The Winners: MasterChef was the most watched program last night with 1.674 million people, with Underbelly second with 1.650 million. Seven News was 3rd with 1.630 million and Nine News was next with 1.564 million. Customs was 5th for Nine at 6.30pm with 1.332 million, Bones on Seven at 8.30pm averaged 1.293 million and 60 Minutes was 7th with 1.260 million. Send in the Dogs averaged 1.248 million at 7pm for Nine and Sunday Night averaged 1.225 million at 6.30 pm for Seven and 9th. The Force at 8pm on Seven was 10th with 1.195 million and the 7pm repeat of 1.225 million. Castle was a solid 12th for Seven at 9.30pm with 1.040 million and Merlin averaged 1.029 million at 6.30pm for Ten.

The Losers: Nothing really, a solid Sunday night of TV.

News & CA: Seven might have been ahead of Nine at 6pm in the national news battle last night, but Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and Seven only nosed ahead with wins in Brisbane (by 130,000) and Perth. Ten News averaged 585,000. The 7pm ABC News, 941,000 and SBS News at 6.30pm, 181,000. In the morning chats, Weekend Sunrise, 403,000, Weekend Today, 281,000, Landline at Noon on the ABC, 248,000, Inside Business at 10am on the ABC, 201,000, Insiders at 9am, 199,000, Offsiders at 10.30am, 182,000. Meet The Press on Ten at 8am, 40,000.

The Stats:

FTA: Nine won with a share of 30.9%, from Seven with 27.3%, Ten with 23.1%, the ABC with 16.2% and SBS on 3.6%. Nine won Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide,. Seven won Brisbane and Perth.

Main Channel: Nine also won here with a share of 26.5%, from Seven with 25.3%, Ten on 20.6%, ABC 1, 15.5% and SBS ONE, 3.2%, Nine won Sydney and Melbourne, Seven won Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Digital: GO won here with 4.3% (more than SBS’s combined overnight share), from 7TWO with 2.0%, ONE with 1.5%, ABC 2, 0.4% and ABC 3 and SBS Two both with 0.3% each. That’s a total share for the six FTA digital channels of 8.8%.

Pay TV: Nine won with 25.7%, from Seven with 22.7%, Ten on 18.4%, Pay TV with 14.4%, the ABC on 13.5% and SBS with 3.0%, The 11 FTA channels had a total share of 85.6%, Pay TV’s 100 plus channels shared in the 14.4% share reported.

Regional: WIN/NBN won with a share of 31.0%, from Prime/7Qld with 28.3%, SC Ten on 19.9%, the ABC, 16.1% and SBS, 4.6%. The main channels were won by WIN/NBN with 27.1%, from Prime/7Qld with 26.3%. GO won the digitals with 3.9%, from 7TWO with 2.5 and ONE on 1.3%.

(All shares on the basis of combined overnight All People 6pm to midnight)

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Seven finally had a win last week in All People while Ten won the demos. Seven’s win was built on the back of the Geelong-Collingwood AFL game on Friday night (which had the biggest TV audience for an AFL game this year nationally and in Melbourne) and a stronger Saturday night than Nine. In regional areas, WIN/NBN won All People and GO won the digitals.

But once again the digital channels were the real star of the weekend as they took a national share of 16.6% on Saturday evening. In Adelaide the six had a total share of 22.4%, 18.7% in Perth, 12.8% in Sydney, 16.5% in Melbourne and 16.7% in Brisbane where that was more than the 14.7% combined total of Ten (9.1%) and SBS (5.6%).

Adelaide and Perth are high because Pay TV’s penetration is lowest there. In fact Perth has a higher digital penetration (75.5% and personal video recorder, PVR, 32.5%) than the average of 70.6% and 29.8% of the five major metro markets. Sydney’s digital penetration is the lowest at 67.3%, while PVR penetration is 30.6%.

With the Rugby League State of Origin game on Wednesday night, Nine should win the week.

Underbelly remains solid, but it should have really jumped last night with MasterChef back to an hour and not going head to head from 8.30pm to Nine. Underbelly didn’t get a lift.

Last night’s Moto GP broadcast on Ten averaged 107,000 for the simulcast on the ONE HD sports channel and 101,000 on Ten’s main channel. It was another example where hardcore sports fans are preferring the HD broadcasts of sport over the SD broadcasts on the main channels. The last two F1 GPs have seen more people watch the simulcast on ONE than on Ten.

TONIGHT: The ABC has Australian Story, Four Corners, Media Watch and Q&A. Nine has The Mentalist. Ten has MasterChef, Seven has Desperate Housewives. SBS has Man Vs. Wild.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports