(5 city metro combined – all figures in millions)

1. Nine News – Nine – 1.278
2. Seven News – Seven – 1.270
3. A Current Affair – Nine – 1.127
4. Today Tonight – Seven – 1.029
5. ABC News – ABC1 – 0.987
6. The 7pm Project – Ten – 0.827
7. The Ashes: Fifth Test (Australia v England Session 2) – Nine – 0.803
8. The Big Bang Theory – Nine – 0.753
9. Ten News at Five – Ten – 0.718
10. 7:30 Report Summer Edition – ABC1 – 0.709
11. Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation (rpt) – Ten – 0.689
12. Top Gear (rpt) – Nine – 0.672
13. I Shouldn’t Be Alive – Seven – 0.665
14. How I Met Your Mother (Summer rpt) – Seven – 0.664
15. Australia’s Funniest Home Videos (Daily Edition) – Nine – 0.642

50 to 1 – Nine – 0.525
Most Shocking: Top 20 – Seven – 0.524
The Cricket Show – Nine – 0.517
The Ashes: Fifth Test (Australia v England Session 1) – Nine – 0.507
Sunrise – Seven – 0.507
Today – Nine – 0.252
The Late Session – SBS1 – 0.101

Between The Ashes & the floods, Channel 9 was always most likely to pick up the overall News win last night. A big welcome back to The 7pm Project in the ratings stakes too, with some much stronger results. If they can maintain this rage, it should only improve once 6pm with George Negus & the 6:30 News start on Channel 10. It’s to be expected that with this additional line up on Ch10 that A Current Affair & Today Tonight should expect a little bit of a jolt also. Time will indeed tell.