MasterChef Australia lurched rather than launched onto the free to air stage last night gathering only 874,000 viewers for its launch program, coming in at tenth spot, according to OzTam’s preliminary ratings.

The Voice, thanks to Will.i.am’s expressive eyeballs and Kylie’s confused accent, blitzed Tuesday evening with viewers pulling up just shy of the magic 2 million mark at 1.987 million. When the consolidated figures come in Nine’s juggernaut will almost certainly tip over that figure.

Nine won the evening comfortably with 34% of the FTA metro share, ahead of Seven, which gained 27.5% of the share. The consolidated share for Sunday night saw the fortunes reversed with Seven claiming 36.8% of the share and Nine 26.2%.

Nine’s The Big Bang Theory came in third place with 1.311 million. Seven’s House Rules and Home & Away got 1.085 and 1.041 million respectively to take out eighth and ninth spots respectively. The rest of the top ten programs were news and current affairs.

Ten with 16.2% of the share for Monday night, only managed tenth place with its aforementioned MasterChef launch. The Project, at 17^th place with 717,000 viewers was the networks only other program within the top 20.

Perhaps the fat lady is warming up for more than just MasterChef.