The Winners: Today Tonight was boosted by the cricket on Nine and averaged 1.216 million, Nine News was boosted by the cricket and averaged 1.163 million and Seven news was on 1.135 million. Law And Order SVU on Ten, 996,000 and Criminal Intent, 946,000. The Secret Millionaire on Nine after the Test cricket, 918,000. The Amazing Race on Seven at 9.30 pm, 795,000. The Test averaged 742,000 all day and up past 8.30pm. It was much higher in the evening. Well over 630,000 were watching in Sydney and Melbourne combined from 6.30pm onwards. The 300,000 plus audiences in each city were by far the dominant programs for the night, and yet Seven just got up in Melbourne!. Rex in Rome averaged 350,000.

The Losers: Ugly Betty, 732,000, Eli Stone, 781,000 (Both on Seven), Cold Case (a repeat on Nine), 770,000. Don’t Forget The Lyrics on Ten at 7.30pm, 699,000. The Bold and The Beautiful on Ten at 6pm, 416,000. Back to 4.30pm when ratings starts in 2009, I think.

News & CA: Nine News won Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane because of the cricket lead in. Seven won Adelaide and Perth. The 7pm ABC News averaged 816,000, The 7.30 Report, 787,000. Ten News averaged 737,000. The late News/Sports Tonight, 332,000. 6.30pm SBS News, 173,000 and 219,000 for the 9.30pm edition. 7am Sunrise, 350,000, 7am Today, 273,000.

The Stats: Nine won 6pm to Midnight All People with a share of 29.4% (30.4% a week ago); from Seven with 27.7% (27.5%0, Ten on 22.1%( 21.0%), the ABC on 14.2% (16.1%) and SBS on 6.7% (5.0%). Nine won Sydney, lost Melbourne to Seven, won Brisbane and Adelaide, lost Perth to Seven. Seven leads the week 28.4% to 26.9%. in regional areas, a win to WIN/NBN with 29.1%, from Prime/7Qld with 27.6%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 23.0%, the ABC on 14.0% and SBS on 6.4%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Wasn’t the last half hour or so of the cricket wonderful? It was like having Warnie and Pidge back doing the business in the dying hours of the day from Perth. It made the day, so I managed to get a look at Rex in Rome a bit later than normal. The cat was happy. The cricket wasn’t quite as popular as the first day because Australia wasn’t batting, so they missed the great bowling in the last hour. Today Tonight still got a boost from the cricket being on Nine at 6.30 pm. very handy boost at that. And that’s that for 2008. Looking to the weekend.

The cricket: it is new and something usually happens of interest, even to cricket haters, unlike what’s on TV this summer. It is already the most boring summer of non-sport TV for years. And for that we can blame the economic slump and credit crunch. The Nine Network needs to run as lean and mean this summer to keep its head above water, as does Ten. Seven’s position is better, but they are looking to a great end to January with the Open Tennis. late goss: SBS’s Aussie version of Top Gear is looking for at least one host: Charlie Cox’s driving commitments will mean he won’t make it next year. That’s one down, two to go next year? The revamp of All Saints continues: some might be very surprised at the suggested changes.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports