Aunty’s plum Canberra gallery position up for grabs. Who will fill the ABC’s chief TV political correspondent position in Canberra which is being vacated by Jim Middleton after the Federal election? He’s to front Asia Pacific Focus, the flagship daily current affairs program on the Australia Network. The move will see a strong field of contenders: Greg Jennert is already a Canberra performer and then there’s Gillian Bradford who has spent time in New Zealand and with ABC Radio current affairs in Canberra. Chris Ulhmann, the chief political correspondent in Canberra for the likes of AM and PM , has also impressed but doesn’t have any TV experience. Michael Brissenden is doing well on the 7.30 Report . The Costello dinner is a negative on his form sheet but he has a very comfy gig at the moment. Then there’s Washington correspondent Mark Simkin, but why any US correspondent would want to leave before the Presidential election next year is another thing. New Zealand correspondent Peter Lewis is coming home at year’s end and Emma Griffiths is also returning from Moscow to be the NSW political correspondent: could she switch tracks? And Tim Lester is a former ABC performer, now backing up Laurie Oakes at the Nine Network, could he make a return?  — Glenn Dyer

Regional viewers give TV bragging rights to NRL. The NRL has something to boast about after its Australia-wide grand final audience outrated the AFL when regional audience figures are taken into account. More than 1.32 million people watched the League on WIN and NBN in regional areas, compared to the 760,000 who watched the AFL decider on Southern Cross, Ten’s regional affiliate. That made a total national audience for the NRL of 3.714 million, give or take a thousand or so (including 2.389 million in the five major metro markets) compared to the 3.332 million who watched the AFL (including 2.572 million in metro markets). — Glenn Dyer

Bart Simpson tells it like it is. From the latest episode of The Simpsons , which screened in the US on Sunday (thanks to Media Bistro ):

Last night’s TV ratings
The Winners:  A night that was as one-sided as any we have seen this year. Border Security was tops with 2.014 million and The Force was next with 1.878 million. City Homicide followed at 8.30pm with 1.762 million in a very solid episode and Seven News was averaged 1.569 million, ahead of Today Tonight with 1.501 million. Home And Away won 7pm with 1.444 million, while Nine News and A Current Affair both had 1.286 million. Seven’s Criminal Minds won the 9.30pm slot with 1.234 million, the 7pm ABC News averaged 1.143 million, Temptation  had 1.119 million and  Australian Idol was next with 1.068 million. Law and Order SVU averaged 977,000 at 8.30pm and 1 vs 100 had 931,000 in the same timeslot. Mythbusters on SBS at 7.30pm, 569,000.
The Losers:  Nine from 7.30pm to midnight. Ten: not as bad but Australian Idol is being belted at the moment. Californication is drifting lower: 839,000 and beaten by the good sense of Enough Rope on the ABC (928,000). Seven’s Criminal Minds was a long way in front. Commercial Breakdown on Nine at 7.30pm and Just For Laughs at 8pm are rubbish. It’s a great sadness that a network with such a solid history as Nine can put two programs like this to air in prime time.  Weeds  with 350,000 at 10.30pm was just pipped by Ten’s Late News (351,000) and well beaten by Lateline (383,000) and Boston Legal (650,000). Nine spends too much time finessing its post 9.30pm schedule and not enough earlier in the evening — maybe there’s just nothing left. The only justification is that programs like Just for Laughs and Weeds cost next to nothing and any revenue written against them is being done at a small profit or breakeven.   News & CA: Seven News and Today Tonight won nationally and in every market but Melbourne. The 7.30 Report averaged 797,000 and beat Nine into fourth! Viewers were not much interest in Mohamed Haneef on Four Corners : just 724,000 viewers tuned in; 716,000 for a solid Media Watch .  Lateline , 383,000; Lateline Business , 173,000. Ten News, 934,000; Late News/ Sports Tonight , 351,000. SBS News, 218,000 at 6.30pm and 122,000 at 9.30pm. Nine’s Nightline (171,000) after Girls of the Playboy Mansion (252,000). Nine has its news priorities just right! 7am Sunrise 409,000; 7am Today up to 280,000.

The Stats: Seven won with 36.3% (40.5%) from Nine with 21.1% (19.3%), Ten with 19.5% (18.5%), the ABC with 16.8% (14.8%) and SBS with 6.3% (6.9%). Seven won all five metro markets; Nine leads the week 31.1% to 29.6%. In regional areas a win to Prime/7Qld with 34.8% from WIN/NBN for Nine with 24.5%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 18.5%, the ABC with 14.5% and SBS with 7.8%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: It was a miserable performance by Nine and Ten. For Seven to win a Monday night, the second biggest night of the week, with a margin in excess of 15 percentage points, is very one-sided. Daylight was second and after the news, A Current Affair and Temptation had hung in there, Nine slumped to fourth from 7.30pm. David Gyngell certainly has a lot to do at Nine. And he will need to be a water walker to achieve any sort of comeback in under a year. Seven will overtake Nine tonight with Dancing With The Stars and All Saints . So much for the 17 point lead established with the NRL grand final on Sunday night. For the first time in years (some in TV are saying 30 years or so), Nine could lose a week in which it had the NRL decider. The odds are stacked against it. Nine has Crime Investigations Australia , a repeat of CSI Miami , Surprise Surprise and The Sopranos . Ten has two and a half hours of repeats and a new Numb3rs . The ABC has Foreign Correspondent and Pursuit of Excellence , which is charming.
Source: OzTAM, TV Network reports