The Winners: Seven News was tops with 1.650 million, Dancing With The Stars was second with 1.352 million, Midsomer Murders returned at 8.30pm for the ABC and averaged 1.264 million. And Nine News was 4th with 1.256 million people. Seven’s Bones at 8.30pm averaged 1.142 million, Domestic Blitz at 6.30pm averaged 1.142 million for 6th and 7th was Stephen Fry in America yet again with 1.129 million. Australian Idol from 6.30pm to after 8.30pm averaged 1.086 million. The short ABC News update around 8.30pm averaged 1.079 million and 60 Minutes scrapped into the million viewer club at 10th with 1.040 million people.

The Losers: Las Vegas at 10.30pm for Seven, 418,000. CSI Miami at 9.30pm, just 594,000, the repeat at 10.30pm, 448,000.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market, and won surprisingly easy compared to a week ago. Having the Collingwood-Swans game in Melbourne helped Seven. The Manly- Melbourne Storm game on Nine would have given much of a boost at all. Ten News averaged 688,000; the 7pm ABC News averaged 920,000. SBS News at 6.30pm on SBS, 203,000. In the morning chatter shows, Weekend Sunrise on Seven was tops with 389,000, Today on Sunday for Nine averaged 251,000, Landline at Noon for the ABC, 241,000, Insiders on the ABC at 9am, 209,000, Offsiders on the ABC at 10.30pm, 119,000, Inside Business a low 109,000. Meet The Press on Ten 62,000.

The Stats: Seven won All People 6pm to midnight with 26.0% (30.9%), from Nine on 24.2% (28.0%), the ABC in third with 20.8% (13.9%) and Ten with 19.9% (20.0%) and SBS with 9.1% (7.1%). Seven won Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Nine won Melbourne and Adelaide. Ten won the commercial share battle in 16 to 39, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54s. In regional areas a win for WIN/NBN with 26.5%, to Prime/7Qld with 24.2%, the ABC third with 20.7%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 18.0% and SBS on 10.6%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won last week and has won the All People demographic for the year. Nine was second last week and Ten a distant third. Eddie McGuire’s Hot Seat finished ahead of Seven’s Deal or No Deal for the week, even though Deal or No Deal won the 5.30pm slot on Friday night.

Last night and Midsomer Murders was the big disrupter and not the Australian cricket team’s miserable efforts. Australian Idol is in a state of flux, to put the best spin on it. Ten is going to have a miserable week or two with Australian Idol on from Monday to Thursday for an hour at 7.30pm and not many people watching. The cricket didn’t have the impact that it has had. The strength of the ABC last night crunched Nine’s Rescue Special Ops badly at 8.30pm. It finished well under a million viewers. The cricket averaged 444,000 for the first session from 8pm, 301,000 for the second session from around 10.40pm.

Ratings figures appeared for Nine’s new HD channel called Go. It was the most watched HD channels with a repeat of Big Bang Theory last night which averaged 204,000. That was at 7.30pm. Perhaps not all of these viewers came from Nine’s analogue channel, but the fact that they were watching Nine seems to suggest they were Nine viewers because they knew what to look on Go and when. It looks like Nine has merely drained viewers from its main channel, which meant 60 Minutes sagged last night.

Wipeout at 6.30pm averaged 169,000. Those viewers came off Domestic Blitz, The Flintstones at 4pm averaged 131,000. Advertisers on Nine’s main channel won’t like that for a while. Nine will try to boost ad rates on the HD channel if these viewing levels continue. These audiences are bigger than watching most Pay TV channels of the same genre. The ABC’s HD channel had one program in the top 100 last night, Nine had Nine, Ten’s One had one: the Grand Prix with 137, 000 people. This is one ratings battle Nine will win very quickly if these figures continue.

TONIGHT: Highlights: Four Corners and Australian Story on the ABC, City Homicide on Seven at 8.30pm, Australian Idol on Ten. Top Gear on SBS at 7.30pm. Nine has Farmer Wants a Wife. at 8.30pm as well. At 9.35pm on the ABC tonight, Ashes To Ashes, it could sum up Australia’s Test loss and series defeat. Will Eddie’s Hot Seat go back in front of Deal or No Deal at 5.30pm?

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports