The X Factor dominated Tuesday night’s ratings with more than 1.554 million viewers tuning in to Seven’s talent quest.

Seven took the leading share of all free-to-air viewers with a combined 33.2% share, according to OzTam’s preliminary metro ratings.

Home and Away won the 7pm slot with 1.002 million viewers. News bulletins delivering the AFL’s response to an interim report on the Essendon drug scandal at 7.30pm quickly interrupted most network's planned broadcasts.

On Seven, the update was sliced between the end of the soapie and the launch of The X Factor.

Nine’s Big Brother, which started at 7.30 and ran through until 8.30 sat in ninth place with 895,000 viewers.

Ten’s MasterChef had 776,000 viewers.

Seven also won the 8.30 slot with Winners & Losers (1.065 million) ahead of Ten’s Under the Dome (846,000) and Nine’s The Great Australian Bake Off (692,000).

Ten’s share was high at 20.3%, sitting behind Nine’s 24.5%.