In the absence of the The Voice and My Kitchen Rules long-running soapy Home and Away won the 7 to 8pm time slot against Top Gear and Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals.

Seven’s Comedy Mrs. Brown’s Boys also won the 8.30pm slot against Nine’s The Footy Show (796,000) and Ten’s Law & Order: SVU (621,000).

Thursday evening’s first episode of Mrs. Brown’s Boys sat in third place with 1.038 million viewers, according to OzTam’s preliminary metro ratings.

Home and Away sat in sixth with an audience of 943,000 compared to Top Gear’s 927,000 and Ten’s Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals which started 30 minutes later and was absent from the top 20 overall most watched programs.

Nine News took the crown as the evening’s most watched program with 1.225 million viewers.

Seven News followed in second place with an audience of 1.181 million while ABC News came seventh with 931,000 viewers head of Ten News at Five with 641,000.