Seven Network’s win last night, the first this week, won’t stop the
Nine Network winning the week. This will cause the Nine management team
considerable relief as they
and their peers and assorted stars and hangers-on gather in Melbourne
for
Sunday night’s orgy of self congratulation known as The Logies.

In a radical innovation, the Nine Network
and its producers have commissioned a white carpet for the pre-show parade of
stars and wannabees who will be interviewed by Nine’s heavy hitting team that
includes Richard Wilkins and Catriona Rowntree.

That’s a pale imitation of the red carpet warm-up number
from the Oscars and is essentially a parade of frocks, gowns, suits, earrings,
and other jewellery, most of it donated and desperate for a plug. A sort of tarty product placement without the need for
disclosure at the end of the program in the credits.

Seven Network chiefs and indians lucky enough to make up the
numbers though will have the biggest grins. Many are former Nine executives and
they will take considerable pleasure from the wounding they’ve delivered their
old employer.

Nine has cut back on the number of people attending because
of the need to find $15 million in budget cuts. But I bet they use plenty of
freelance camera people, makeup and wardrobe people and others to run the
coverage.

Although as usual Nine is stripping Sydney bare of some of
these people and flying them to Melbourne on Sunday morning and out Sunday night or
first thing Monday morning to save money. The executives and
stars get to stay over and many will travel tonight for a day of fun, footy
and free grog tomorrow!

Meanwhile, Thursday night saw Lost win with more than 1.9 million
people and good showings by Today Tonight, Home and Away, Seven News and My
Restaurant Rules. As a result Seven won the night with a share of 33.0% to 28.5%
for Nine. Ten finished with 21.1%, the ABC with 12.9% and SBS with 4.4%. Seven won in all five capital cities.

The AFL and NRL Footy Shows continue to languish, attracting
a total of 1.1 million people. The NRL show in Sydney
was watched by 290,000, and in Brisbane
by 150,000. The AFL Show was watched by 396,000 in Melbourne, up a bit on previous
weeks.

Nine News won Sydney and Melbourne and ACA beat Today
Tonight in Sydney but lost in Melbourne and nationally.