The Winners: Seven News was tops with 1.440 million, with Today Tonight next with 1.280 million. Home and Away won 7pm with 1.155 million for Seven and Nine News was 4th with 1.092 million. Getaway was 5th with 1.070 million and the repeat of Two and a Half Men at 7pm for Nine averaged 1.061 million. The first episode of Ghost Whisperer averaged 1.049 million viewers at 8.30pm in 7th spot and 8th was the 7pm ABC News with 1.041 million. A Current Affair was 9th with 1.040 million. The Ghost Whisperer episode at 9.30pm averaged 971,000, Life At Three on the ABC at 8.30pm averaged 946,000. Law and Order CI, 921,000, SVU at 9.30pm, 828,000.

The Losers: The NRL Footy Show. Inspector Rex in repeat on SBS at 7.30pm, 332,000. The Strip on Nine at 8.30pm: 883,000. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader on Ten at 7.30pm, 871,000. Not quite a loser by Ten’s standards, but getting closer. Make Me A Supermodel on Seven at 7.30pm, 928,000. Not there, but not a performer by Seven’s standards.

News & CA: Seven News and Today Tonight both won nationally and in every market. . The 6pm Nine News had more viewers than the 7pm ABC News in Sydney and Melbourne. Ten News averaged 746,000. The late News/Sports Tonight, 383,000. The 7.30 Report averaged 949,000, Lateline, 374,000; Lateline Business, 236,000. The last Q&A at 9.30pm, 625,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 196,000; the late edition at 9.30pm, 119,000. 7am Sunrise, 379,000, 7am Today, 292,000.

The Stats: Seven won across the board. In All people 6pm to midnight, it had a share of 28.6% (25.4%), from Nine with 26.9% (33.3% for the AFL Footy Show’s Grand Final episode boost). Ten was on 20.7% (19.4%), the ABC on 19.5% (17.5%) and SBS was unchanged on 4.4%. Seven won everywhere but Brisbane. In regional areas a win for Prime/7Qld with 28.5% from WIN/NBN with 27.7%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 21.2%, the ABC with 16.6% and SBS with 6.0%. Seven leads metro 30.5% to25.9% for Nine.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Apart from Q&A‘s final program and the last NRL Footy Show for the year, it was a quiet night. Ghost Whisperer shuffled towards the end of the season as well, The Strip is still neck and neck with Rush for the title of junkiest cop show of the year (last night should win was clichéd production of the year), the ABC worried about fat babies at three in a sort of dull earnestness you sometimes get on boring programs on radio national and Ten had two hours of New York’s finest showing The Strip how to avoid being a boring, series of interconnected scenes. If anyone sees Frankie J. Holden in real life, running his fingers through his hair or playing with a football, you’ll know he’s still in character for a cop show.

Each time (as in Rush), there’s a glimmer of an interest storyline or character, and then its swamped by the doof doof music track, or blotted out by the TV ad like edits, or the banal interplay between the cast that is as wooden as anything seen in recent years. I wonder if these people in The Strip are really there or merely blue-screened into already shot tourist vision for the Gold Coast from the Queensland Government.

Q&A is mentioned elsewhere for other reasons. Tony Jones deserved congrats for hosting it in a genial, but disciplined fashioned. He’s improved from Lateline in my opinion. The fact that it gets more viewers in Sydney than the NRL Footy Show on Nine says a lot about the obvious intelligence of the program (and a lot about the way the Footy Show has faded away in recent years).

What’s on this weekend? The NRL Grand Final on Sunday afternoon with kick off at 5pm and over by around 7pm. Then 60 Minutes and the new Nine program, The Mentalist. Seven has movies (resting Dancing With The Stars, Outdoor Room and Wildlife Rescue). Pirates of the Caribbean (Dead Man’s Chest) at 8.30pm. Ten has Australian Idol and Rove (and the repeat of Thank God). The ABC has Midsomer Murders.

Tonight, no sport. Better Homes and Gardens on Seven; Taggart for those who speak Scots, Murphy’s Law on the ABC. Movies also on Seven, Nine and Ten after America’s Super Model. A dull night in fact.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports.