Ten finds a Wonderland but Nine bats on for a win

VIEWERS were a little less enamoured of the cricket for the start of the fifth Ashes test in London than for previous matches.

WITH the Ashes lost and Australia struggling to avoid a record 4-0 defeat, viewers were a little less enamoured of the cricket for the start of the fifth Ashes test in London than for previous matches.

Nevertheless, Nine's coverage on Gem was the top multichannel program on Wednesday night with 414,000 tuning into watch the first session, and 224,000 watching it on Fox Sports, making it the top pay-TV program.

It also kept viewing low on the major free-to-air channels, with Nine News the top program overall (1.209 million) just ahead of Seven News (1.182 million), according to preliminary OzTAM data.

Political commentary was also popular on the night of the second election campaign debate, with ABC1's Gruen Nation the third-ranked program (1.052 million).

Ten's Wonderland drama premiere performed well in the Offspring timeslot with a metropolitan audience of 948,000.

Ten ranked third for the night with a channel share of 14.6 per cent, behind Seven (18.4 per cent) and Nine (16.6 per cent), and just ahead of the ABC (14.4 per cent).

On a network basis, Nine won with 28.8 per cent, thanks to Gem's 8.3 per cent share, and Seven was second with 26.6 per cent.

The ABC tipped out Ten on a network basis, 20.5 per cent to 19.6 per cent. SBS had a main channel share of 3.7 per cent and a network share of 4.5 per cent.

OVERNIGHT OZTAM RANKINGS, AUGUST 21

1 NINE NEWS Nine 1,209,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,182,000
3 GRUEN NATION ABC1 1,052,000
4 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 976,000
5 WONDERLAND Ten 948,000
6 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 933,000
7 SLIDESHOW Seven 932,000
8 HOME AND AWAY Seven 881,000
9 MASTERCHEF AUSTRALIA Ten 807,000
10 ABC NEWS ABC1 806,000
11 BIG BROTHER Nine 791,000
12 QI ABC1 781,000
13 THE HAMSTER DECIDES ABC1 774,000
14 ABC NEWS UPDATE ABC1 744,000
15 7.30 ABC1 732,000
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