An absence of The Block and My Kitchen Rules on TV last night brought the various news programs back into top place, with Seven’s Home and Away sneaking into the top five.

The Block’s finale on Wednesday topped the charts with over three million watching Steve and Chantal take out the top prize.

Nine News topped the broadcast last night with 1.171 million tuning in to see what was happening around the nation, with Seven News close behind with 1.136 million viewers in a five city metro, according to OzTam preliminary ratings.

Home and Away on Seven at 7pm came fifth with just under one million viewers (922,000).

Even though Nine won Thursday night across key demographics, people 25-54 (32.8%), 18-49 (32.7%) and 16-39 (33%), Seven took out the highest total combined share for yesterday.

Seven only just won though with a total share of 29.9%, with six of its shows in the top 20, and Nine saw 28.1%, also with six shows in the top 20.

Seven’s main station grabbed 21.6% of the network’s total share and Nine’s primary channel 20.5% of its own share.

ABC News slipped under Home and Away, pulling in 846,000 viewers in its 7pm timeslot.

The Checkout and Janet King (pictured) continued to make an appearance in the top 20 shows from yesterday, pulling in 825,000 and 820,000 viewers respectively and coming in at eighth and ninth place.

ABC saw six of its shows in the top 20 yesterday, and grabbed third place behind Seven and Nine with a total share of 19.9%.

ABC’s primary channel, ABC1, grabbed 14.3% of the network’s share.

Ten wasn’t far behind ABC, with a total share of 17.1%, even though only two of its shows, Ten Eyewitness News and The Project grabbed places in the top 20 with 621,000 and 514,000 viewers respectively.

Ten’s main station grabbed a share of 10.6% of the network’s total.

SBS came fifth with a total share of 5%, with SBS One seeing 4% of the total.