The Winners: MasterChef topped the night with 1.863 million viewers, Seven News was next with 1.560 million and Nine News was 3rd with 1.510 million. Today Tonight was next with 1.474 million and A Current Affair was 5th with 1.382 million people. The 7.30pm episode of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.281 million. The Big Bang Theory at 8pm on Nine averaged 1.209 million and the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.151 million. The 7pm ABC News averaged 1.127 million people and 9th nationally, with Seven’s Home and Away next with 1.096 million. Good News Week averaged 1.070 million for Ten at 8.30pm and The 7pm Project averaged 1.006 million people for Ten.

The Losers: Seven from 7.30pm.

News & CA: Seven News may have won nationally as did Today Tonight, but they both were beaten by Nine News and A Current Affair in Sydney and Melbourne. Seven won the rest. Ten News averaged 923,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 138,000. The 7.30 Report, 815,000, Q&A at 9.30pm, 737,000, close to if not its highest audience ever. Media Watch, 715,000, Four Corners, 667,000, Lateline, 358,000, Lateline Business, 189,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 198,000. 7am Sunrise, 377,000, 7am Today, 279,000. The gap between Sunrise and Today just seems to be starting to widen a touch in favour of Sunrise.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won here with a share of 27.6%, from Seven on 25.6%, Ten on 23.4%, the ABC on 16.8% and SBS on 6.6%. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Seven won Adelaide and Perth. Nine leads the week with a share of 29.6%, from Seven with 25.6% and Ten on 23.1%.

Main Channel: Nine won with a share of 24.2%, from Ten with 22.6% and Seven on 22.1%. ABC 1 finished with a share of 14.9% and SBS ONE was on 6.1%. Nine won Sydney and Brisbane, Ten won Melbourne and Adelaide, Seven won Perth. Nine leads the week with 25.6%, from Seven on 23.1% and Ten on 21.2%.

Digital: 7TWO won narrowly with a share of 3.5%, from GO on 3.4%, ABC 2 on 1.3%, ONE on 0.7%, SBS TWO with 0.6% and ABC 3, 0.5%. That’s a total share of 10.% for the six FTA digital channels, with Adelaide on 12.9% the top share, followed by Perth with 12%. GO leads the week with 4.0% from 7TWO with 2.5%.

Pay TV: Nine won with a share of 22.9%, from Seven with 21.2%, Ten on 19.4%, Pay TV, 15.0%, the ABC with 13.9% and SBS with 5.5%. The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 85%, the 100 plus channels of Pay TV shared the 15.0%.

Regional: A win to WIN/NBN with 30.9%, from Prime/7Qld on 25/0%, SC Ten on 22.5%, the ABC, 16.3% and SBS, 5.3%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN with 28.3%, from Prime/7Qld on 22.3% and SC Ten on 22.0%. 7TWO won the digitals with a share of 2.7%, from GO on 2.6% and ABC 1, 1.5%. WIN/NBN leads the week with 33.2% from Prime/7Qld on 24.8%.

(All shares on the basis on combined overnight 6pm to midnight All People)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: It’s with a sad heart that we pronounce the return of Rescue Special Ops on life support and unlikely to make 2011. The 983,000 at 8.30pm last night might have beaten Desperate Housewives on Seven, but it’s still there because female viewers like it. No one really liked Rescue Special Ops last night, just as they didn’t like it much last year when it tried to fill a growing hole on Sundays for Nine.

Seven News in Sydney and TT were well beaten by Nine News and ACA in Sydney and Melbourne. The 7.30pm to 8.30pm time slot for Seven is looking like Thursdays after 7.30pm (i.e. a black hole). Seven can warble on as much as it wants to about being up against MasterChef, but so is Nine and it sticks the male skewing Two And A Half Men and then Big Bang Theory to be competitive.

The 7pm Project had its second million plus audience last night with Dave Hughes back.

TONIGHT: Packed to the Rafters on Seven for two hours from 8.30pm. Foreign Correspondent on the ABC, MasterChef for Ten at 7.30pm and Modern Family at 8pm. SBS has World Cup soccer (and we are now down to the really serious contenders and great games). Nine has Top Gear at 8.30pm, but more importantly, it has a program called Under Surveillance at 8pm. It’s a recut version of a program that was called Australian Drug Lords. It’s on at 8pm. Don’t watch, it’s rubbish.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports