The Winners: Seven News was tops with a huge 1.957 million viewers. MasterChef Australia had its highest ever figures for Ten last night between 7pm and 8pm with 1.802 million people and Today Tonight was 3rd with 1.699 million. A Current Affair was 4th with 1.465 million. Nine News was 5th with 1.401 million and Nine’s Sea Patrol averaged 1.366 million at 8.30pm. Two and a Half Men at 7.30pm on Seven averaged 1.355 million and Seven’s Desperate Housewives averaged 1.287 million at 8.30pm for Seven. Home and Away averaged 1.268 million at 7pm for Seven and Ten’s Recruits averaged 1.265 million for Ten at 8pm in 10th spot. The Hot Seat million dollar question at 8pm averaged 1.224 million for Nine and Nine’s 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men averaged 1.183 million people. Ten News was 13th with 1.167 million people and Seven’s Deal Or No Deal averaged a high 1.075 million outside ratings prime time at 5.30pm. Good News Week on Ten at 8.30pm averaged 1.065 million people and the 7pm ABC News averaged 1.028 million people. Australian Story at 8pm averaged 993,000. The Flight of The Conchords on SBS, 275,000.

The Losers: How I met Your Mother at 7.30pm on Seven, 846,000, Scrubs at 8pm on Seven, 798,000 (a big fall given that it had battled its way towards 1 million a week or two ago). Missing Persons Unit on Nine at 9.30pm, 939,000 was not a “loser” audience, but it has done better in earlier series at a similar time on a Thursday night. With Sea Patrol‘s audience above 1.3 million at 8.30pm and a big lead-in audience, the drop for MPU was surprising. Seven’s Brothers and Sisters at 9.30pm averaged 954,000. Spooks on the ABC, 728,000. The biggest loser was Ten’s Supernatural at 9.30pm: 701,000; over 300,000 lower than Good News Week at 8.30pm. Top Gear Australia on SBS now well under 600,000 with 545,000 viewers.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market but Today Tonight won everywhere bar Sydney. Ten’s late News/Sports Tonight averaged 310,000. The 7.30 Report averaged 877,000, Four Corners, 952,000 and Media Watch, 867,000. Lateline, 312,000. Nine’s late News, 236,000. SBS News at 6.30pm, 213,000. 7am Sunrise down to 314,000 because of the holiday Monday, Today down to 252,000.

The Stats: Nine won with a 6pm to Midnight All People share of 26.8% (26.2% last week) from Seven with 26.1% (25.3%), Ten on 24.9% (25.8%), the ABC on 16.7% (17.3%) and SBS with 5.6% (5.9%). Seven leads the week in All People, 26.6% to Ten on 26.1% and Nine on 25.5%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Nine won last week, thanks to the State of Origin. Ten won All People Sunday night from Seven with Nine third. Sunday Night had more viewers than Nine’s 60 Minutes as Home Made faded. Nine’s CSI double episode at 8.30pm faded under a million viewers (809,000) and is now in terminal decline.

Nine won last night but Ten won the 16 to 39, 18 to 49 and 25 to 54 age groups (as it did on Sunday night). The holiday Monday saw higher than normal viewing with audiences up from early evening. Seven News averaged a huge 1.957 million viewers, Nine News a solid 1.401 million. The half a million or more difference was due to huge winning margins in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Today Tonight beat ACA by 366,000 viewers (ACA won Sydney). Eddie McGuire’s Hot Seat moved to 8pm with a million dollar question and did well. Hot Seat at 5.30pm averaged 812,000 people, its highest audience, but Deal or No Deal averaged 1.075 million viewers. Ten News won the 5pm to 6pm slot with 1.175 million. These higher than normal figures showed the benefit of the holiday Monday, as it does every Queen’s Birthday weekend. (But the holiday impact is less noticeable at Easter).

Seven News in Sydney has had two scoops of the highest quality on Sunday and last nights. Sunday night it was a tape implicating Cronulla Sharks CEO, Tony Zappia, in disclosures that were contrary to what we knew about how a young woman (an employee of the Cronulla club) received a black eye and $20,000 after an incident involving Mr Zappia. Last night it was an exclusive interview with the young woman. Rival Nine missed the story completely Sunday night and last night was reporting the fallout from Sunday night’s disclosures on Seven. Nine had a story from Melbourne (where it was first on the news list) about a woman who claimed an out of body experience after being “dead” for 45 minutes during the Victorian bushfires but revived. Nine’s report contained what appeared to be a re-enactment. Quite odd.

TONIGHT: Ten will win tonight with Talk’ ‘Bout Your Generation, MasterChef Australia and fresh and repeat episodes of NCIS. Nine will do poorly tonight with two episodes of the failed Home Made at 7.30pm and 9.30pm with two episodes of Two and a Half Men from 8.30pm to 9.30pm and a further repeat at 7pm. Seven has The Zoo, Find My Family, All Saints (which is being “reviewed” by Seven) and 10 Years Younger in 10 Days at 9.30pm. The ABC has Foreign Correspondent at 8pm.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports