The absence of high-profile programs catapulted news to the top of the ratings last night with Nine News taking prime position with 1.202 million viewers.
Home and Away was the most watched non-news and current affair program with a total people audience of 947,000 people, according to OzTam’s preliminary overnight metro ratings.
The soapy was a favourite among the 16-39 demographic where it took number one with 269,000 viewers.
In the 16-39 bracket, Home and Away was followed by Nine’s second episode of The Big Bang Theory, Ten’s American Idol and Seven’s movie Legally Blonde.
The Big Bang Theory and Home and Away also performed well among the 18-49 demo, with both tied in first place with 364,000 viewers.
Returning to total people, The Big Bang Theory episode one pulled in 790,000 viewers with a small dip in viewers to the second episode (789,000).
Nigellissima pulled in 615,000 viewers for the ABC while Ten’s highly-promoted American Idol had an audience of 580,000.
Seven News was the evening’s second most watched program with 1.189 million viewers, ABC News had 994,000 and Ten News at Five had 706,000.
Seven won the night overall with a 27.5% share of all free-to-air channels with Nine close behind with 25.8%.
Ten took 19.9% while the ABC claimed 19.2% and SBS had 7.6%.
