The Winners: MasterChef Australia with 2.191 million viewers was on top (its biggest audience of the year for the second night in a row). Packed to the Rafters on Seven at 8.30pm averaged 1.791 million and Seven News was next with 1.627 million. Today Tonight was 4th with 1.531 million and Surf Patrol averaged 1.526 million on Seven at 8pm. Ten’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation averaged 1.495 million starting at 8pm and going up against Packed to the Rafters in the last half hour. Air Ways, Seven’s “behind the scenes” look at Tiger Airways, averaged 1.216 million at 7.30pm on debut. Nine News was 8th with 1.206 million, All Saints averaged 1.202 million at 9.30pm and won and A Current Affair was 10th with an average 1.193 million viewers. Home and Away averaged 1.104 million at 7pm and 11th. Nine’s repeat of Two and a Half Men at 7pm averaged 1.017 million and was the last program with a million or more viewers. Grand Designs on the ABC at 8.30pm averaged 884,000 people. NCIS averaged 986,000 for the 9pm repeat for Ten.

The Losers: Nine Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban repeat at 7.30pm: 978,000 was just enough to keep its audience share above 20% on the night. THISafternoon on Nine, 219,000 viewers from 4.30pm.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market as did Today Tonight. Nine News and ACA in Sydney has better nights, both went back over 300,000 viewers, but still lost. Ten News averaged 929,000 viewers, the late News/Sports Tonight, 387,000. The 7pm ABC News averaged 865,000, The 7.30 Report, 691,000. Lateline, 176,000, Lateline Business, 95,000, the lowest for some time, as were the figures for Lateline. SBS News at 6.30pm, 176,000, the 9.30pm edition, 255,000. 7am Sunrise, 333,000, 7am Today, 280,000. Both down because of school holidays. Foreign Correspondent on the ABC at 8pm, 613,000.

The Stats: Ten won with 30.2% (26.7%) in All People 6pm to midnight, from Seven with 30% (32.2%). Nine was third with 21.6% (21.3%), the ABC was on 12.9% (13.3%) and SBS was on 5.4% (6.4%). Ten won Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. It drew Adelaide with Seven and Seven won Brisbane quite clearly. Ten leads the week 27.2% from Seven on 26.0% and Nine with 22.8%. Ten again won all demos last night.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: MasterChef Australia again did it for Ten, Seven did well, but Nine was squeezed, despite running a Harry Potter movie in school holidays from 7.30pm. That failed to interest viewers. MasterChef revolved around improvising dishes based on Malaysian cuisine. A test, or a trial, for some of the cheffettes? Australia liked it very much and the program had another record audience last night.

TONIGHT: The Rugby League State Of Origin on Nine from 7.30pm: Queensland will win game three unless they indulge in an act of mercy and charity and fail to turn up in body, mind and spirit. Whether that can save the Nine Network from another poor week seems to be the bigger story. Nine has run third three nights in a row. Unless there’s a really big audience tonight, it could be third tomorrow morning going into the impact of the cricket on SBS.

MasterChef will dominate the rest of the week: Friday though is a best of series highlight with the finalists decided tomorrow night.

Seven has nothing that would rag you away from the Origin game if you are a league fan. If not, Criminal Minds is a repeat at 8.30pm. Ten has a fresh Law and Order SVU at 8.30pm (or so the guide says). The ABC’s Spicks and Specks and The Chaser from 8.30pm to 9.30pm look like being the Non-League highlights of the night.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports