Glenn Dyer reports:


The Winners Nine, thanks to a solid rebound in the audience for McLeod’s
Daughters on the day the Network canned its other bush drama, The Alice. House
for Ten was tops, while Seven also had a good night. House was watched by 1.6 million people, McLeod’s by 1.509 million.
Seven’s Home and Away maintained its gap on Nine’s Temptation. Beyond Tomorrow
was watched by 1.3 million for Seven, but that was a clear second behind
McLeod’s. CSI Miami though was watched by 1.26 million and while not bad, isn’t
anything to jump up and down about. Without a Trace followed with 1.15 million.
Seven’s flagging Blue Heelers was watched by 1.14 million. OK, perhaps enough to
save it, but it will need drastic surgery to revitalise it in 2006. Forensic
Investigators bounced past the million mark to 1.031 million in a nice rebound
from the week before.
The Losers

Again, no real losers, the odd underachiever on the
night, but that’s the week to week stuff of the ratings battle. The Kumars at
No. 42 are dead and going for the ABC at 9pm. Tired and not as funny. Spicks
and Specks and The New Inventors were both north of 900,000 viewers, a good
outcome.
News & CA Seven News and Today Tonight again won, more narrowly than
Tuesday night. Seven News won in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth, while Nine News and
A Current Affair won in Melbourne and Brisbane. It was the huge
win for both Seven programs in Perth that was the difference.
The Stats Nine with 30.0%, from Seven with 28.3%, Ten with 22.6%,
the ABC with 14.4% and SBS with 4.7%. Seven won Sydney 29.4% to 29.1, Nine won
Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and Seven won
Perth.
Glenn Dyer’s
comments		 A good competitive evening that will satisfy everyone. Tonight
the NRL Footy Show Grand Final edition kicks off at 8.30pm and runs to 11pm
and that will be enough to provide big wins in Sydney and Brisbane.
Once again the clear gap between viewing levels in Sydney and Melbourne is
apparent. Last night in Sydney just one program with more than 400,000 viewers:
Home and Away with 413,000. In Melbourne, one program over half a million, House
with 523,000 and five other programs with audiences above 400,000. Sydney is
more expensive market for advertisers, but with a difference like that, someone is
being taken for a
ride.