The Winners: Highway Patrol started on Seven at 7.30pm with 1.699 million, perhaps boosted though by the Brownlow coverage starting straight afterwards. Seven News was second with 1.494 million viewers and Today Tonight was third with 1.420 million. Nine News was fourth with 1.253 million, the 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.238 million and A Current Affair was sixth with 1.202 million. Home and Away averaged 1.199 million viewers at 7pm. Eighth was the 7pm ABC News with 1.097 million. The Brownlow Medal coverage averaged 1.038 million in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane for Seven. The so-called Blue Carpet, averaged 1.014 million for 10th. The 7.30pm Two and a Half Men averaged 975,000, Top Gear in the same slot, 924,000 on SBS and Big Bang Theory on Nine at 8pm, 901,000. Australian Story at 8pm on the ABC, 835,000 and Good News Week on Ten at 8.30pm, 807,000.

The Losers: A bit unfair to label anything a failure last night with programming split to allow the Brownlow telecast. But Seven and the ABC did do well apart from  Seven’s Brownlow coverage.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally as did Today Tonight. Nine News with 365,000 got very close to Seven News with 366,000 in Sydney. Ten News averaged 854,000, the late News/Sports Tonight, 105,000 at midnight. The 7.30 Report, 728,000, Four Corners, 936,000. Media Watch, 741,000. Lateline, 214,000, Lateline Business, 130,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 233,000, the 9.30pm edition, 132,000. 7am Sunrise, 381,000, 7am Today, 278,000.

The Stats: Seven won the 6pm-to-midnight all-people share with 35.70% from Nine with a combined share of 23.5%, Ten on a combined 16.9%, the ABC, 16.1% and SBS 7.8%. Seven won all five metro markets. It leads the week, 30.3% to 24.0% for Nine.

Digitally: ABC 2 with 1.60% (leaving ABC 1 on 14.50%), from Nine with 1.40% (22.10% for Nine’s main channel), 1.00% for Ten’s ONE with the main channel on 16.00% and SBS TWO with 0.30% and SBS ONE with 7.50%. In regional areas, a win for Prime/7Qld with 33.5%, WIN/NBN with 24.5%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 18.2%, the ABC on 15.9% and SBS with 7.9%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven won the night and will win the week after the Brownlow did well in southern markets and the new program Highway Patrol helped it win Brisbane and Sydney. The medal coverage averaged 685,000 in Melbourne, the Blue Carpet at the start, 613,000. Better than the Logies in many respects. The Emmys on Ten at 10pm, 303,000. Just about summed up the attraction to local audiences.

With Packed to the Rafters tonight, Seven will be too far ahead for Nine and its NRL finals to catch by Friday and Saturday. Certainly Ten’s grand final coverage on Saturday will look good on the network’s CV for the year, but not for ratings results in primetime, even if the coverage is extended to 8.30pm in Melbourne.

TONIGHT: Packed to the Rafters on Seven at 8.30pm. Foreign Correspondent on the ABC at 8pm. Take a look at The Best of The Paul Hogan Show on Nine at 8.30pm to discover the best of Nine’s golden days. Then at 9.30pm, poor old Nine wheels out Crocodile Dundee for yet another showing. That’s desperation. No Two and a Half Men at 8.30pm to 9.30pm tonight — has Nine run out at last? On Ten, The 7pm Project, ignore the poor old Spearman Experiment and NCIS repeat (the last for a while). SBS has Insight and East West 101.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports