With House Rules broadcast in only Sydney and Brisbane last night the reality stage was clear enough for Ten’s MasterChef Australia to take centre stage.

The ageing cooking competition sat safely in the top 10 last night in fifth place with 882,000 viewers.

The program, which was the fifth most watched on Thursday evening according to OzTam’s preliminary metro ratings, was Ten’s most watched show. It was also the most watched non-news program and won 7.30pm.

Seven’s House Rules was broadcast in only Sydney and Brisbane last night with the AFL game between the Swans and the Cats on in Melbourne and Adelaide instead. Perth’s line-up included Border Security: International and Bones.

House Rules still had more than half of MasterChef’s audience last night, even though it was broadcast in three less metro markets.

House Rules pulled in 498,000 viewers and sat in 20^th place.

The ABC’s Call the Midwife was the most popular show at 8.30 with 882,000 viewers.

Nine had the night’s most watched program with Nine News (1.143 million). The network's most watched non-news program was Hot Seat in 12^th place overall and 629,000 viewers.

Seven won the night overall with a total 27.5% share of all free-to-air viewers with 20.8% for its main channel.

Nine was not far behind on a total 26.3% with 17.6% for its primary channel.

Ten was in third place with a combined 21.9% with 14% going to its main channel.

The ABC was in fourth on a total 18.with 14.2% of that going to ABC1. SBS was in last place on 5.5% with 4.6% going to SBS ONE.