Summer schedules see Seven and Nine fight for near equal share

Seven and Nine fought for an almost equal share of the ratings last night as 60 Minutes and a new episode of The Mentalist won key timeslots for Nine, while Border Security and Coastwatch won in theirs for Seven.

60 Minutes was the top program of the night with 1.196m viewers across the five city metro, while Seven’s nature program Wild Planet: North America averaged 772,000.

And in the 8.30pm timeslot The Mentalist brought Nine an audience of nearly 800,000 as Seven had 669,000 for Bones, preliminary overnight ratings from OzTam show.

The Mentalist and 60 Minutes were also the top two programs in people 25-54, while Border Security was fourth in that demographic. Meanwhile the ARIA Awards live broadcast boosted ratings for Nine’s digital Channel GO!