share of 27.9% each. Ten was on 21.3%, ABC 1, 12.6%, SBS ONE, 3.3%. Nine leads with a combined overnight share of 27.6% to 27.1% for Seven.

Pay TV: Seven with 24.7%, Nine with 24.6%, Ten with 17.9%, Pay TV with 15.1%, the ABC, 11.9%, SBS with 3.1%. The 11 FTA channels had a combined overnight share of 84.9% from Pay TV’s 100 plus channels on 15.1%.

Regional: A win to WIN/NBN with a combined overnight All People 6 pm to midnight share of 27.8% from Prime/7Qld with 26.9%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 23.3%, the ABC with 16.3% and SBS with 5.6%. GO won the digital battle with 1.4% from 7TWO with 1.2% and ABC 2 with 1.2%. Nine won the main channel battle from Seven, 26.4% to 25.8%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Once again I have to get my eyes checked. Seven News beat Nine in Melbourne on Monday night, won last night, 396,000 to 348,000. But lost Sydney, 306,000 to 322,000 for Nine. And that’s the main battle for Seven, not Melbourne or Brisbane. TT was beaten in Sydney and Melbourne by ACA. TT only averaged 258,000 in Sydney, the Seven News, 306,000. It can’t be the lead in at 5.30pm. Hot Seat only beat Deal or No Deal by 1,000 viewers, 568,000 to 567,000. But of course it is partly the lead in because a year ago Deal or No Deal was clearly winning the 5.30mpm slot by 200,000 or so.

The big story from last night was the fade in the appeal of the fresh episode of Top Gear at 7.30pm on Nine. Two weeks ago it was the most watched program on the night, last night it was Number 3, down nearly 300,000 viewers on the 1.680 million a fortnight ago with 1.385 million.

Seven’s My Kitchen Rules beat it by 15,000 viewers in the same slot. Local product beats high-priced import? The second episode at 8.30pm lost 88,000 viewers and was beaten by NCIS on Ten (cheap import beats high-priced import?). Nine would not have been expecting that to happen, after all it’s been promoting the program as the most popular program in Australia. On last night’s outing, it’s not.

If this weakness continues (two hours is too much), Nine will have a problem when it comes time to make the local edition. The lower the ratings for the import, the more Shane Warne can ask for hosting the local version.

TONIGHT: Spicks and Specks on the ABC at 8.30pm. Perhaps So You Think You Can Dance on Ten at 8pm. Crash Investigations Unit returns to Seven at 8pm, instead of ICU which has been “rested”, perhaps to seek a transplant, or to have its life support turned off. Criminal Minds at 8.30pm. RPA on Nine at 8.30pm. Perhaps a repeat of Rex In Rome on SBS at 7.35pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports