The Winners: Seven News was tops with 1.729 million and Today Tonight was a strong second with 1.623 million. The one off special, Miracle of The Hudson Plane Crash on Seven at 7.30pm averaged 1.490 million (and was good, and I hate flying). The fresh Two and a Half Men at 7.30pm averaged 1.423 million and Home and Away won the 7pm slot with 1.421 million. Nine News was 6th with 1.273 million and A Current Affair was 7th with 1.199 million. The 7pm repeat of Two and a Half Men on Nine averaged 1.160 million, with the 7pm ABC News next with 1.073 million. Nine’s 8pm program, Big Bang Theory averaged 1.027 million (and beat Malcolm Turnbull’s Australian Story). The Farmer wants a Wife returned on Nine at 8.30pm with 1.01 million. The first session of the Test cricket averaged 484,000 on SBS.

The Losers: If The Farmer wants a Wife doesn’t pick up from next week, it could lurch into “loser” territory. A poor first up effort. It needs to be freshened up. Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?, 904,000 isn’t loser material, but it’s closer than The Farmer wants a Wife. Supernatural on Ten at 9.30pm. 508,000.

News & CA: Seven News again won nationally and in every market. Today Tonight won everywhere bar Melbourne where ACA got home. The 7pm ABC News averaged 335,000 in Sydney and had more viewers than Nine News, 331,000 and ACA, 277,000. Ten News averaged 971,000. The late News/Sports Tonight averaged 179,000. Nine’s late News, 161,000. The 7.30 Report, 825,000, Four Corners, 838,000, Media Watch, 855,000. Lateline, 356,000; Lateline Business, 156,000. SBS News at 6.30pm on SBS, 201,000, the late edition in the cricket, 260,000. 7am Sunrise, 369,000, 7am Today, 300,000.

The Stats: Seven won 6pm to Midnight All People with 30.1% (26.4%) from Nine with 23.7% (27.4%), Ten with 19.8% (20.0%), the ABC with 17.5% (18.7%) and SBS with 9.0% (7.5%). Seven won all five metro markets and leads the week, 30.0% from Nine with 23.6% and Ten with 23.2%. Seven will make sure the week is won tonight, Ten will move past Nine, Nine will then catch up by Friday night. In regional areas, a win to Prime/7Qld with 27.2% from WIN/NBN with 25.0%, Southern Cross (Ten) with 20.9%, the ABC with 17.5% and SBS with 9.5%.

Glenn Dyer’s comments: Week over, Seven wins, Nine will battle Ten for second and sneak past and then it’s on to next week after Seven snatched a surprisingly large victory last night in prime time. Not even splitting its 8.30pm programming hurt it.

The combination of the movie, Knocked Up, in Sydney and Brisbane (512,000) and the last episodes of Desperate Housewives in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth (606,000) saw a total of 1.11878 million viewers watching the network from 8.30pm to 9.30pm. That was enough to win the slot for Seven, meaning that it had the most viewers from 6pm to at least 9.30pm. Nine and Ten finished well back. Nine returned The Farmer wants a Wife and it struggled into the million viewer mark. Last night’s episode had overtones of the imperfect program, Perfect Couples.

Drop Dead Diva was only shown in Brisbane and Sydney at 9.30pm by Nine. A waste: it averaged 300,000 viewers. Why waste a program that seems to be interesting?

Seven’s coup was the 7.30pm program Miracle of The Hudson Plane Crash. Even now, months later, still a gripping story. Especially from the passengers. It grabbed the night with over 1.4 million viewers.

Australian Story on the ABC at 8pm, 941,000, down slightly from the million plus viewers in the past couple of weeks. It was OK, but why was it done now? The 7pm Project, 748,000. I think it may start inching forward. Good News Week from last night could learn a bit from its younger sibling. Good News Week was OK, but could have been better.

TONIGHT: The highlights: Packed To The Rafters on Seven at 8.30pm, Foreign Correspondent on the ABC at 8pm, Grand Designs (finale) on the ABC at 8.30pm and Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation on Ten at 7.30pm. Nine has three episodes of Two and a Half Men if you are a fan, but that’s not a recommendation.

Source: OzTAM, TV Networks reports