The Winners: Seven programs with a million or more viewers, which was a surprise given the paucity of interest stuff on TV last night. The ABC News was the most watched with 1.186 million people, Seven News had 1.178 million and The Amazing Race returned out of ratings with a solid 1.140 million. Today Tonight was next with 1.081 million, followed by Bones (1.057 million), Nine News (1.052 million) and A Current Affair (1.017 million). The Celts on the ABC at 8.30pm, 747,000; Jamie At Home at 7.30pm, 690,000; and the luvvies at the AFI Awards averaged 529,000 from 9.30pm.

The Losers: Apart from the news and current affairs programs, the rest of the night was “off button” TV for viewers. East West 101 was interesting with 358,000 on SBS at 8.30pm but some of the dialogue was as predictable as Homicide all those years ago! Promising but not up to The Circuit.

News & CA: The 7pm ABC News in Melbourne was the only program with more than 400,000 viewers last night (414,000). And it ran second in Sydney behind Seven. Seven News lost Melbourne, drew Brisbane and won nationally. TT needed its 69,000 margin in Perth to make sure of its national win after it lost Melbourne and Brisbane. The 7.30 Report averaged 902,000. That was Red Kerry’s last outing for the year, Ali Moore takes over for the next two weeks. Lateline, 313,000; Lateline Business, 169,000 (they’re both on holidays now). Ten News averaged 756,000; Late News/Sports Tonight, 411,000. SBS News, 143,000 at 6.30pm; 212,000 at 9.30pm. 7am Sunrise, 393,000; 7am Today, 304,000.

The Stats: Seven won with 29.5% from Nine with 25.2%, Ten with 19.6%, the ABC with 19.1% and SBS with 6.7%. Seven won everywhere and leads the week 27.7% to Nine with 24.7%. In regional areas a very different result with WIN/NBN winning for Nine with 28.0% from Prime/7Qld with 24.5%, Southern Cross Ten) with 20.5%, the ABC with 18.8% and SBS with 8.2%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Enough said. The weekend … no cricket, TV’s dull … time for some christmas shopping, surfing where La Nina is dropping buckets across NSW and parts of Queensland, or, dare I say it, Foxtel? And what’s all this I hear about Nine and Ten having a quiet chat on “sharing” news facilities?

Source: OzTAM, TV Network reports