New American import Elementary pulled in more than 1.2 million viewers for Ten while MasterChef: The Professionals rallied with the absence of rival My Kitchen Rules.

Elementary, a modern take on Sherlock Holmes, was the second most watched program on Sunday evening with an audience of 1.23 million, according to OzTam’s preliminary metro ratings.

MasterChef has started its week on a high with an audience of 1.124 million viewers.

The result is a large boost for the cooking competition which wrapped up its second week with 729,000 viewers as it struggled against Seven’s My Kitchen Rules.

The cricket was the evening’s sixth most watched offering with 1.088 million viewers for the second session and 923,000 for the first.

Border Security was watched by 1.007 million on Seven as The Force – Behind the Line attracted an audience of 934,000 in eighth place.

Nine News was the most watched program overall with 1.611 million viewers and beat rival Seven News which pulled in 1.144 million.

Ten News at Five had 523,000 viewers with the ABC News made it into the top 10 with 833,000.

Without MKR to propel Seven to the top the network came second place overall with 26.5% share of all free-to-air channels behind Nine’s 29.3%.