Big Brother dipped below the million mark last night but, with The X Factor out of the picture until Sunday, it won the 7pm to 8.30pm slot for the first time.

Big Brother had 984,000 viewers last night and was Thursday evenings fourth most watched program behind Nine News (1.26 million), Seven News (1.14 million) and A Current Affair (1.098 million).

The Ashes test saw Nine’s digital channel Gem push its way into the top 20, the sports broadcast ranked 14^th in total people with 631,000 viewers.

Nine commanded the night overall, taking a 37.4% share of all free-to-air viewers. Runner-up Seven took 21.4%.

Seven’s share shrunk without The X Factor., since the programs launch earlier this week Seven has stayed 31%. An extended episode of Home and Away pulled in 803,000 viewers, Please Marry My Boy at 8pm had an audience of 585,000.

Ten’s best performing show in terms of total people was Ten News at Five with 654,000 viewers. MasterChef Australia – MasterClass had an audience of 591,000.