Ten’s Big Bash match which saw the Brisbane Heat beat the Sydney Thunder easily out-rated the rain hit third test between Australia and the West Indies on Sunday, as cricket proved a popular choice for television viewers over the Christmas break.

The Big Bash saw 757,000 metro viewers tune in for the second session after 567,000 had tuned in from7pm for the start of the match, while the overrunning of the game saw 747,000 tune in for the post-game broadcast. It was the most-watched program amongst 16-39 year olds and 18-49 year olds.

Earlier in the afternoon, Nine’s broadcast of day one of the third test between Australia and the West Indies grabbed 598,000 metro viewers for session one, growing to 602,000 for the second session and culminating with 718,000 for the final session of the day as rain wiped away several hours of play at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Ten has seen the Big Bash improve its ratings on last year’s broadcast for many of its matches while Nine has seen the ratings for Australia’s series with a poor West Indies side slip over the period.

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While the Big Bash did beat the test audience, Nine just pipped Ten in terms of audience share, claiming second place with a share of 15.9 per cent while Ten settled for third place with an audience share of 15.7 per cent.

Seven won the night, thanks to the news, with an audience share of 18.1 per cent. However when secondary channels are accounted for, Nine came out on top with a total audience share of 25.5 per cent, ahead of the Seven Network’s total audience share of 25.1 per cent.

Seven News was the most-watched program of the evening, with a metro audience of 1.178m, beating Nine News which was watched by 1.099m.

However, Nine News was the most-watched program amongst 25-54 year old viewers.

Nine’s 60 Minutes, airing from 7pm, was the third most-watched program of the evening, with a metro audience of 815,000.

It out-rated Seven’s Border Security: International which pulled in 742,000.

On the ABC, which had an audience share of 13.2 per cent, Grand Designs at 7.40pm, was watched by 636,000 and Vera, on at 8.30pm, was watched by 727,000.

Looking back to New Year’s Eve, the ABC’s broadcast of the Sydney Midnight Fireworks pulled in 1.331m metro viewers to be the most-watched program of the evening.

The 9pm fireworks pulled in 829,000 metro viewers while the Australia Wide Party broadcast had an audience of 689,000.

The ABC’s New Year’s Eve Pub Quiz was watched by 531,000 and its family spectacular broadcast grabbed 432,000.

The broadcast was slammed yet again by viewers, with people begging for Channel Nine to be given back the rights.