Ashes 2019: News, entertainment wins ratings ahead of cricket coverage

More Australians watched news and entertainment than the first session of the nailbiting Ashes Test.

Ben Stokes salutes the crowd after the third Test. Picture: Getty Images

More Australians watched news and entertainment television programs on Seven and Nine last night than the first session of the nailbiting fourth day of the third Ashes Test.

A little more than 1 million people around the country watched the first session of day four of the third Ashes Test on 9Gem, of which 696,000 were metropolitan viewers, according to figures from ratings agency ozTAM. It was the fifth most popular program on Australian TV.

Following the lunch break, the second session was watched by 694,000 viewers last night, the bulk of which were in the five big metro cities.

That compares to 646,000 metro viewers for the first session on day five of the second Test in England, and a metro TV audience of 760,000 for the first session on the last day of the first Test.

After midnight, viewer numbers slipped to 265,000 across the major metro cities.

In a huge upset, England won the third Test.

Nine’s Ashes commentator and former cricketer Lisa Sthalekar was replaced in recent days by cricket legend Ian Chappell, who had been sick of late, to mix it up a bit, a Nine spokesman said.

Ms Sthalekar will return to host the fourth Ashes Test on Nine, along with former cricketer Mark Taylor, he said.

Australia’s most popular TV program yesterday was Seven Network’s evening news, boasting 1.6m national viewers, of which a near 1.1m were from the five major cities.

Nine’s 15th season of renovation competition reality show, The Block, was second with 1.09m viewers across the five cities, while its evening news took third spot with just over 1m metro viewers.

Seven’s Australia’s Got Talent show was the fourth most popular on TV, with 731,000 metro viewers.