Whoever said Test match cricket’s dead clearly hasn’t been watching the current Ashes series. And last night almost 700,000 viewers tuned into 9Gem’s coverage to watch the Aussies snare defeat from the jaws of victory in the Third Test.

Last night’s first session pulled 696,000 according to OzTAM metro numbers, making it the fifth most-watched show of Sunday. Some 514,000 were still there for the second session and 455,000 hung in there for the painful end.

On the back of the cricket, Nine stormed home to a commanding Sunday night win with 42.7 per cent of the audience share (all channels). Seven had 24.1 per cent and 10 did 16.3 per cent. It’s pretty clear that fans of the ABC dump the public broadcaster for the cricket, it posted just 11.4 per cent last night. While SBS did 5.5 per cent.

In the battle of the entertainment shows, The Block won with an impressive 1.094 million. 10’s Survivor was second with 735,000 and Seven’s Australia’s Got Talent did 731,000.

In the 6pm news time slot, Seven’s version did 1.096 million to Nine’s 1.006 million.

60 Minutes (624,000) landed bragging rights over Seven’s Sunday Night (477,000).

Other highlights for 10 included The Sunday Project (377,000) and Instinct (272,000).

The ABC’s night ran this way: 7pm news (606,000), Judi Dench’s Wild Borneo Adventure (411,000) and Les Norton (353,000).