The Winners

 A big win again for Nine on a Thursday night, Seven did a bit
better than they had hoped and Ten fell in a hole. RPA (1.80 million) and 20 to
1 (1.762 million) were first and second and did the job for Nine, with Amazing
Medical Stories and Getaway also winning their timeslots and completing the
night. The ratings figures would have been sweet news for Nine Friday morning
after the 2006 launch in Studio 2 last night but Sam Chisholm, programmer
Michael Healy and Development Head, Sandra Levy were noticeable for their failure
to speak to advertisers and others in the audience in the official
bit.
Seven though had good performances from Today Tonight, Seven
News and Home and Away which beat their Nine and Ten opposition easily. Ten’s
best was a repeat of Law and Order SVU with just 956,000 viewers. The ABC’s best
was the science show, Catalyst at 8pm with 1.039
million.
The Losers

Seven also had the odd dog with Wacky Weddings at 7.30pm and Billy Connolly at 8.30pm both failing to crack the million viewer mark.
The final edition of 24 faded to black with only 842,000 people bothering to watch
from 9.30pm and at 10.30pm. Alias also shuffled off even more unloved with only
477,000. Over on Ten it was another night of underperformance. Apart from that
blip at 8.30pm with the report of SVU, Ten programs languished under the 900,000
viewer mark. The Surgeon hung in there at 9.30pm with
just over half a million viewers up against
RPA.
News & CA

Seven won nationally but it was a very mixed night. Seven won
both the 6pm news and 6.30pm current affairs battles, with Nine’s News again
failing to reach 300,000 viewers for the second night in a row. in Melbourne
Seven beat Nine News for the second night this week (Tuesday post-raids was the
first). A Current Affair beat TT. In Brisbane, Nine won the News battle, TT beat
ACA, in Adelaide Seven won both and the same in Perth where there was again a
substantial margin. The ABC News was watched by 1.036 million viewers
nationally.
The Stats

Nine with a very tasty 36.0%, from Seven with 25.8%, Ten
down with 18.6%, the ABC with 15.6% and SBS with 3.9%. Nine won all markets, bar
Perth where it shares the honours with Seven.
Glenn Dyer’s
comments 		Nine is a narrow leader
for the week again and tonight and tomorrow night should be close. Nine could
hang on because it has the movies, The Castle and Analyze That programmed for
Saturday evening to hold viewers from 7.30pm
onwards.