In just seven days, Nine’s Australian Ninja Warrior has proven itself a ratings juggernaut pulling a staggering 1.75 million viewers last night according to OzTam numbers. That was up from its debut last Sunday of 1.68 million.

Be it a dearth of quality family shows or Ninja simply tapping into the zeitgeist, the show has been the surprise ratings smash of 2017.

And now Nine are desperately trying to work out how to extend the show’s run beyond its present three-week format.

There’s been reports in media today suggesting that finalists could be bought back for a special event show or sent overseas to compete against other nations, most probably in Japan or the US.

The biggest problem for Seven and Ten is what to run against the all-conquering Ninja. Last night Ten’s MasterChef pulled an admirable 806,000 but it was still half that of Ninja.

Seven – whose House Rules wrapped up last Sunday – announced during the week it was moving its new show Little Big Shots from the Sunday night slot for fear it would take a ratings bath from Ninja.

On the back of Ninja, Nine easily won Sunday night with 38.8 per cent audience share. Seven was second with 26.8 per cent, Ten managed 16.5 per cent, the ABC had 11.7 per cent and SBS 6.3 per cent.

Ninja also helped Nine’s news which swelled to 1.21 million (beating Seven’s news with 1.2 million) while 1.06 million stayed on for 60 Minutes once Ninja had finished.

Its news aside, Sunday Night was the best for Seven which managed 821,000, while 464,000 stayed up to watch Roger Federer win the Wimbledon’s mens’ final.

MasterChef aside, there wasn’t too much excitement at Ten with Bull managing 374,000 and its 5pm news bulletin pulling 347,000.

The ABC had a disappointing night with its 7pm news managing 632,000, followed by Grand Designs NZ with 478,000, Poldark with 433,000 and A Death in Paradise repeat was 245,000.