Former prime minister Bob Hawke almost rose to be number one again.
The second part of the Australian Story special into Hawke's private life attracted 995,00 viewers to be second on the overnight OzTAM ratings.
The Australian Story insight into Hawke was beaten by a repeat of the US sitcom The Big Bang Theory which had an audience of 1.046 million.
The Australian Story was not the only ABC success story on Monday.
Four Corners snared an extremely rare top 10 berth with its story about the transgender struggle of 11-year-old Isabelle.
The touching story lifted Four Corners into ninth place with 857,000 viewers while ABC News was 10th with an audience of 837,000.
Four Corners not only landed in the top 10 it won it's 8.30pm timeslot by beating the Seven Network's US series The Blacklist (774,000) and the Nine Network's Big Brother (653,000).
There was also a knock-on effect, with the success of Four Corners squeezing Seven's soapie Home And Away out of the top 10.
Home And Away, which is a regular top 10 placegetter, was 11th with 835,000 viewers.
The most watched shows on Monday
1. The Big Bang Theory rpt ep2 (Nine) - 1.046 million
2. Australian Story (ABC1) - 995,000
3. Nine News (Nine) - 987,000
4. The Big Bang Theory rpt (Nine) - 977,000
5 Nine News 6.30pm (Nine) - 977,000
6. Seven News (Seven) - 924,000
7. A Current Affair (Nine) - 912,000
8. Seven News/Today Tonight (Seven) - 902,000
9. Four Corners (ABC1) - 857,000
10. ABC News (ABC1) - 837,000
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11. Home And Away (Seven) - 835,000
15. The Blacklist (seven) - 774,000
18. Big Brother (Nine) - 653,000
* Source OzTAM