Australian batsman Steve Smith's return to his country's Ashes test cricket side has seen Nine multichannel 9Gem draw massive numbers overnight, as the fourth clash of the test series got underway.
Smith, who had missed the third test following a concussion suffered in the second match, return to the crease last night, with 9Gem drawing 624,000 and 457,000 metro viewers for its first session and lunch segments, respectively.
The former Australian captain came into the contest early after a dismal start from Australia's opening batsman David Warner and Marcus Harris.
Nine's coverage drew in a further 260,000 regional viewers in the first session, taking the total national audience to 884,000.
The Ashes notched up a 13.1% channel share for 9Gem overnight, putting it in direct competition with the major networks' main channels.
Elsewhere in ratings, Nine won the evening in primetime, with The Block taking the top spot and drawing in 750,000 metro viewers overnight.
Ten's The Bachelor drew 674,000 viewers, while Seven aired a celebrity special episode of reality game show The Chase, which drew 550,000 viewers.
In the overnight main channel battle, Nine won the evening, led by The Block with a 16.9% share, followed closely by Seven with a 16.5% share. Ten came in third with 13.9%.
However, due to the combined strength of both Nine's main channel and 9Gem's Ashes broadcast, the Nine Network won the overall evening, taking a massive 33.8% share, compared to Seven's, who came in second, 24.9% share.
The Ashes day two continues tonight on 9Gem in NSW and Queensland, while heading to the main channel in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
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